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

Continuing Typography Terms

Set close Type set with the minimum space between words and sentences. Set flush Text set without any indented lines. Set solid Text set with no extra space (leading) between the lines. Also called solid matter.

Stigmatypy The technique of making a design or portrait out of small type characters. 1919 straight matter A body of continuous running text with no breaks for subheadings, illustrations, tabulated material, etc. Stub The first column of text set in a tabular form.

Tabular work Type matter set in columns. Tabulate To arrange text or figures In the form of rows and columns, according to fixed measures.

Take back An instruction to take back characters, words, or lines to the preceding line, column, or page.

Tonal color The general effect of darkness or lightness on a page of printed text, affected by the choice of typeface, leading, margins, etc.

Two-line letters Enlarged capital letters that extend to the depth of two lines, used as initial caps for chapter openers, etc, Also called drop capitals. U/lc abb.: upper- and lowercase An instruction that copy is to be typeset in both upper- and lowercase, as appropriate.

Underset A line of type with excessive word spacing.

W.f. abb.: wrong font A proof correction mark used to indicate that type has been set in an incorrect font or is inconsistent with adjacent characters.

White line The space between two lines of type, equivalent to the type size, including leading.
White out To open out an area of type with spacing or leading, either to improve its appearance or to fill a given area.

Word space The space between typeset words, based on the width of characters of the type size, usually a constant if the text is ragged but variable if it is justified. Wrapping The automatic flow of text from one line to the next.

Ascender The part of a lowercase character that extends above Its body (x-height), as in the letters b, d, f, g, h, k, l, t.

Baseline The imaginary line, defined by the flat base of a lowercase letter such as x, upon which the bases of aH upper- and lowercase letter apparently rest.The curved parts of characters such as o, c, and a actually fall below the baseline but appear, optically to sit on it.

Beard In metal type, the area, or bevel, between the face (printing surface) of the character and the shoulder. Belly The front or nick side of metal type. Bevel Of metal type, the sloping surface connecting the face to the shoulder. Also called the beard.

Body (type) The shank of a piece of metal type. Bold (face) A version of a font having a conspicuously heavier appearance or weight than the same design with a medium or light weight.
Bowl The curved strokes of a type character, enclosing the counter. Also called a cup. Bracketed type A type design in which the serifs are joined to the main stem in an unbroken curve.

Capital Uppercase letters such as A, B, C, etc. The term originates from the inscriptional letters at the top, or capital, of Roman columns. Also called majuscules.

Case A traditional type compositor's box or tray, which is divided into small compartments for storing type. Cases were generally used in pairs, upper for capital letters and lower for small letters, thus spawning the terms uppercase and lowercase to describe such letters.

Character origin The location on the baseline used as a reference point for drawing a character.

Closed h An italic "h" in which the shorter stroke curves inward, as in b.

Condensed (type) Of type designs, those faces whose height is greater than their width. Although a condensed style can be applied to computer- generated fonts by "horizontal scaling," specifically designed condensed typefaces retain the correct relative proportions, or stress, between their horizontal and vertical strokes — a characteristic that is distorted and exaggerated by horizontal scaling.

Contra italic A "backslanted" style of type — that is, one that slants backward, as in Minion Contra Italic, for example. Counter The enclosed or partially closed area of a type character, such as the center of an 0 or the space between the vertical strokes of a U.

Cross-stemmed W A design of the character W in which the center strokes cross rather than meet at the top.

Dazzle A colloquial term describing the visual effect caused by exaggerated differences between widths of strokes in a letterform.

Depth of strike The depth from the face of a piece of metal type to the base of the counter.
1953 descender The part of a lowercase character that extends below the baseline of the x-height, as in the letters p, q, j, g, y.

Down stroke The most pronounced vertical or near-vertical stroke in a type character, originally the downward stroke of a pen in calligraphy.

