An alphabet is a writing system based on a set of letters, each representing a different sound. When combined, these elements provide a visual representation of language, forming syllables, words, and sentences. Multiple languages can use one alphabet, with more or less specific variations to better suit each language.

Example: French, English and Italian use the Latin alphabet, also called Latin script.

Glyphs can have different variations created for many reasons.
The most common ones are:

• for a specific context (e.g., case sensitive, where punctuation signs are better aligned when combined with capital letters);
• stylistic variant of a glyph (e.g., swashed alternates);
• localized variants.

In a digital file, the names of these variations are tagged with an Opentype feature code related to their specificity (parenleft.case, A.swsh, Ldot.locl, etc.) so they can be easily processed in applications supporting these features.

FUNCTION

The ampersand is a glyph used in titles, company, or brand names with combined words to replace “and.”

HISTORY

During the Middle Ages in Europe, books were mainly produced to distribute religious texts. For that reason, most texts were written in Latin, even after Gutenberg’s invention of metal-type printing in 1450. The letters e and t (for et meaning “and” in Latin) were used so often that punch-cutters combined the letters to create a single character et, first as a ligature and later as a character on its own.

DESIGN

The ampersand has many design possibilities, from an original combination of the letters e and t to more flourished variations. Its top is often aligned with the uppercase and/or figures to give it enough space to be legible.

TYPOGRAPHIC RULES

The ampersand is mostly used as a decorative addition in titles or brands to represent the word “and” (or equivalent in other languages). It is better to use the word “and” in body-size texts.

The aperture is the frontier between the counter and the surrounding white space of opened letters (such as a, e or c).

A larger aperture increases the legibility of a typeface and is highly recommended for text typefaces.

The apex is the point on the top of a letter where two stems meet, such as the top of the letter A or the middle of w.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or from human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In Latin script, the arch is the top-right part of letters such as n, m, h and a.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In Latin script, the arm is the horizontal bar at the top of the letter T.

The parts of lowercase letters that go above the x-height level (such as b, d or h) are called ascenders.

On the opposite side of the x-height, the parts going below the baseline are descenders.

Both don’t necessarily need to have the same length. In general, descenders are shorter than ascenders.

Attention: do not confuse it with the capital height (or cap height).

The baseline is where the bottom extremity of letters such as n and H are positioned, and it is used as a reference guide for the entire character set. We also say that letters are “sitting” on the baseline.

The baseline—with other guidelines like x-height, ascender, descender and capital height—helps to control the position of all letters and glyphs.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In the Latin script, the bowl is the rounded parts of letters like a, B, P, R, etc.

The cap height (short for capital height) is at the top level of square capital letters, such as H.

The cap height is usually lower than the ascender height and is one of the main guidelines for Latin typefaces.

In applications and tools that can process texts, to capitalize (or to set in All-Caps) is to transform every selected lowercase letter into its capital variant.

By default, most punctuation signs and some characters are designed to be combined with lowercase letters because this is the most frequent situation.

When combined with capital letters, some of them need to be adjusted to be optically aligned with the capitals. These variants are required in a good typeface so the user can access enough tools for quality micro-typography. They are called case-sensitive alternates, usually attached with the extension “.case” and accessible or activated on applications supporting OpenType features.

The parts of lowercase letters going below the baseline (such as p, q or y) are called descenders. In the same typeface, all descenders need to have the same height for overall consistency.

On the opposite side, parts going above the x-height are ascenders, like in letters b, d or f.

Both ascenders and descenders don’t necessarily need to have the same length. In general, descenders are shorter than ascender

Diacritics are marks added to letters. They can be above, below, or attached to a letter. In most languages and scripts using diacritics, these bring to the letter a different sound than that of the letter by itself.

LATIN ALPHABET

The Latin script is used in a large number of languages. Most of them use diacritics to bring (sometimes very subtle) variations of sound to letters. The quality of the sound of a diacritic can be different from one language to another. An example with the cedilla ç, used in French, Portuguese, and Turkish. Other languages even use multiple diacritics combined together with the same letter (like in Vietnamese with ở).

ARABIC SCRIPT

In the Arabic script, letters have different pronunciations depending on which diacritic is attached to them (or not there), and the language in use.

CHINESE PINYIN

In Mainland China during the 1950s, a new phonetic transcription system was created to make Chinese learning easier: Pinyin, which borrows Latin alphabet letters combined with diacritics as tone markers.

DESIGN

When creating a typeface, diacritics are designed as individual glyphs and are then combined with letters as components in type design applications. They need to be:

• visually aligned to the same height with one another (for those placed in the same area);
• have consistent weight and color;
• placed in a position with the letter that feels “natural” for each language.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

For Latin script, the drop refers to the top hanging part of r or a that looks like a drop falling downward, generally present in serif style fonts.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In the Latin script, the ear refers to the top-right hanging part of the letters like r, f or the double storey g.

Expansion is one of the multiple contrast types of Latin type design (along with translation and rotation).

