In this section we will talk about important terms about printing world and typography.

Typography Terms

Accent A symbol attached to a letterform to indicate pronunciation of a word, usually in that language, but also used to indicate particular pronunciations, such as in dictionaries.

Accent characters The keys of a keyboard that generate accents in particular typographic letters. The keys are usually used in conjunction with modifier keys, such as shift, option, and control of a combination of these.

Alphanumeric set The complete set of alphabet characters, numbers, punctuation, and associated symbols and accents of a font.

Ampersand The sign “&” used to represent the word “and.” Sometimes called a short and.

Arabic numerals The characters 1234567890. Although described as Arabic, thus presuming their origin, these numeric symbols have been traced back to Hindi symbols used in India.

Asterisk A star-shaped symbol (*) generally used as a reference mark in text matter to indicate a footnote.

Bastard of type, A character that is foreign to the font in which it is set. Also, in mechanical typography, a character that is smaller or later than the body upon which it is cast.

Blind P The character *, usually used as an invisible character in pagelayout and word-processing applications to indicate a new paragraph. Also called a reverse P or paragraph mark.

Brace A type character used to group phrases or lines of text. The brace at the start of the phrase or on the left side of a bloc of text is called the open brace ({), as distinct from the close brace (}) at the right side or end. Not to be confused with bracket or parenthesis.

Brace end A type character representing a horizontal brace.
Bracket(s) A type character used in pairs [open and closed] to enclose or separate text or numbers. Brackets are often used to enclose matter that is designated for later deletion. Not to be confused with brace or parenthesis.

Breve A symbol (*) used to indicate the pronunciation of a short or unstressed vowel.
Built fraction A fraction constructed from a numerator, separator, and denominator, as distinct from a case fraction – one that is ready made. Also called piece fractions.

Bullet A dot “•” used to itemize list or emphasize passages of text. On a computer keyboard a bullet is generated by pressing Option-8 (Mac) or Control+Alt-8 (windows).

Canceled numeral A numerical character, used in mathematics, crossed through with a diagonal stroke.
Caret/caret mark A term derived from the Latin “it needs” and represented by the symbol (*). Used in copy preparation and proof correction to indicate the location of type matter to be inserted.

Case fraction A ready-made fraction, as distinct from a split, built or piece fraction. Also called a true fraction.
Centered dot/point A period (full point centered on the x-height of a piece of type.

Character Any single letter, number, punctuation mark, or symbol, Characters were traditionally called sorts. Character set The complete repertoire of letters, numbers, or symbol in a font design.

Circumflex A symbol (^) placed over a vowel, in some languages, to indicate a special quality such as contraction.

Close The second of a pair of punctuation marks, as in parentheses, brackets, or quotation marks:)]’. Cock (end) The middle part of a brace end, when constructed in three pieces.

Comma A punctuation mark (,). Corners The traditional term for the material used for constructing corners in ruled frames or connecting ornamental borders.

Dagger A reference mark (*) used in text to refer the reader to a footnote. A dagger is also sometimes used next to a name to signify that the person is deceased. Also known as an obelisk or obelus.

Dash Strictly speaking, a dash can be any short rule, plain or decorative, but is usually used to describe an em dash (----—) or en dash (–), as distinct from a hyphen (-).

Decimal point A full point, or period, placed after a whole number and before the numerator in decimal fractions. This is commonly shown as, for example, 2.1, but may also be shown as ,2.1 (UK) or 2*1 Europe).

Denominator The number below the line (“separator”) in a fraction.
Diacritical mark Assign denoting the particular vale or pronunciation of a character.

Diaeresis/dieresis A pair of dots placed over the second of two vowels to indicate that it must be pronounced as a separate syllable, as in “naïve.”

Digit Any numeral from 0 to 9Digit A printer’s symbol (“ornament”) depiction a hand with a pointing finger. Also known as a hand, fist, or index.

Dingbat The modern name for fonts of decorative symbols, traditionally called printer’s ornaments, flower, or arabesques.

