Italic type is a cursive font based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. Usually (but necessarily) italics appear slanted.

Text is aligned along the left and right margins, and letter- and word-spacing (sometimes also character width) are adjusted so that the text falls flush with both margins.

The process of adjusting the spacing between specific glyphs in a font.

A set of characters, which is used as the standard method of writing in most Western and Central European languages, as well as many languages from other parts of the world.

Smaller (leads) or thicker (slugs) strips used as spacing material in letterpress printing, especially to to increase the line height.

Leading is the space between lines of letterpress type. It is called leading because the material to fill this space was originally made from lead. The term is often used for digital typesetting as well, but stands for the distance between consecutive baselines in this context. See “line spacing” for more information.

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

A letter is a written character in an alphabetic system of writing.

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

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”).

Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing using a printing press, a process by which many copies are produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper.

A letterpress cabinet holds type cases with lettepress letters.

A ligature is an visual and/or technical connection of two ore more letters or glyphs.

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

Line spacing, interline spacing, line height or leading is the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type. The term leading has its roots in letterpress printing where it referred to the lead strips added between the lines.

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

A tool to cut slugs and reglets.

Logographic printing was a form of moveable type printing where the font contained words or parts of words rather than single letters. The logographic type was used in the same way as the common letterpress ligatures. The difference was the purpose of using letter combinations specifically to speed up the typesetting process. But with hundreds of compartments in a typecase, logographic typesetting was also very challenging. The system never came into broad use.

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

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.

Typesetting where both uppercase and lowercase letters are used.

Letterforms drawn or written without contrast.

Monospaced describes a font whose letters and characters each occupy the same amount of horizontal space.

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

A sharpening tool for scissors, scythes, knives, razors, chisels and so on.

Figures with ascenders and descenders like lowercase letters.

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.

String used for tying up a columns or pages of letterpress type after making up. This is done to to secure the columns or pages temporarily until they are imposed or to store them (see standing matter).

A usually small and cheap book with a paper cover and glued pages. A paperback book will be a softcover book at the same time, but not every softcover book can be considered a paperback.

A line above and/or below a paragraph.

The pastedown endpaper is the portion of the endpaper that is glued to the inner boards of a hardback book.

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).

Phototypesetting was a method of setting type, that was used in the second half of the 20th century. Light is projected through a negative of the glyph and exposes photosensitive film or paper.

Plakadur was a brand name for a resin-based material used for display letters of the Berthold AG in the 20th century as an alternative to wood type.

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

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”.

The point is the default unit of measure in typography, used for example to define the size of type. In digital typography the point is defined as 1⁄72 or 0.0138 of the international inch.

The overall height of a font.

A printer's mark (or device, emblem, insignia) was a symbol used as a trademark by printers starting in the 15th century.

A piece of thick, flat material, with a design on its surface, used to print repeated impressions of that design in relief printing. Also called cliché or electro (when created with the technique of electrotyping).

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

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

The practice, action, or system of inserting points or other small marks into texts, in order to aid interpretation; division of text into sentences, clauses, etc.

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

The tool to tighten and loosen letterpress quoins.

The r rotunda (ꝛ) is a historical variant of the lowercase letter r.

Rivers, or rivers of white are gaps which appear to run through a paragraph of text, due to a coincidental alignment of spaces.

A tool used for letterpress printing to set the rollers to the correct height.

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

Sans serif (from French “sans” meaning “without”) is a category of typefaces that do not have serifs.

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

A small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter.

Serif is a font classification category, which includes fonts having serifs (i.e. small strokes regularly attached to the end of a larger strokes).

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

Slab serif typefaces are characterized by their thick, block-like serifs.

A sign used as a punctuation mark and for various other purposes.

A line of type casted with a Linotype machine.

Small capitals (or just small caps) can be used in bicameral scripts. They use the design of capital letters, but are smaller (roughly the size of the lowercase letters) and usually replace the lowercase letters.

Any book with a cover made from flexible materials such as paper, cloth, leather, or vellum.

In typesetting by hand compositing, a sort is a piece of type representing a particular letter or symbol.

Adjusting the distance between letters to achieve visually equal spacing.

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”.

The Spine of a book refers to the outside edge of the book where the pages are gathered and bound.

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

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

The main vertical strokes of letters.

A solid flat or semi-circular plate of type metal, usually of an entire artwork or page of handset type, created from a stereo mould (see flong).

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.

In typography, style refers to the individual members of a type family, e.g. regular, italic, bold.

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.

Figures with an identical width.

A descending often decorative stroke.

The endband at the bottom of a book.

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