ALL CAPS Text set completely in UPPERCASE or all capital letters. Also refered to as: Uppercase

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1 ALIGNMENT Refers to lining up the top, bottom, sides, or middle of text or graphic elements on a page. Horizontal text alignment is referred to as Flush-left, Left-justified or Ragged right Flush-right, Right-justified or Ragged left Centered Fully justified ALL CAPS Text set completely in UPPERCASE or all capital letters. Also refered to as: Uppercase ALPHABET A group of symbols that represent the elementary sounds of a spoken language. AMPERSAND (&) A stylized character of the Latin et used to represent the word and. APOSTROPHE ( ) A punctuation mark in languages that use the Latin alphabet. In English, it serves three purposes: The marking of the omission of one or more letters (as in the contraction of do not to don t). The marking of possessive case (as in the eagle s feathers, or in one month s time). The marking by some as plural of written items that are not words established in English orthography (as in P s and Q s). Apostrophe s ( ) should not be confused with prime symbols (") BLACKLETTER (CLASSIFICATION) Based on early written forms, a style of typeface that features elaborate thick to thin strokes and serifs. The Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever printed with movable type, was set in a Blackletter Typeface to mimic the manuscript writing of the time. Also Known As: Old English BODY TEXT Body of written content on a page or document. Also referred to as Body Copy or Text. BOLD A typeface with thicker strokes than regular. Bold type is used for emphasis to make certain words and phrases stand out from the surrounding text. BULLET ( ) A typographic symbol used to call attention to lines of text such as in a list. Bullets can be round, square or composed of small pictures or icons such as those found in dingbat or symbol fonts. CALLIGRAPHY The design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, dip pen, or brush to produce expressive marks. CAPTION Text under an illustration or picture to explain or draw attention to. CEDILLA A hook shaped mark added under certain letters to modify their pronunciation; as when a C is pronounced as an S. Example: Façade

2 COLOR The relative lightness or darkness of a block of text created by variances in letterform weight & structure, kerning, tracking, leading, type size, and x-height. COLUMN One or more vertical blocks of content positioned on a page. CONDENSED (TYPE) Font where the shape of the letterforms are made narrow. CONCORDANT RELATIONSHIP Occurs when only one type family is used allowing the page to remain harmonious. This creates a formal, quiet appearance without much variety in style, size, and weight. CONFLICTING RELATIONSHIP Occurs when typefaces are combined that are too similar in style, size, and weight. The similarities are disturbing because the visual attractions are not the same as with concordant, but neither are they contrasting, so they conflict. CONTRASTING RELATIONSHIP Occurs when separate typefaces are combined that are clearly distinct from each other. These combinations achieve a level of contrast and are more visually appealing than with a concordant relationship. DAGGER ( OR ) Used to indicate footnotes in a text. Typically, an asterisk* is used for the first footnote, a dagger for the second footnote and a double dagger for the third. DASH ( OR ) A punctuation mark that is similar to a hyphen or minus sign, but differs from both of these symbols primarily in length and function. DECORATIVE (CLASSIFICATION) Designed for visual impact, decorative typefaces often employ flamboyant ornamentation, outlines/ inlines, shaded or cast-three dimensional shadows. These typefaces should be used sparingly as their trendy nature lacks longevity. Examples include: Curlz, Braggadocio, bastian DIACRITICAL MARK (Á) Symbols added to letters of the alphabet to indicate different pronunciation than the letters are usually given. These marks are often referred to as accents. Example: Résumé DINGBATS ( ) Once known as printer s flowers, these are the small decorative marks, bullets, or symbols that usually make up a specialty face. Examples include: Zapf Dingbats, Wingdings, Marlett DROP CAP The first letter of a paragraph that is enlarged to drop down two or more lines, as in the next paragraph. Drop caps are often seen at the beginning of novels, where the top of the first letter of the first word lines up with the top of the first sentence and drops down to the four or fifth sentence to the beginning of a section. ELLIPSIS ( ) A series of dots that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. Depending on their context and placement in a sentence, ellipses can also indicate an unfinished thought, a leading statement, a slight pause, a mysterious voice, or a nervous or awkward silence.

