What do all these font terms mean?
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- Serif: fonts that have “serifs” or feet at the base of letters and at the end of strokes.
- Sans Serif: fonts without serifs.
- Ascender: letters like b, d, h, k, l and t where part of the letter ascends above the rest.
- Descender: letters like g, p and y where part of the letter descends below the rest.
- Leading: the space between lines of type.
- Point Size: how type is measured; one point equals 1/72 of an inch, so 72 point type would be about one inch high.
- Baseline: the imaginary line upon which most letters “sit” and below which descenders extend.
- Midline (or Mean Line): The imaginary line which determines the height of lowercase letters and above which ascenders extend.
- X-height: The distance between the baseline and the midline.
