Fonts 101
December 3rd, 2023 (11 months ago) • 2 minutes
Anatomy
Anatomy of a typeface
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Ascender: Distance between the mean height of a lowercase letter and the top of an uppercase letter.
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Baseline: The line on which most letters sit.
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Cap Height: The height of a capital letter from the baseline to the top of the letter.
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Descender: The part of a letter that extends below the baseline.
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X-Height: The height of the main body of a lowercase letter (the x) excluding ascenders and descenders.
Type Classification
Typeface has generally 4 types: serif, sans serif, display, and script.
- Serif: Classic, reliable, and professional.
- Sans serif: Modern, clean, and minimal.
- Display: Complex, fun, and artistic. Meant for headlines or text that needs to stand out.
- Script: Elegant, personal, and expressive. Meant to mimic handwriting.
Leading, Kerning and Spacing
Leading refers to the space between lines in a paragraph. Having too much or too little may affect readability.
Kerning refers to the space between letter. Kerning is used to make sure that the spacing between each letter is visually even and make it easier to read. In constrant with spacing, kerning is added in certain situation between certain pairs of letters while spacing is agnostic.