Fonts

The image to the left is courtesy of "dubgee" via deviant art. The image provides a visual reference for the following definitions:

• Cap height - The height of a capital letter above the baseline.

• Ascender line - An invisible line that marks the height of all ascenders.

• Ascender - The portion of a letter that extends above the mean line.

• Finial - The tapered or curved end of a letter that has no serif.

• Spur - The small protruding part of a main stroke. Usually found where a curve meets a straight stem.

• Link - The small and usually curved stroke that connects an upper bowl and a lower loop such as in the double storey 'g'.

• Loop - The enclosed or partially enclosed counter below the baseline the is connected to the bowl by a link such as in the double storey 'g', but can also be found on cursive 'p', 'b', and 'l'. Also called a lobe.  

• Pip - 

• Stress - The thickening of curved strokes and the position or angle of the line thickening in relation to the vertical axis in a curved letter. Derived from writing with a broad-tipped writing instrument.

• Bowl - The curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts of some letters such as 'd', 'b', 'o', 'D', and 'B'.

• Shoulder - The curved part projecting downward from a stem in the lowercase 'h', 'm', and 'n'.

• Crossbar - The horizontal or near horizontal stroke across the middle of a character such as an upper case 'A' and 'H'.

• Serif - The short line or finishing stroke that crosses or projects from stems or strokes in a character. 

• Counter - The enclosed or partially enclosed circular or curved negative space (white space) of some letters such as 'd, 'o', and 's'. 

• x-height - The height of lowercase letters, disregarding ascenders or descenders- typically exemplified by the letter 'x'.

• Mean line -

• Baseline - The imaginary line that letters appear to rest on.

• Terminal - The end of any stroke that doesn't include a serif.

• San serif - A font that does not have serifs.

• Descender - The part of a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline, such as 'g', 'j', 'p', 'q', and 'y'.

• Stem - The vertical or nearly vertical stroke in a character.

• Tail - The descender of a 'Q' or the short diagonal stroke of an 'R'.