The specificities of the expansion contrast come from the pressure applied while writing a stroke with a fountain pen or quill (the two flexible tips split with added pressure), while keeping a vertical axis of the pen tip.

Bodoni and Didone (or Didot) styles are typical examples of expansion contrast typefaces.

To designate and describe parts of letters and other characters, many terms are borrowed from architecture or from human and animal anatomy. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In Latin type design, the eye refers to the ratio between the x-height and the other guidelines (ascenders and descenders).

A typeface is suited for text usage if it has a ratio slightly bigger between its eye to its ascenders and descenders, as this enhances the legibility of the letters.

A typeface with a geometric style has shapes designed in a way that follows the logic of geometry (straight, round, square, etc.).

But our human eyes are organic (as opposed to artificial), we need to use optical tweaks and adjustments in addition to the shapes drawn out of geometric tools to make the letterforms look geometric.

DESCRIPTION

Two construction styles are possible for the same weight in a Latin script typeface: Roman (or upright) and Italic. Italics have slanted letterforms, with more or less obvious influence from handwritten letter structure (connected letters) and shapes (softer starts and endings). In general, italic letters also have a slightly narrower width than their Roman companion.

For italic styles to be visually linked to the roman version, they have to be related to each other (similar weight, height, etc.). However, they also need to be different enough so the reader can easily identify one from the other. Managing a good balance between differentiation and similarity is part of the typeface designer’s expertise to design a “nice couple”.

HISTORY

The use of roman and italic styles as we do today started with the early printers of the 15th century, who used both styles for various applications to convey different impressions (emphasis, comments, etc.). During the Renaissance in Europe, when the Humanist movement came into popularity, revivals of handwritten calligraphic styles such as Carolingian Minuscule (all lowercase letters) and Roman capital letters carved on monuments (Capitalis Monumentalis) became most prominent due to their close relationship with ‘natural’ movements from the human hand.
While both roman (upright, interrupted) and italic (slanted, connected) styles were being used, the differentiation between them increased and ended up becoming two independent styles used for different purposes, which we are familiar with today. They also got their different names since that era, with ’Roman’ for the Roman alphabet which the handwriting takes inspiration from first, and ‘Italic’ came from the English writers who named the style of connected letters after the area where they knew it came from.

USE IN TYPOGRAPHY

Italic styles are mainly used in texts as a functional companion to the Roman in a typeface family. They are used when a part of a sentence or word needs to be emphasized from the rest, as with work titles, words in a different language, or words that need to be highlighted.

Not every writing system uses or even has Italic styles like in the Latin script. Instead, other scripts use different ways to achieve the same purpose of emphasis (use a different weight or specific punctuation).

Historians and linguists consider that the origins of the Latin alphabet date back to the Phoenician civilization around the 13th century BC in Greece and the Mediterranean Sea. They created a consonantal alphabet called abjad, which was borrowed by other languages in the region for the innovative nature of its phonetic system, and due to the large influence of the Phoenician people as principal traders and navigators. This alphabet later led to multiple derivatives, including Greek and Latin alphabets.

The Latin alphabet evolved from the Greek, with a Proto-Latin appearing around the 2nd century BC. It started by taking some of the Greek letters and modifying them, adding or removing others to fit better with the Latin language, spoken by Roman civilization (which is why it is also called the Roman alphabet).

The modern Latin alphabet contains 26 distinct letters from its most basic set, with uppercase and lowercase forms for each. Many languages using the Latin alphabet have additional letters, ligatures or digraphs (e.g., æ, œ) to better adapt to the sounds of each.

With Eurocentrism ideology (main focus on European culture), the type design industry has also been largely focused on scripts used by the Western world: Latin in particular, with hundreds of years of practice, experience, theories, teaching and conventions, exhibitions and festivals mainly about this script. But, thanks to the increasing international exchanges and efforts to create a perspective beyond those boundaries, the type design industry is currently evolving into a much richer and diverse typographic culture.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In Latin script, the leg is the lower diagonal stroke of letters like R, k or K.

A letter is a sign from an alphabet, transcribing a language’s sounds when they are combined.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In Latin script, the loop is the lower part of a double storey g, looking like a loop, open or closed.

The lowercase (or minuscule) is the smaller form of alphabet letters, as opposed to the uppercase (or capitals).

HISTORY

The word ending with -case is a legacy from metal type printing, when types (metal pieces) were sorted by glyphs into wooden drawers containing cases, one for types of each glyph. Capitals were in the cases of the upper section of the drawer, and lowercase letters were on the bottom.

Even though they appeared later than their uppercase ‘parents’, lowercase letters changed through much more iterations. Some of these evolutions were influenced by history (inventions of tools), cultures (preference of a certain style) and geography (influence between nearby cultures).

A majuscule is a capital letter placed at the beginning of a sentence or the first letter of a name.

Note that all capital letters are not necessarily majuscules, such as CAPITALIZED words, which are made of capital letters.

