Early in my career as a designer I found myself using incorrect terminology when explaining about a typeface to my clients. I would say things like “that vertical stroke on the A”, or “the inside negative space of the O.” I thought to myself, maybe my clients know what that is called and I’m looking
pretty inexperienced here. It was not until I studied typography and started designing typeface professionally I realized that being a designer I should probably use the correct terminology when explaining my work. So I have put together a quick reference of the correct terminology used with letterforms and typeface. I hope this helps clients and designers alike.
serif and sans serif type
slab serif and cupped serif
hairline and bracketed serif
apex and vertex
ascender and descender
counter and lobe or bowl
stem and arms
crossbar and tail
tail or swash
ball terminal or kern
Oh and Please use the word typography when explaining about type, not “typo” because in my book typo means a typographical error. 😉
This is a very good and brief read. Very enlightening to new designers. Thanks for sharing this info, Mike. Kudos!
Blue Cuevas, thanks for your comment. I hope to provide more enlightening posts.
Nice typo post Mike. I mean Typography. 😉
thanks for this post … very useful one
Hi Anthony, Thanks for checking it out.
Shylesh, thanks I hope it helps someone somewhere.
thas is interesting. From now on writing is a little bit hard. carefull while writing. I wonder the other words
Thanks Ozel.
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
CNA Training , Thanks! yeah getting back to basics.
ME
Ahh! Finally, an enlightening post on whatchamacalit! (Just kidding!!!) Seriously though, I’ve admired your work – on Logopond – the way your ideas manifest and the way they communicate the ideas…. You are talented, sir! Thanks again for the post!
Thanks a lot Gerard and School grants.
great post as usual!
Thanks Tom, I hope I can think of some more to post. 🙂
Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!
Nice post Mike, very useful. 🙂
Thank you so much for this post Mike. Lately, I’ve been looking for articles which explain the technicalities of designing. I usually visit this site for inspiration but was pleasantly surprised by the updates that you’ve made. Looking forward to more posts like this one.
Hey! I simply wanted to say your website is one of the nicely laid out, most inspirational I have come across in quite a while. Thx! 🙂
Very informative post, Mike 🙂
Thanks guys, I hope to have more soon.
Great informative post Mike! Thanks for sharing 🙂
OMG I am so happy I ran across this sight. It enlightens me on so much about letter form/typography which helps me out a ton for my college course! Thanks for taking out the time to share!