Diphthong The symbol that represents two vowels pronounced as a single syllable, for example * and *.

Ditto/prime marks The symbol (“) — also called double primes — indicating that the text matter directly above it is repeated. Alternatively used as a symbol for inches and seconds. Singles primes (‘) are used for feet and minutes.

Dog’s cock A colloquial term for an exclamation mark, frequently used by newspaper copy editors.

Dot leader A leader line made up of dots, generally used to guide the eye in tabulated matter, list, and so on.

Double character Traditionally, in metal type, two letters on a single type body such as ligature or diphthong.

Double dagger The mark “*” used to indicate notes to a text. Also called a diesis or double obelisk.

Duck foot quotes Quotation marks (*) used in French and German text. Also called guillemets.

Dumb quotes Used to describe “prime” marks when they are used, erroneously, as quotation marks or apostrophes. In some computer or application configuration, prime marks appear by default when the “quotes” key is typed, unless preferences are set to substitute true quotation marks (called smart or curly quotes).

Ellipsis A sequence of three dots (…) used within text to indicate a pause, or a part of a phrase or sentence has been left out. An ellipsis can be generated by a single keyboard character.

Em dash/rule A dash the width of an em (—), the actual width depending on the size of type being set. En dash/rule A dash half the width of an em (–), the actual width depending on the size of type being set.

Extended character set The characters available in a font other than those that appear on the keyboard, such as accents, symbols, etc., and that are accessed by combination of key strokes.

Factotum A traditional type ornament that provides a space to contain any capital letter, normally an initial cap at the beginning of a chapter.

Figure A number, as distinct from a letter. Floating accents In metal setting, any accent that is cast separately from a type character.

Flower Type ornaments and arabesques originally used to embellish page borders, but now encompassing any decorative font and usually called a dingbat. Also known as fleurons or flowerets.

Fraction A type character (case or true fraction), or assembly of type characters (a piece or built fraction), which denotes part of a whole number, such as 1/2.

Full point A period or full stop. Full stop A period or full point.

Greek alphabet The characters and names of the Greek alphabet.

Hard hyphen A hyphen that will not permit the hyphenated word to break at the end of a line.
Hooks An old term for brackets. Hyphen A dash (-) used to divide broken words or to link two words.

Inferior character Letters or number set smaller then the text and on or below the baseline, for example, H2O. In many computer applications, inferior character are called subscript.

Inverted commas A pair of commas used to open and close a quotation. In the English language they are used “thus,” whereas in German they are sometimes used ”thus.” Some other European languages alternatively use “duck foot quotes” * thus* or *thus*.

Latin The standard alphabet used in most European languages, consisting of the upper and lower case characters from A to Z. The exceptions are Greek and Cyrillic (Russian, etc.) Oriental languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, are classified as exotics.

Ligature Two or three type characters tied, or joined together, to make a single type character. Also called tied letters or tied characters.

Line pattern The sequence of dots, dashes, and spaces in a rule.

Long s A lowercase “s” used in old forms of printed English, resembling an f. In some character sets, a long s is called a florin.

Macron A pronunciation symbol representing a long vowel, indicated by a line above a letter.

Mathematical setting The typesetting of mathematical characters and formulae.
Mathematical signs/symbols Characters used as a shorthand for mathematical concepts and processes, such as + (add), * (divide), * (radical, or square root).

Medical and pharmaceutical symbol Typographical symbols representing: dram, drop, gallon, grain, minim, of each, ounce, pint, recipe, scruple, semi, signa, etc.

Monetary symbol/currency symbol A symbol denoting a unit of currency, such as $ (dollar); * (cent); * (sterling); * (Euro); * (yen). The Euro currency symbol has replaced the general currency symbol * of the ISO/Adobe character set in recently issued fonts.

Numbering format The style of numbering used for page numbers: 1,2,3; I,II,III; etc.
Numerator The number above the line in a fraction.