3 EM-DASH ( ) The em dash is used to make a break be tween parts of a sen tence. Use it when a comma is too weak, but a colon, semi colon, or pair of paren the ses is too strong. The em dash puts a nice pause in the text and it is un der used in pro fes sional writing. EN-DASH ( ) The en dash has two uses It in di cates a range of val ues ( , pages , Ex hi bits A E). If paired with from use to in stead of an en dash (from 1880 to 1912, not from ) It de notes a con nec tion or con trast be tween pairs of words (con ser v a tive liberal split, Ari zona Nevada reci proc ity, Sar banes Ox ley Act). EXPANDED (TYPE) Font where the shape of letterforms are stretched wide. FAT FACE Roman type style consisting of extreme contrast and weight. Examples include: Abril Fatface, Dude FLUSH The alignment of text or graphics against one side or another of the page. FONT A complete set of letterforms (upper and lowercase), numerals, and punctuation marks in a particular typeface that allows for typesetting by keystroke on a computer or other means of typographic composition. FULLY JUSTIFIED Text that is aligned to both the left and right margins. GLYPH Graphical representations of a character. Example: a and A are the same character, but a is a glyph and A is a different glyph. GOTHIC (TYPE) Typefaces intended to look like European Medieval calligraphy. GUTTER The space between columns of printed text, including the gap between facing pages. HEADLINE The extra large opening statement used in a layout, used to grab the reader s attention and usually summarizes what the text is about. Also referred to as Display Type. HEIRARCHY The organization of content, emphasizing some elements and subordinating others. HYPHEN (-) The hyphen has three uses A hy phen ap pears at the end of a line when a word breaks onto the next line. Some mul ti part words are spelled with a hy phen (topsy-turvy, cost-effec tive, bric-a-brac). A hy phen is used in phrasal ad jec tives (lis tener-sup ported ra dio, dogand-pony show, high-school grades) to en sure clar ity.

4 INDENTS A inward offset from the margin setting. ITALICS (EMPHASIS) Angled typeface that has different design characteristics from its upright, roman companion. They are most often a separate yet complementary design, with unique features and often different character widths. Many italics have a somewhat calligraphic appearance, especially those that are designed for a serif typeface. KERNING The adjustment of spacing between letters in words. Usually pre-defined by the type designer. Also referred to as Letterspacing or Character Spacing. LATIN ALPHABET Root of the modern alphabet; came to the Romans from Greece by way of the Etruscans. LEADING The distance between lines of text. This distance, (usually measured in points) is from the baseline of one line of text, to the baseline of the next line. Also referred to as Line Spacing. LEGIBILITY The ease with which a reader can recognize individual characters in text. Aspects that affect legibility include x-height, character shapes, stroke contrast, counter size, serifs or lack thereof, and weight. LIGATURE ( fi ) Two or more letters combined into one character make a ligature. In typography ligatures are used primarily to make type more readable on the page such as the fl and fi ligatures. In most cases, a ligature is only available in extended characters sets or special expert sets of fonts. LINING FIGURES A modern style of numerals where all figures are of the same height. There are two types of lining figures: Proportional: Variable spacing, comparable to that of upper and lowercase characters. This spacing maintains the even, balanced color of the rest of the alphabet, allowing the figures to blend in nicely with horizontal text. Tabular: Monospaced and work best when rows and columns of numbers need to align such as in tables, financial documents, and numbered lists. LOGOGRAM Graphic signs which represent entire words. Examples include: &, % LOWERCASE The little letters glyphs or non-capital letters of the alphabet. Also referred to as miniscules. MARGIN White space at the top and bottom, left and right edge of a page. MEANLINE The top of many lowercase letters such as e, g and y. It is also at the curve of letters like h. MODERN (CLASSIFICATION) Recognizable by their dramatic thick/ thin strokes, vertical stress and flat/ thin horizontal serifs. Modern fonts generally project elegance and are perfect for headlines or sub-headings. Examples include: Bodoni, Didot MONOSPACE (CLASSIFICATION) Also referred to as fixed-width, or non-proportional, Monospace is a font whose letters and characters occupy the same amount of horizontal space. Examples include: Andale Mono, Courier, Monaco

5 MOVABLE TYPE Block letterforms that can be arranged and rearranged for printing. NUMERO ( ) An abbreviation of the word number(s) indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. OLDSTYLE (CLASSIFICATION) Originally created between the late 15th & mid-18th centuries, these early roman types are characterized by curved strokes whose axis inclines to the left, and little contrast between thick and thins. Their exceptional readability makes them a great choice for lengthy bodies of text. Examples include: Bembo, Berkely Oldstyle, Goudy Oldstyle. OLDSTYLE FIGURES Numbers with varying heights, some aligning to the baseline and some below. Example: ORNAMENTS Instead of alphanumeric characters, ornamental typefaces contain decorative embellishments such as pictures or symbols. Example: T e x Okn ORPHAN LINE A single line of a paragraph at the top of a page or column. Similar to a widow an Orphan is considered poor typography and should be corrected. OUTLINE (TYPE) A font style that makes use of a letterforms contours, leaving centers open and non-printing. PERIOD (.) A punctuation mark placed at the end of a sentence or at the end of individual letters such as U.S.A. Sometimes referred to as Baseline Dot. PERSPECTIVE (TYPE) A three-dimensional font often using shadow to create a sense of depth. PICA The unit used to measure lines of text. One pica is equal to 12 points, and six picas are equal to one inch. PILCROW ( ) A typographical character marking individual paragraphs. Sometimes referred to as Paragraph Mark. POINT The unit used to measure the size of a font. One point is equal to 1/72 of an inch. When a character is referred to as 12pt, the full height of the text block (such as a block of movable type), and not just the character itself, is being described. Because of this, two typefaces at the same point size may appear as different sizes, based on the position of the character in the block and how much of the block the character fills. PULL QUOTES Short excerpts from text that are enlarged and set off from the page with boxes or lines. These are used for emphasis or to fit text copy into columns. PRIME SYMBOL (") Are used to designate several different units and for various other purposes in mathematics, the sciences, linguistics and music. Example: 4'-10" would be expressed as four feet, ten inches. Prime symbols (") should not be confused with apostrophes ( ).

