Hey everyone, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the terms designers kick around. This is the first of what I plan to be weekly posts to teach you all some “design speak” in small bite size pieces. Enjoy!
To kick things off on this inaugural list: Typography Terms!
Kern:
to squeeze together characters, for a better fit of strokes and white space. In display type, characters almost need to be kerned because the white space between characters at large sizes is more noticeable.
Pica (PIE-ka):
A measurement used in typography for column widths and other space specifications in a page layout. There are 12 points in a pica, and approximately 6 picas to an inch.
Point:
A measurement used in typography for type size, leading, and other space specifications in a page layout. There are 12 points in a pica, and approximately 70 points to an inch.
Leading (LED-ing):
The space between lines of type, traditionally measured
baseline-to-baseline, in points. Text type is generally set with one or two points of leading; for example, 10-point type with 2 points of leading. This is described as 10/12, read “Ten on Twelve” or “Ten over Twelve”.
x-height:
The height of the lowercase “x.” More generally, the height of the lowercase letters.
If you dug this, please hit me with some comment love, I will make more :D
10 Comments
Nice article and a great idea. I didn’t know the term pica.
Angie Bowen´s lastest blog post..Wednesday Weekly Spotlight #12
Yeah, agreed nice, simple tips! I knew pica..but didn’t know LED :))
Dainis Graveris´s lastest blog post..Easy Brush Text Nature Effect: Tutorial
Good idea! It would be nice to learn more :)
Ahmed´s lastest blog post..La meilleure annonce de tous les temps !
Love <3
A very convenient list, thank you, especially for the inch/pica/point ratios. I’ll stay tuned for the next definitions.
Mitternacht´s lastest blog post..Create words from pictures
Thank everyone for the comments! It make s it worthwhile for me to write these when everyone is so happy with them.
@Ahmed-
More is on the way… check back every Monday for more vocab lists!
Arron Lock´s lastest blog post..7 Deadly Fonts
Cool Arron! I’ve subscribed to the blog :)
Ahmed´s lastest blog post..La meilleure annonce de tous les temps !
Thank you for your efforts on this… it looks to be a great resource! I will definitely use it at work.
Aaron Irizarry´s lastest blog post..Halloween Nerd Style
@Sean
Then why put the effort into writing a comment?
Arron Lock´s latest blog post..Logo Critique - Shipley Law Firm
Thanks for this!