Typography Glossary

Galley In traditional typesetting, a proof of the running text, tables, or figures, before these parts are combined to form pages.

Gestalt The perceptual process of separating figure and ground to create an overall visual understanding of an image.

Glyph (1) The actual shape (bit pattern, outline) of a character image. For example, an italic 'a' and a roman 'a' are two different glyphs representing the same underlying character. In this strict sense, any two images which differ in shape constitute different glyphs. In this usage, ``glyph'' is a synonym for ``character image'', or simply ``image''. (2) A kind of idealized surface form derived from some combination of underlying characters in some specific context, rather than an actual character image. In this broad usage, two images would constitute the same glyph whenever they have essentially the same topology (as in oblique 'a' and roman 'a'), but different glyphs when one is written with a hooked top and the other without (the way one prints an 'a' by hand). In this usage, ``glyph'' is a synonym for ``glyph type,'' where glyph is defined as in sense 1.

Greyscale fonts Fonts that use variations in intensity at the edges of the letters to suppress the effects of aliasing and thus improve the apparent sharpness and fineness of letterforms.

Greeking The use of gray bars or "dummy" characters to represent text that is too small to be legible when displayed on the screen. Also, in graphic design, the use of dummy text in a layout so that the design of the document will be emphasized rather than its content.

Grid: engineering A control structure in a CRT, used to modulate the intensity of the electron beam, and thus the brightness of spots on the phosphor screen.

Grid (typography) A graphical layout for the design of pages of a book or other document. Variations on pages must match divisions in the grid.

Grotesk Another way to describe letters without serifs.

Ground (perception) That part of an image that is seen as the background, rather than the perceived object, called the figure.

Gutenberg: unit of measure A unit of linear measure equal to 1/7200 inch, or about 1/100 of a point.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
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PAGE LAYOUT GUIDE
LOGO TYPE GUIDE
MIXING TYPE
TYPOGRAPHY SOFTWARE
TYPE CHOICE

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.

	Galley	In traditional typesetting, a proof of the running text, tables, or figures, before these parts are combined to form pages.
	Gestalt	The perceptual process of separating figure and ground to create an overall visual understanding of an image.
	Glyph	(1) The actual shape (bit pattern, outline) of a character image. For example, an italic 'a' and a roman 'a' are two different glyphs representing the same underlying character. In this strict sense, any two images which differ in shape constitute different glyphs. In this usage, ``glyph'' is a synonym for ``character image'', or simply ``image''. (2) A kind of idealized surface form derived from some combination of underlying characters in some specific context, rather than an actual character image. In this broad usage, two images would constitute the same glyph whenever they have essentially the same topology (as in oblique 'a' and roman 'a'), but different glyphs when one is written with a hooked top and the other without (the way one prints an 'a' by hand). In this usage, ``glyph'' is a synonym for ``glyph type,'' where glyph is defined as in sense 1.
	Greyscale fonts	Fonts that use variations in intensity at the edges of the letters to suppress the effects of aliasing and thus improve the apparent sharpness and fineness of letterforms.
	Greeking	The use of gray bars or "dummy" characters to represent text that is too small to be legible when displayed on the screen. Also, in graphic design, the use of dummy text in a layout so that the design of the document will be emphasized rather than its content.
	Grid: engineering	A control structure in a CRT, used to modulate the intensity of the electron beam, and thus the brightness of spots on the phosphor screen.
	Grid (typography)	A graphical layout for the design of pages of a book or other document. Variations on pages must match divisions in the grid.
	Grotesk	Another way to describe letters without serifs.
	Ground (perception)	That part of an image that is seen as the background, rather than the perceived object, called the figure.
	Gutenberg: unit of measure	A unit of linear measure equal to 1/7200 inch, or about 1/100 of a point.