Week 2 - Anatomy Typography

A VISUAL GUIDE TO THE
ANATOMY OF
TYPOGRAPHY
• The anatomy of type describes the visual
elements that make up the letterforms
within a typeface. Each letterform is made
up of individual components (e.g., spine,
stem, stroke).
• The words you see on a page are so much
more than just letters. Like people, they
have personalities, mood, style and even
anatomical features!
WHAT ARE UPPERCASE
AND LOWERCASE
LETTERS?
UPPERCASE
• Uppercase letters are capital letters.
• Use uppercase letters for names
and places
Lowercase
• Lowercase letters are smaller
ones.
• lowercase letters for casual
settings and more readability
What Is the Baseline?
The invisible line letters rest on
CAPLINE: MEANLINE: BASELINE: X-HEIGHT:
A line marking the Imaginary line running The invisible line It indicates how
height of along the top of non- where all tall or short each
uppercase letters ascending, lowercase characters sit glyph in a typeface
within a font letters will be.
Ascender Line:
The invisible line
marking the height of
ascenders in a font.
Descender Line:
The invisible line
marking the lowest
point of the
descenders within a
font.
PRACTLIICNEE 1
1
2
5
DIFFERENT BETWEEN SERIF & SANS
SERIF
DESCENDER Ascender is a vertical
stroke that extends
AND ASCENDER upwards over the
x-height.
• Letters with downward

strokes that extend past the
baseline have Descender
strokes.
• Alternatively, if the stroke
moves upward and away
from the main body of the
letter, we call that the
Ascender stroke.
Descender is a
vertical stroke that
extends downwards
below the x-height.
Ear
An ear is an embellishment that is most frequently used on the upper right side of a lowercase ‘g’.
Shoulder
The stroke that curves downwards and to the right of the lowercase h, m and n.
Leg
• A portion of a letter that
extends downwards,
attached at one end and
free at the other. Legs are
the angled strokes found
on letters ‘K’ and ‘R’.
Arm
• A straight or curved
portion of a letter that
extends upwards or
outwards, attached at one
end and free at the other
Spine
The spine is the main curved stroke inside the upper and lower case S.
Tail
The tail is the downward, decorative embellishment on the letter ‘Q’.
Bar
A bar is a horizontal stroke in letters like A, H, e and f.
Terminal
A terminal exists at the end of any letter stroke that doesn’t have a serif.
Counter
• The counter is the
enclosed space in letters
like o, b, d, and a.
Counters are also created
by bowls
• A bowl is a stroke that creates an enclosed curved space,
Bowl as in the letters d, b, o, D and B. The fully closed,
rounded part of a letter.
Loop
• A small stroke extending from the
upper-right side of the bowl of
lowercase g
Link
• A link is a stroke connecting the bowl
and loop of a two-story lowercase g
• The stem is the main vertical stroke in upright characters.
Stem When a letter has no verticals like a capital A or V, the
first diagonal stroke is considered the stem.
Swash
• A swash is a fancy or decorative
replacement to a terminal or serif in
any capital letter used at the beginning
of a sentence. Swashes are also used
at the end of letters to decorate the
composition. Calligraphy is full of
swashes of all kinds; at the beginning,
at the end and even in the middle,
extending from ascenders.
Spur
A spur is a small projection that veers off the main stroke on many capital G’s
Apex
• A point at the top of a character where
two strokes meet
Aperture
An aperture is a rounded and mostly enclosed negative
space found in letters like ‘c’, ‘n’, and ‘S
Title • A tittle is the tiny dot that sits atop the letters ‘i’
and ‘j’.
Typography • Points
Measurement • Picas
Systems
• Points are very small units to measure both type
size and the size of the space between lines of
type. Typography’s point measurement system
was derived from handsetting type back in the
fifteenth century.
• Picas are larger units used to measure lines of
type.
• The measurements for Points and Picas are as
follows:
• 12 Points = 1 Pica
• 6 Picas = 1 inch
• 12 Points = 1 Pica
• 6 Pica = 1 Inch
• 72 Points = 1 Inch

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A VISUAL GUIDE TO THE

• Letters with downward

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