Ever have trouble communicating with others regarding typography? Use these key terms to pave the way to better understanding.

• ascender – The part of a lower-case letter that extends above the x-height.
• baseline – The invisible line on which the letters rest.
• boldface – A heavier version of the normal weight of a typeface.
• centered – A typographic arrangement in which type appears in the center of a defined space.
• characters – Individual letters or numbers.
• condensed – A narrower version of the normal width of a typeface.
• descender – The part of a lower-case letter that extends below the x-height.
• drop cap – An enlarged initial letter that extends below the first base line of body text. A drop cap should be base aligned with one of the text’s base lines.
• font – One design of a particular typeface. It includes all of the designed characters such as numerals and punctuation.
• initial cap – A larger letter at the beginning of a block of text. An initial cap may be a drop cap, or it may sit on the first line of text.
• italic – Type in which the letters are slanted to the right and drawn to suggest handwriting.
• justified type – Lines of type that are flush on both the left and right edges.
• kern – To tighten the space between letterforms to achieve optically-consistent letter spacing.
• letter spacing – Insertion of space between the letters of a word to improve the appearance of a line of type.
• line spacing/leading – In text, the space between the baseline of one line and the baseline of the next.
• loose lines – Lines of text with too much space between letters and words.
• point size – The size of type measured from the top of the ascenders to the bottom of the descenders.
• ragged – Multiple lines of type set with either the left or right edge uneven.
• roman – Name often applied to the Latin alphabet as it is used in English and most other European languages.  Also used to identify vertical type as distinct from italic.
• sans serif: Type without serifs. (The display text in this manual is sans serif.)
• serifs – Small strokes at the ends of the main strokes of letters. (The body text in this manual has serifs.)
• soft return – A carriage return that breaks to a new line but doesn’t start a new paragraph. In most programs, you can type a soft return by pressing the shift-return keys.
• text type – Type, usually between 6 and 14 points, used for text compositions.
• typeface – A named type design, such as Garamond, Helvetica, or Times Roman.
• type family – All the variations of a particular typeface. Type families usually consist of the basic roman, italic, and bold. Larger type families may include condensed, expanded, outlined, as well as a variety of different weights.
• typography – The style and arrangement of the headline and subhead letters on a page.
• x-height – The height of lower-case letters without ascenders and descenders. It is defined by the base line and the mean line.