Font Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X

Back:
The margin nearest to the spine of a book.
Back Matter:
Material, such as indices or appendices, that comes after the main text of a book.
Also called “end matter”.
Ball Terminal:
A round shape occurring at the end of a stroke as in a, c, f, and r.
Baseline:
The imaginary horizontal line along which characters appear to sit (or align).
Beak:
Similar to the spur, and can be found on L,T and E.
Bitmap:
A pattern of elements (e.g. laser printer dots, or pixels on a computer screen)
which make up a character, graphic element, or image.
Black:
See Bold Type.
Black/Broken Letter:
Gothic fonts, Schwabacher and Fraktur fonts are examples of black letter fonts.
The curves and the lines of such characters are most often twice ‘broken’.
Body:
The rectangle on which a typeface is fitted.
Body Size:
The size of a typeface character. Includes ascenders and descenders as well as a certain amount of space above the character.
Bold Type:
A version of a typeface heavier than the normal weight, characterized by thicker strokes, often used for emphasis.
Bowl:
The round or elliptical main structural element of letters such as C, G, 0 Uppercase,
and b, c, e, o, p in the lowercase. Also sometimes called eye.
Box:
A rectangle enclosing text or illustration.
Bracket:
The joining of a serif to the main stem in an unbroken curve.
Bullet:
A character, usually circular, often used to demarcate items in a list.

  • List A
  • List B