A line above and/or below a paragraph.

Typesetting where both uppercase and lowercase letters are used.

One part of a bicameral script with less ascenders and descenders. 

One part of a bicameral script with usually more ascenders and descenders.

Replaces (by default) sequence of characters with a single ligature glyph.

The double-storey design of the letter g.

The part of a physical letter that gets printed.

A notch that is identical for all letters of a typeface and helps the printer to make sure that all letters belong to the same font and are placed in the right direction in one line of type.

The top part of the metal block on which the letter design sits.

The groove at the bottom (or “foot”) of the letter is the result of the manufacturing process.

Fonts made for a use in larger sizes and short passages (e.g. in logos, headlines), but not for longer texts. Not to be confused with fonts made for screen use (e.g. on electronic “displays”).

A typeface is a set of of glyph designs that share common design features.

A square with side lengths equal to the point size. The name comes from metal type where the capital letter M was commonly cast the full-width of the square blocks.

Named after Claude Garamond and Aldus Manutius, these fonts are between the the early (“humanist”) and late (“transitional”) oldstyle designs.

The first Roman typefaces created during the 15th century by Venetian printers. These typefaces sought to imitate the formal hands found in the humanistic (renaissance) manuscripts of the time.

Transitional typefaces appeared at the end the 17th century. They are still considered oldstyle designs, but already show characteristics (e.g. [almost] vertical stress, increased stroke contrast) of the Modern typefaces which follow during the 18th and 19th century.

The Didones draw their name from Didot and Bodoni. Dating from the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, these designs have a strong contrast between stems and hairlines, a purely vertical stress and unbracketed, hairline serifs.

Grades are subtle changes in stroke weight, which (where available) can be selected to give a similar impression of the typeface under different conditions (e.g. different printing technologies and papers).

Hot metal typesetting refers to machine-based typesetting technologies, where molten type metal is injected into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs. Examples of such machines are the Linotype and the Monotype.

Legibility is the ease with which a reader can recognize individual symbols.

Figures with a uniform height similar or equal to the cap height of the font.

Versions of a typeface tailored for use at specific size ranges (e.g., “caption”, “text”, “display”, etc.). Differences in contrast and tracking are common.

Rounded or pointed letters will usually have an overshoot, which means the character design extends over the x-height, cap height or under the baseline to make the letter appear of equal size with the rest of the letters.

The overall height of a font.

Figures with an individual width, based on the glyph design.

Figures with an identical width.

A text passage from an article that is displayed larger as a graphical element.

Adjusting the distance between letters to achieve visually equal spacing.

The main vertical strokes of letters.

The characteristic change of stroke width across all letters of a font. The stress is usually either diagonal, vertical, or there is no or hardly any stress for typefaces with no obvious change of stroke widths.

Words with a horizontal line through their center.

A large type family, especially one which combines different classification types like slab serif, serif and sans serif.

A swash is a decorative element added to a glyph or a glyph containing such decorative elements.

A descending often decorative stroke.

A way of typesetting where the centered lines gradually change their width, usually becoming narrower at the end of a text or segment.

In typography, type specimen refers to a any presentation of a certain typeface to showcase its design and/or use.

A type case is a compartmentalized (usually wooden) box used to store movable type used in letterpress printing.

The foundation of typography—individual letters meant to be set and printed.

The original form of movable type meant for manual typesetting. (In contrast to the fonts made for hot metal typesetting since the end of the 19th century.)

Roman refers to the upright styles of the Latin script in contrast to italic styles or special categories such as blackletter.

Characters, especially punctuation, with forms better suited for all-capital text.

A bar of softer metal (e.g. copper or nickel + brass) in which the punch is driven into to create a “sunken” image of a letter. Once the matrix was “fitted” it can be used to cast letters.

Type set up and held in reserve for future uses. Also called live matter or standing type.

A letterpress cabinet holds type cases with lettepress letters.

A galley is a (usually metal) tray used for letterpress printing. The individual lines are first set in the composing stick and then combined to columns in the galley. The galley usually has 3 closed sides. The one open side is used to push the assembled column easily from the galley.

Material to create spaces in letterpress printing. It is non-printing because its height is lower than the faces of the letters. Originally also called “lead”.

A font with a lighter stroke weight than what would be considered “normal” or “regular”.

A font with a stroke weight in between what would be considered regular and bold.

A font with a width smaller than what would be considered “normal” or “regular”.

A font with a width greater than what would be considered “normal” or “regular”.

Any set of characters, e.g. of a specific font. Not to be mixed up with “character encoding”.

Lettering refers the act, art, or technique of inscribing letters on to something or the letters created in such a way. In the field of professional graphic design, lettering is understood as one of three technique to create textual information beside calligraphy (“writing”) and typography (“typesetting”).

The cyma is an element employed to equalize the spacing of irregular letters by placing it where the space is open and requires something more than the plain letter to make word appear solid. This character derives its name from the Greek its undulating form resembling a wave. The cyma is usually attached to the letters A, L, M, W, etc.

A device to cast identical multiple instances of any character from a matrix.

A chase is a metal frame used to hold type in place while printing.

The tool to tighten and loosen letterpress quoins.

… wood or metal blocks of various widths and lengths to fill in the chase for lock up.

A (usually cylinder-based) printing press for creating simple proof prints.

Small caps will often be slightly or significantly larger than the x-height of the font. Some typefaces have additional small caps which match the x-height and they are called petite caps. Both types can be access through distinct OpenType features: SMCP (small caps) and PCAP (petite capitals).

An en is a typographic unit, half of the width of an em. By definition, it is equivalent to half of the height of the font.

An ink ball (or dabber) was a tool to apply ink to the plate or type to be printed. An ink ball usually consists of a piece of leather stuffed with wool and a wooden handle.

A typometer (also line gauge, compositor’s rule or type scale) is a ruler to measure typographic units. It can also have additional scales for other units such as millimeters.

A galley rack holds standing jobs on galleys.

Usually wooden cabinets with boards open on at least one side to slide matter on an off.

Type-high means: of a height equal to the distance from the foot to the face of a type.

Quadrat-high (or lead-high) means: of a height of letterpress furniture.

A usually wooden letterpress tool (used in combination with a mallet or quoin key) for leveling a form of type.

A tool to cut slugs and reglets.

An instrument for measuring type height.

An instrument used for controlling measurements of electrotypes, stereos, cylinder backings, rubber blocks etc.

An imposing stone (also known as composing stone) is a slab of usually stone or metal, on which the pages or columns of type are imposed/made into forms.

Putting metal type back into the typecase after printing.

The flat surface of a printing press on which the type form is placed.

A flat plate in a printing press used for pressing the paper against the inked form. Presses with a hinged platen are named after this piece as “platen presses”.

A line of type casted with a Linotype machine.