Expanded/extended type Any typeface design with a flattened, stretched appearance, usually specifically designed to retain the correct relative proportions, or "stress," between the horizontal and vertical strokes, thus avoiding the anomalies that occur as the result of type distortion features of a computer application (horizontal scaling).

Expert set A font that contains characters in addition to the standard set of typefaces, providing such things as ligatures, small caps, ornaments, true fractions, and swash characters. Extruders A typographic term used to describe ascenders and descenders.

Feet The area at the base of a piece of metal type. Full face A headline type, always in capitals. Also called titling.

Groove A channel running along the bottom surface of a shank of metal type, in the same plane as the set (width).

Hairlines Very thin strokes in a type design. Heavy (face) An alternative term for bold type or, sometimes, type even heavier than bold.

Italic The sloping version of a roman type design deriving from cursive handwriting and calligraphic scripts, intended for textual emphasis. The first italic type was cut by Aldus Manutius in about 1499. A version of italic, often called oblique or sloped roman, can be generated digitally by most applications, but it merely slants the roman style to the right, so it is a poor substitute for the real thing.

Kern The part of a metal type character that overhangs the next.

Light/light face Type with an inconspicuous light appearance, based on the same design as medium, or roman, weight type in the same type family The opposite of boldface. Lining figures/numerals A set of numerals aligned at top and bottom. Sometimes called "modern" numerals.

Long descenders Descenders such as g, j, p, q, and y in certain type faces that are particularly long and are offered as an alternative to the standard characters of the typeface. Lowercase The small letters in a font, as distinct from capitals — upper-case. Also called minuscules.

Medium The weight of a type design halfway between light and bold, sometimes described as roman. Minuscule An alternative name for a lowercase or small letter.

Neck The part of a metal type character between the shoulder and face, also known as the bevel. Nick A small groove on a piece of metal type that identifies its orientation.

Nonlining figures/numerals Numerals designed with descenders and ascenders rather than those of a standard height and alignment such as lining figures. Also known as hanging figures.
Numerals An alternative term for numbers.

Pi font A font of various characters such as shapes, logos, accents, ding- bats, etc., which do not form part of a standard character set. Pothook The sharply curved terminal of a character, particularly noticeable in italic fonts. Primary letter Any lowercase character that does not have an ascender or descender — a, e, m, etc.

Roman (type) A font design in which the characters are upright, as distinct from italic.

Serif The short counterstroke or finishing stroke at the end of the main stroke of a type character. Serifs on older "classic" typefaces tend to be bracketed and curve out from the main stroke to a point. Modern serifs are flat hairlines at the end of the main stroke.

Shoulder The nonprinting area surrounding a face of type. Sloped roman/type A sloped version ofa font or typeface based on the roman letterform, as opposed to a specifically designed italic type.
Slug In hot metal typesetting, the name for a line of type set as a single piece of metal.

Small capitals/caps Capital letters designed in a smaller size than the capitals of the font to which they belong, Many computer applications make provision for small caps (called synthesized small caps), but they are invariably mere reductions in size of the regular capitals, with the result that the weight, or "color," of the resulting small caps is too light. Special fonts, called expert sets, are available, which have specially designed small caps, and they give a more aesthetic result.

Splayed M A character M with outwardly sloping or splayed sides.
Stem The primary vertical stroke in a type character.
Stress The emphasis of a letter-form, as perceived in the heaviest part of a curved stroke.

Stroke (1) The outline of a shape or character, as distinct from the inside area, known as the fill.
Stroke (2) In calligraphy, the part of a character that can be drawn in a single movement.

Swash characters Ornamental italic characters with decorative tails and embellishments, For example, certain Caslon Old Face italic characters.

Uppercase The capital letters of a type font, the term deriving from the compositor's "case" — trays of type that were generally used in pairs, upper for capital letters and lower for small letters.

Upstroke The finer stroke in a type character derived from the down- ward stroke of a pen in calligraphic letterforms.

Weight The degree of boldness applied to a font, for example, light, medium, bold, etc.