ally became common practice
to use the term lowercase to
describe these characters.

LPI (Lines Per Inch) A measure
of the frequency of a halftone
screen.

Majuscules See uppercase.

Matrix The metal mold from
which type is cast.

Mean Line The imaginary hori¬
zontal line marldng the top of
the lowercase letters, excluding
ascenders. See also x-height.

Measure The standard length of
a line of text. The column width,
as it is also called, is usually
indicated in picas.

Metrics Font information such as
kerning, character widths and
leading. See also AEM.

Miniscules See lowercase.

Modern Figures See lining figures.

Modern Serif See Didone.

Modified Sans Serif Typefaces in
this class are sans serif, but fea¬
ture tiny or partial serifs for the
sake of legibility. Rotis SemiSans
is an example of this class.

Monospaced Type A typeface in
which all the characters are of
the same set-width. Based on
the principal of traditional
typewriter text, monospaced
type allows for easy alignment
of text and figures.

Multiple Master A variation
by Adobe Systems on its own
PostScript Type l font format.
With multiple master typefaces,
users have the ability to gener¬
ate their own variations, or
instances, changing weight,
width, optical size, or other
style characteristics by modify¬
ing one or more design axes.

Neo-grotesque A class of sans
serif. Examples include the

classic Swiss designs, Univers
and Helvetica.

NFNT (New FoNT) The font
resource in the Macintosh
operating system that contains
a bitmap screen font. This New
Font Numbering system greatly
increased the number of
distinct font IDs available,
assisting in the reduction of
duplicate identifiers.

Oblique A slanted version of
a typeface. Oblique types are
similar to italic designs in feel,
but do not have the more
elegant, script-like quality
of the true italics.

Old Style Originating from the
Renaissance and 15th century
Venetian printers, Old Style
types were based on pen-drawn
forms. Garalde and Venetian are
the two groups that make up
the Old Style class. Garamond,
Caslon and ITC Berkeley Oldstyle
axe examples of Old Style
designs.

Old Style Figures Numerals
designed to match the
lowercase letters in size and
typographic color. Most old
style figures consist of both
ascending and descending
forms. Also called text figures.

OpenType Developed jointly by
Adobe and Microsoft,
OpenType is a universal com¬
puter font format designed to
essentially combine TrueType
and PostScript into a single for¬
mat for use on both Macintosh
and Windows platforms.
OpenType allows for an almost
limitless number of glyphs and
conditional letter combinations
with easier access to full expert
set characters, facilitating multi¬

lingual and advanced typography.

Ornaments See dingbats, fleuron.

Outline Font A computer file
containing the outline or vector
information of a typeface, its set
of character shapes are mathe¬
matically described by lines and
curves. These scalable fonts are
typically made up of Bézier
curves (PostScript) and quadratic
splines (TrueType). Also referred
to as a printer font.

Pi Font A font consisting of
mathematical or other symbols,
intended for use in conjunction
with a text font.

Pica Part of the Anglo American
System, the pica is a unit of
measure equaling 12 points.
The British/American counter¬
part to the European cicero,
the pica is slightly smaller than
the cicero. See also the Anglo
American System and the
European System.

Pixel (Picture ELement) Square
dots representing the smallest
units displayed onscreen. Pixels
can be assigned their own color
and intensity. Higher numbers
of pixels per inch results in
finer screen resolution.

Point A standard unit of measure
in British/American typography,
the point is slightly smaller
than the European Didot point.
See also the Anglo American
System and the European System.

Point Size A font's size is specified
in units called points, and is
typically the height of the type's
body. This standard type mea¬
surement system was developed
by Pierre Fournier le jeune in 1737.
See also the Anglo American
System and the European System.

PostScript A page description

language developed by Adobe
Systems. PostScript describes a
page using complex mathemati¬
cal formulas. Characters and
images are defined as outline
shapes, and rendered by an
output device in a series of
tiny dots.

Printer Font See outline font.

Proportionally Spaced Type Type
designs with character widths
varying depending on the
features of the individual
letterforms.

Punchcutting The art of cutting
letters into hard steel, which are
then punched into softer brass
matrices, from which lead type
is cast.

Punctuation Standardized non-
alphanumeric characters used
to clarify meaning through
organizing writing into clauses,
phrases and sentences.

Quadrata A class of blackletter
types.

Ragged Left Text that is set
flush, or justified, on the right
margin. Also known as right
justified.

Ragged Right Text that is set
flush, or justified, on the left
margin. Also known as left
justified.

Raised Cap See elevated cap.

Rasterization The conversion of
a digitized image into a format
that can be rendered onscreen
or printed from an output
device.

Reference Mark A symbol used
in text to point to a footnote
or other relevant piece of
information.

Relative Unit A fractional unit of
an em space, proportional to
the type size.

Rendering The placement of
rasterized pixels onscreen. Also
referred to as screen rasterization.

Resolution (1) The measurement
of image sharpness and clarity
onscreen, typically measured in
pixels per inch. (2) The sharp¬
ness and clarity of text and
graphics imaged on an output
device; normally measured in
dots per inch.

Reverse Setting white or light-
colored against a black or dark
background.

Right Justified See flush right.

RIP (Raster Image Processor) A
device that uses a mathematical
description of an image to be
printed, converting it to a raster
image for printing to an output
device.

Roman An upright, regular
weight, Old Style or Modem. The
classical Roman letter style was
conceived around 114 A.D., and
typified by the letterforms
chiseled into the Trajan Column
in Rome.

Rotunda A class of blackletter
types. Also known as rotonda.

Round Hand Types with broad,
rounded letters, modeled after
the handwriting style of the
same name.

Run-in Quotation A quotation,
typically enclosed in quotation
marks, run in with the main
body of text.

Sans Serif From the Latin,
meaning literally, without
serifs. Faces designed without
serifs are also referred to as the
Lineale style. Categories of sans
serif types include Grotesk/
Gothic, Geometric, Neo-grotesque,
and Humanist. Also known as
unserifed.

Scalable Font Describes the fonts
generated by a computer's
mathematical algorithm, which
allows the size to vary propor¬
tionally on the fly while retain¬
ing the integrity of the design.

Screen Font See bitmap font.

Script Script letters are typically
joined. The earliest script types
were modeled on formal cursive
handwriting in the 16th century.
Classes of scripts include
Casual, Calligraphic, Blackletter
and Lombardie, and Formal
styles.

Serif (1) The small finishing
strokes drawn diagonally or
horizontally across the arms,
stems and tails of letterforms.
(2) The term is used to describe
a class of typefaces drawn with
serifs. Major categories in the
serif class include Old Style/Old
Face, Transitional (Reale), Modern
(Didone), and Slab/Square/
Egyptian styles.

Set-width The actual width of a
character and its surrounding
space; or, the amount of space
needed to set a line of text in a
particular typeface. Also known
as advance width.

Side Bearing The space between
the origin of a character and its
leftmost point (the left side
bearing); or the space between
the rightmost point and width
line (right side bearing).

Slab Serif A class of serif types.
Also known as square serif or
Egyptian.

Slanted See oblique.

Slope The angle of inclination of
the ascenders, descenders and
stems of letterforms.

Small Cap Figures A set of
numerals designed for use