Anatomy of a Character

Although every character and symbol in a typeface repertoire is unique, typefaces share characteristics that we can use to describe and understand how type works.

Glyph

The visual representation of a single character or symbol within a font, distinguishable from all other characters in that set.

The anatomy lesson presented in this chapter will help give you the language you need to talk about and describe different fonts as well as understand their uses and strengths. Using fonts is more than simply choosing the one that looks the best to you; it’s about finding fonts that are easy to read and scan in a given situation, while also providing a visual message in line with the text.

The cap height, x-height, and baseline ...

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