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

Ranged Left/Right:
See flush.
Readability:
A characteristic of type that determines how easy and comfortable it is to read a text.
Recto:
The right hand page of a book.
Regular:
Typical width of a basic font.
Resolution:
Number of points or pixels per unit, usually measured in dpi (dots per inch) or P/cm (points per centimeter).
RIP:
Short for Raster Image Processor, changes the description language of a page, PostScript, for example, into pixels so that they can be read by laser printers or PostScript imaging device.
Rivers:
Uneven patches of white running through a page of text.
Roman:
Used to distinguish upright letterforms from sloped, oblique or italic. Also used to refer to the upright, normal weight and width variant of a typeface. Infrequently used to refer to serif as opposed to sans serif types. Also refers to types based on traditional Roman letterform proportions and design characteristics.
Rule:
A line often added between lines of type to separate text or for emphasis or decoration.
Running head:
A line of type appearing consistently in the head margin of each page.
The Know How section offers detailed background knowledge to deal with all enquiries about the use of fonts.