Design Vocabulary – Typography Terms – Week 1

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

Author of this post: Arron Lock

Self proclaimed "Rock Star Designer" and "Photoshop Ninja", you can also follow me on twitter See all posts by: Arron Lock

13 Comments (Leave a Comment)

Heysenberg

October 26, 2009

Congratulations for the great blog dude… Btw, have you tried this for logo creation?
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Affordable WebDesign

November 1, 2008

Thanks for this!
Reply
Arron Lock

October 23, 2008

@Sean

Then why put the effort into writing a comment?

Arron Lock´s latest blog post..Logo Critique – Shipley Law Firm
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Aaron Irizarry

October 20, 2008

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
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Ahmed

October 16, 2008

Cool Arron! I’ve subscribed to the blog :)

Ahmed´s lastest blog post..La meilleure annonce de tous les temps !
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Arron Lock

October 16, 2008

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
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Mitternacht

October 16, 2008

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
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Jim Cook

October 16, 2008

Love <3
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Ahmed

October 16, 2008

Good idea! It would be nice to learn more :)

Ahmed´s lastest blog post..La meilleure annonce de tous les temps !
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Dainis Graveris

October 15, 2008

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
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Angie Bowen

October 15, 2008

Nice article and a great idea. I didn’t know the term pica.

Angie Bowen´s lastest blog post..Wednesday Weekly Spotlight #12
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