6 READABILITY The ease with which written text can be understood by a reader. The readability of a particular text depends both on its content (the complexity of its vocabulary) and on typography (font size, line height, and line length). REVERSE (TYPE) Letterforms are open (non-printing) leaving the appearance of white on black letters. RIVERS Unsightly areas of white space that occur in fully justified columns where spaces between words are unusually wide. These rivers should be corrected with tracking or re-sizing text. ROMAN In Western typography, Roman is the normal typography style in widest use and refers to any upright typeface (as opposed to italic), or sans serif faces. SANS SERIF (CLASSIFICATION) Typefaces without serifs or brackets. Sans serif fonts are often used when a large typeface is necessary, such as in a magazine headline. Sans serif fonts are also common for website text, as they are generally easier to read on screen. Examples include: Helvetica, Gill Sans, Futura. SCRIPT (CLASSIFICATION) A typographic style that simulates the look of calligraphy, hand-writing or brush. Examples include: Bickham Script, Snell Roundhand, Edwardian Script. SERIF (CLASSIFICATION) Typefaces with serifs or brackets. Serif fonts are recognizable by the small lines at the ends of the various strokes of a character. As these lines make a typeface easier to read by guiding the eye from letter to letter and word to word, serif fonts are often used for large blocks of text, such as in a book. Examples include: Palantino, Times New Roman, Adobe Garamond SLAB SERIF (CLASSIFICATION) Also referred to as Mechanistic, Square Serif or Egyptian, this is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Terminals may be either blunt & angular or rounded and generally have no bracket. Slab Serifs are perfect for large headlines but do not work well for body text. Examples include: Rockwell, ITC Lubalin Graph, Clarendon SMALL CAPS uppercase characters set at the same height and weight as surrounding lowercase letters. Well-designed small capitals are not simply scaled-down versions of normal capitals; they retain the same stroke weight as other letters and have a wider aspect ratio for readability. SWASH A typographical flourish, such as an exaggerated serif, terminal, tail, entry stroke, etc. on a glyph. Example: Always & Forever TITLING CAPITALS A variant of uppercase designed for heading and titles. The stroke width is reduced for use at larger point sizes where the stroke weight used in smaller text sizes would be too heavy. TRACKING The overall spacing between letters to affect density in a block of text. Sometimes referred to as Letterspacing. Not be confused with Kerning which affects the space between individual letters.

7 TRANSITIONAL (CLASSIFICATION) Named for the transition from Old Style into Modern, Transitional typefaces provide greater contrast between thick & think strokes, larger x-height, vertical stress, numerals and cap-height are consistent in size. Examples include: Baskerville, Adobe Caslon Pro, Times New Roman TYPEFACE A group of characters, such as letters, numbers, and punctuation, that share a common design or style. Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica and Courier are all typefaces. TYPE FAMILY The different options available within a font. Many fonts are at a minimum available in Roman, Bold and Italic. Other families are much larger, such as Helvetica Neue, consisting of Condensed Bold, Condensed Black, UltraLight, UltraLight Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, etc. TYPESETTING The process of putting text into the right style and size of type and the desired arrangement on the page in preparation for printing. Typesetting was once the realm of skilled typesetters but today is handled by the designer, using desktop publishing software to set type. Also Known As: textsetting, type layout, text layout TYPOGRAPHY The vi sual com po nent of the writ ten word. UNCIALS A majuscule script (CAPITAL LETTERS) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. UPPERCASE The capital letters of the alphabet are UPPERCASE GLYPHS, normally used at the beginning of sentences and as the first letter of proper names. The term uppercase is derived from the days of metal type where the lesser used capital letters were kept in the harder to reach upper case while the more frequently used letters were kept nearer at hand, in the lower case. WIDOW LINE A single line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page or column. A widow is considered poor typography because it leaves too much white space between paragraphs or at the bottom of a page. This interrupts the reader s eye and diminishes readability.