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Learning type : Anatomy of the letterforms
In a time when computers have made Typography a thing anyone can use and abuse,it is a matter of survival for typographic art that users should have a fair (if not deep...) knowing and understanding of Typography.
Even if the elementary approach below can't replace academic courses and years of interest in the numerous subltlety of the subject,
we've tried to give here the basics of the anatomy of our beloved letters, so that you can, knowing the rules of their drawing-building, get free to do exactly the opposite of what old-bearded Typographers would have asked you to. Then, talent will really speaks by itself.
THE LETTER SPACE:
Each letter in a typeface has its own little space. It is delimited by horizontal and vertical boundaries.
The height of this space (1) is named, body height and its unit is the point-size,
French are calling this Size/unit Corps. This height goes, to be precise, from the top of the
tallest letterform to the bottom of the lowest one.
The Caps height (2) is the height of the capitals.
As you can see above, this height is divided in 3 zones :
The X-height (3)
is the middle one. Its name comes from the fact that is was originaly the height of the lowercase x.
It represent the height of lowercases that have no ascender or descender (like a, e, o, n, m, etc...). It is also called the average height.
Note that some lowercases have different heights than the X-height, mostly letters that have round shapes, like c or o. Those are either emerging from the top and the bottom of the x-height.
The x-height sits on an imaginary line: the Baseline (5), and is verticaly limited by the Midline (4).
The two others vertical slices of the body height are the Ascent (6) (above the x-height), and the Descent (7) (below).
In our example, the g as a part that drop from the baseline into the Descent. It is called a Descender.
In a letter d, the upper part of the letter emerge into the Ascent: it is called an Ascender.
The letter space also have a width (8) named character's width or character's space.
This is the width from which a letter cannot extend, and no other
letter placed near can get in. Well not really... In fact, if a letterform has a part that extend from the character's space, it is called a Kern.
This Em space is also not exactly equal to the real width of the letterform which is the body width (9)
(and is also called Em space, a name that comes from the fact that no letter was supposed to be wider than the capital M).
On each side of the letterform are width named Side bearings (10) or kerning space.
Their width depends on the form of the letter; it is a tool for the typographer that allows to reduce
or increase the space between a letter that does not homogenicaly occupies the space
(like A, T, V, etc...), with others adjacent letters. (Check for more informations on the subject in the coming Kerning section).
The character's origin (11) is the reference point of the letterform, and is situated where the baseline hits the left edge of the character space.
And finally, there is also an imaginary boundary below the bottom of the Body height, that defines the leading.
this lines marks the minimal recommended vertical space (12) between two lines of text.
All these sizes are expressed in a unit called Point. Letters on this example are 130 points high.
But you should be carefull as there are three units named point!
- The Pica point is the most used. It represents about 0.35135 mm. it is divided into 12 picas.
- The Didot point is the European unit. It represents 0.3759 mm. It is divided in 12 ciceros (also named 'douze', french for 12).
But, as things were far too simple like this, our computer friends created a new unit used in most desktop softwares!
It is the computer point, that equals 0.3527785 mm, which is not that far from the Pica point.
THE LETTER SHAPES:
Now that we know the main geometry of the letter space, let's see how we fill it with forms and the names of these.
There are 7 main sorts of letters in the Roman alphabet:
- Capitals (1), also named Uppercases, due to the fact that they were stored in the upper cases
in the piece of furniture used by typesetters to store the letters, in the days of metal typefaces.
- Lowercases (2), that appeared during the middle-age, from the slow deformation-simplification
of the capitals.
- Numbers, that generaly sits on the baseline, like capitals.
- Punctuation signs.
- Money symbols (£, $, etc...).
- Mathematical signs.
- Miscellanous other signs like registered, TM, etc...
(In fact, there are a lot of others signs, and the most complete typefaces even have special additional alphabets,
like Small Capitals alphabet, Alternates, etc...
Those letters are composed of conventional shapes.
Those of Upper and lowercases are known as the alphabetic letters.
Their origins are various and would deserve a whole section in this handbook (some more work!).
Each one of these letters is different from the other ones,
but also similar, as they are all made using the same 'grid'.
An essential thing about designing type is to maintain an optimal balance between
differences,that helps their individual identification (and so the reading),
and their similarities, that gives consistency to the typeface (and so to the
look of a text composed with it).
The main parts of the letterforms that are straight (or about) are called Stems (3).
The main parts of the letterforms that are diagonal are called Strokes (3 bis).
The horizontal strokes that crosses vertical strokes are called Cross strokes (4).
The horizontal strokes that connects two vertical (or about) strokes are called Cross bars (5)
Most classical typefaces have 'iregular' shapes: some parts are thicker than others.
These iregularity are an inheritance from the time when letters were written by hand,
with a bevel-ended arrow.
While writting, the bevel, combined to the angle
made by the arrow with the paper, created variations of thickness in the letterforms.
So there are thicker parts (6), and thiner ones(7).
This angle made by the arrow of the scripting monk also created the fact that those
thin and thick parts of letters are distributed around an axis (8). In a specific font, all
thin and thick parts are distributed around the same axis.
In our example, this one is nearly vertical. But it can have various angles, and those angles
are an important element in distinguishing some typefaces, or families of typefaces.
The white space (9) included in a letterform
is named a counter. and the part of a letterform that includes a counter,
like in (10), is named a double storey or a bowl.
In the particular case of the letter g, it is named a loop.
The decorative handle (11) projected from the upper right corner of the letter g
is named an ear.
The part of a letter that is unattached to one or both ends to the rest of the letterform
(like in (12), or, for example, in the horizontal strokes of E, or T), is named an Arm.
Since The times of the Roman empire, and probably due to the tools used to carve stones,
some shapes have a decorative fine line or stroke at the tips of the main strokes (13).
It is named a serif.
Most 'classical' typefaces had some, and so are named Serif fonts (Also named 'Elzevirs' by French Typographers).
And most modern fonts (20th century ones, like Futura or Helvetica, to name a few) had not,
and so are named Sans serif fonts (this is the english name, the most useful one;
in France, they are named 'Antiques', 'Batons' or 'Lineaires', in the USA,
they're named 'Gothic', and in Germany, they are the 'Grotesks').
In some typefaces, the connection between the serifs and the stems (vertical strokes)
are unbroken (14).
The tiny curves that joins them are named brackets.
The end of some letters like r or y (15) are terminated with a bowl named
ball terminal. This is particularily true in a font like Bodoni.
And beak terminal are ends of letterforms that are rectangulars (16).
There are often some on 20th century roman typefaces, on the f, the right-edge of a, the upper right edge of c,
the upper left edge of j, etc..).
The open end of a loop in a letterform, is named a finial (17).
The spur is the shape (18) that finishs the top or bottom of C, c, S,and s.
The spine is the main stroke of the letters S,and s, curved from left to right (19).
The part of a letter that joins the two parts of g is named a link (20).
And the tail (21) is either the descending stroke of the capital Q or the strong diagonal stroke of R, k and K.
Here is for the main elements of the anatomy of the letterforms.
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