Typography Glossary

Abrupt Serif A serif which breaks suddenly from the stem at an angle.

Accent A diacritical mark near or through a letter indicating a variation in pronunciation. Eg. ç, à, ò, é, Å.

Addressing Resolutio The degree of fineness of position that the computer can specify for an output device.

Adnate Serif A serif which flows smoothly to or from the stem.

Aliasing The misrepresentation of high frequencies from the original signal as low frequencies in the sampled result, due to undersampling. Aliasing distorts the letterforms and letter spacing.

Alphabet A set of abstract symbols employed in a particular writing system.

Analog Letterform A glyph, drawn or printed, sometimes used as a model for creating a similar digitized shape. Analog letterform designs maybe expressed as smooth curves that are then digitized.

Analphabetic A typographical character used with the alphabet but lacking a place in the alphabetical order. Examples: the acute accent, the umlaut, the circumflax, and the asterisk.

Anisotropic Scaling Enlarging or shrinking letters nonlinearly, so that, for example, they become disproportionately less bold and narrower for ther height as they are enlarged. Such transformations can create some of the traditional variations in shape of typefaces at different sizes.

Anisotrpy A property of some output devices that gives different results on the x- and y-axes. In CRT, for example, black features crossed by the scan are narrowed preferentially compared with those running parrallel to the scan.

Anti-aliasing Removing alias frequencies from the sampled signal. In letterfoms, jaggedness can be minimized during reconstruction by using various grey levels at the edges of stokes.

Antiqua Another way to describe letters with serifs.

Arc Segment of a circle or ellipse, sometimes used to describe part of the boundary of a letterform.

Ascender That part of a lowercase letter that rises above the x-height, as in letters 'b', 'd', 'f', 'h', 'k', 't' and 'l'.

ASCII The American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a standard character set defined by ANSI, the American National Standards Institure.

Aspect Ratio The ratio of width to height.

Assimilation The symmetry propert possessed in varying degrees by a typeface that creates mirror relationships and other similarities of form between letters.

Asymmetry Aspects of letterforms that depart from mirror images relationships between letter pairs, especially 'b-d' and 'p-q', and within individual letters, such as 'T' in some typefaces.

Axis The real or imaginary straight line on which a letterform rotates.

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Sources:

Rubinststein, Richard. [1988] Digial Typography: An Introduction to Type and Composition for Computer System Design. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Blue Dot's typoGRAPHIC.
The comp.fonts FAQ.

There have been .
© Kevin Woodward 1997.

	Abrupt Serif	A serif which breaks suddenly from the stem at an angle.
	Accent	A diacritical mark near or through a letter indicating a variation in pronunciation. Eg. ç, à, ò, é, Å.
	Addressing Resolutio	The degree of fineness of position that the computer can specify for an output device.
	Adnate Serif	A serif which flows smoothly to or from the stem.
	Aliasing	The misrepresentation of high frequencies from the original signal as low frequencies in the sampled result, due to undersampling. Aliasing distorts the letterforms and letter spacing.
	Alphabet	A set of abstract symbols employed in a particular writing system.
	Analog Letterform	A glyph, drawn or printed, sometimes used as a model for creating a similar digitized shape. Analog letterform designs maybe expressed as smooth curves that are then digitized.
	Analphabetic	A typographical character used with the alphabet but lacking a place in the alphabetical order. Examples: the acute accent, the umlaut, the circumflax, and the asterisk.
	Anisotropic Scaling	Enlarging or shrinking letters nonlinearly, so that, for example, they become disproportionately less bold and narrower for ther height as they are enlarged. Such transformations can create some of the traditional variations in shape of typefaces at different sizes.
	Anisotrpy	A property of some output devices that gives different results on the x- and y-axes. In CRT, for example, black features crossed by the scan are narrowed preferentially compared with those running parrallel to the scan.
	Anti-aliasing	Removing alias frequencies from the sampled signal. In letterfoms, jaggedness can be minimized during reconstruction by using various grey levels at the edges of stokes.
	Antiqua	Another way to describe letters with serifs.
	Arc	Segment of a circle or ellipse, sometimes used to describe part of the boundary of a letterform.
	Ascender	That part of a lowercase letter that rises above the x-height, as in letters 'b', 'd', 'f', 'h', 'k', 't' and 'l'.
	ASCII	The American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a standard character set defined by ANSI, the American National Standards Institure.
	Aspect Ratio	The ratio of width to height.
	Assimilation	The symmetry propert possessed in varying degrees by a typeface that creates mirror relationships and other similarities of form between letters.
	Asymmetry	Aspects of letterforms that depart from mirror images relationships between letter pairs, especially 'b-d' and 'p-q', and within individual letters, such as 'T' in some typefaces.
	Axis	The real or imaginary straight line on which a letterform rotates.