DESCRIPTION

Serifs are elements at the tips of strokes in serif style typefaces.

HISTORY

The origin and evolution of serifs differ in different scripts and don’t even exist in others.
For the Latin script, serifs come from the combination of the movements of the brush when writing Roman capital letters (the origins of the Latin alphabet) and stone carving techniques.

EVOLUTION

Calligraphy, metal and wood type printing, photo composition, typewriters, digital typefaces, all of these tools and techniques contributed various shapes and presence (or absence) or serifs among the various typeface styles that we see today.

The positioning of serifs in each letter has been defined by the writing ductus combined with the tools use. For example, the general rule is that serifs should be on both sides at the top and bottom of vertical stems for upright letters, and none on the bottom of italic stems.

There are multiple possibilities for the shapes of serifs: thin, thick, long, short, wedged, squared, triangular, etc. Many typeface styles have a particular serif shape as part of their characteristics.

IMPRESSION

In Latin script, different impressions and feelings are associated with specific typeface styles (traditional, luxurious, casual, elegant, etc.), which are mainly due to the circumstances of their creation, usage preferences, and habits.
For example, humanist or transitional serifs are the go-to styles for long reading uses.

DESIGN

For styles where serifs are on both sides of the stems, some asymmetrical letters (such as f, r, F or P) have a large opened counter on one side. To compensate for the imbalance created by the “empty space”, the designer can adjust the serif on that side by making it longer.

Latin letters a and g can be represented with two different constructions:

• single storey, for modern and/or geometric styles;
• double storey, for traditional and/or classical styles.

In some typefaces, both constructions are available, as designers feel that some users prefer one over the other.

The letter g can also be designed with a half storey construction, often seen in Scandinavian designs as a legacy from Danish street signs.

FUNCTION

Small Capitals, or commonly just Small Caps, are letters with a capital letter structure but smaller in size (hence the name).

USAGE

They are used in texts when there are many capital letters together (initials, abbreviations, acronyms, Roman figures or all caps words in texts). In traditional typesetting where a new chapter starts with an initial or drop cap, the other letters of the first word or the entire first line can also be set in small caps to ease out the change towards the following text in lowercase.

HISTORY

The use of small caps started to be popular during metal type printing, as they added an additional option to the typographic palette, while keeping the same typeface.

Today, small caps are not present in every digital Latin typeface (they have their own Unicode values and are not in every Latin character set), as using small caps was more common in the ‘Latin’ world and used in traditional typography.

Some text processing or design applications can automatically generate small caps by scaling down capitals letters (just like they can do the same for italic or bold styles), but this is not advised for high quality typography, as the weight relation is much lighter.

DESIGN

Small caps have no precise height proportions compared to the capitals or lowercase, but a good ratio sits between these two heights.

Their weight and contrast should match those of the lowercase, and their height/width proportions are usually slightly wider than simply scaled-down capitals.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters.. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In the Latin script, the spine is the middle curve segment of characters like s or S.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In the Latin script, the tail is a terminal part at the bottom of letters like t, y or Q.

Uppercase (or capital letters) are the taller and larger variants of alphabetical letters, as opposed to lowercase letters (or minuscule).

Linguistically speaking, a capital is not to be confused with a majuscule, which is a capital letter with the specific function of being used at the beginning of a sentence or a word.

HISTORY

Capital letterforms derive from Phoenician and Greek alphabets when the Roman Empire started its influence over Europe around the 1st century.

During the Roman Empire, they were painted and/or carved in stone at large sizes for inscriptions on monuments, buildings, and tombstones (called Capitalis Monumentalis).

Through time, with the need to write faster, some shapes evolved, resulting in minuscule (lowercase) letters. But that didn’t make capital letters disappear. On the contrary, they kept coexisting with minuscules. Each has its own specific functions and looks very different, so using both allows a more comfortable reading experience.

The word ending with -case is a legacy from metal type printing when letters (or types) were sorted by categories into cases (one per glyph), themselves into drawers (one per font). Capitals were placed in the cases of the upper section of the drawers, minuscules were on the lower part.

Not to be confused with a majuscule letter.

Many terms are borrowed from architecture or human and animal anatomy to designate and describe parts of letters and other characters. We are even speaking of type design anatomy.

In the Latin script, the waist is the middle part of letters like B or R, where the stroke’s connection shapes a narrower part.

A typeface can have various degrees of stroke thickness which has to be consistent across the glyphs of the same font style. It is the font’s weight.

The few centuries of typeface development, mainly in the Latin world, brought us a standardized naming for weight values. They serve more as a way to identify each style within a typeface family rather than being a standard to follow, as styles descriptions are different from one culture to another.

In web design, each weight has a specific CSS code.

The x-height is the guideline placed at the top of the Latin letter x.

It helps to align the other lowercase letters and to set the proportions with uppercase letters and the ascenders.

Because the letter x is the only lowercase letter without ascenders and horizontal tips at its top and bottom (it has no overshoots), it is the reference letter for lowercase height.