This poster is the same 16″ x 24″ size as the original Letterpress version and continues to help educate those interested in what makes type, type. Each poster has a comprehensive list of typographical terms with each term being represented by the anatomy of the letter that best describes it visually. So whether it be used as a resource for students wanting to learn more about type or simply for all you type lovers out there, Typography Deconstructed aims to please anyone.

Each poster is printed on 10 mil Gloss paper and is 16″ x 24″ in size.

Definition: In typography, x-height is the distance between the baseline of a line of type and tops of the main body of lower case letters (i.e. excluding ascenders or descenders). The x-height is a factor in typeface identification and readability.
Typefaces with very large x-height relative to the total height of the font have shorter ascenders and descenders and thus less white space between lines of type. Sans Serif typefaces typically have large x-heights. In typefaces with small x-heights, other letter parts such as ascenders and descenders may become more visually noticeable.

Typefaces with large x-heights may appear darker, heavier, crowded, and more difficult to read at body copy sizes.

If changing to a typeface with a smaller x-height is not an option, open up the lines of type by adding more leading (line spacing), and not using fully justified alignment.

Also Known As: xheight

In typography, the x-height or corpus size refers to the distance between the baseline and the mean line in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the letter x in the font (the source of the term), as well as the u, v, w, and z. (Curved letters such as a, c, e, m, n, o, r and s tend to exceed the x-height slightly, due to overshoot.) However, in modern typography, the x-height is simply a design characteristic of the font, and while an x is usually exactly one x-height in height, in some more decorative or script designs, this may not always be the case.

The height of a lowercase x used to represent the height of the main body of a lowercase letter.

A point (as of an angle, polygon, polyhedron, graph, or network) that terminates a line or curve or comprises the intersection of two or more lines or curves.

Definition: The capital letters of the alphabet are uppercase glyphs. Uppercase letters are normally used at the beginning of sentences and as the first letter of proper names.

The term uppercase is derived from the days of metal type where the lesser used capital letters were kept in the harder to reach upper case while the more frequently used letters were kept nearer at hand, in the lower case.

Uppercase letters are created on the standard keyboard by holding down the “shift” key while typing a letter or by pressing the “Caps” key then typing (to make all letters uppercase).

Also Known As: capitals, capital letters, caps, big letters

Capital letters or majuscules (pronounced /məˈdʒʌskjuːlz/, /ˈmædʒəskjuːlz/) are the larger of two type faces in a script. In the Roman alphabet they are A, B, C, D, etc. They are also called capitals (caps) or upper case (uppercase). The latter name comes from the antique age of setting type for printing presses, when printers kept the type for these letters in the upper drawers of a desk or in the upper type case, while keeping the type for the more frequently-used smaller letters in the lower type case. This practice could date back to Johannes Gutenberg, but nobody really knows.

Capital and minuscule letters are differentiated in the Roman, Greek, Cyrillic, Armenian, and Coptic alphabets. Many other writing systems (such as those used in the Georgian language, Glagolitic, Arabic, Hebrew, and Devanagari) make no distinction between capital and lowercase letters – a system called unicase. Indeed, even European languages, except for Ancient Greek did not make this distinction before about the year 1300. Both “majuscule” and “minuscule” letters existed, but the printing press had not been invented, yet, and a given handwritten document could use either one size/style or the other. However, before about 1700 literacy was very low in Europe and the Americas, hence even handwriting was not used or understood by more than about one percent of people. Therefore, there was not any motivation to use both upper case and lower case letters in the same document: all documents were for the use of a few scholars, anyway.

From the compositor’s practice of keeping capital letters in the upper of a pair of type cases.

A point or small sign used as a diacritical mark in writing or printing.

Definition: In typography, the terminal is a type of curve. Many sources consider a terminal to be just the end (straight or curved) of any stroke that doesn’t include a serif (which can include serif fonts, such as the little stroke at the end of “n” as shown in the illustration). Some curved bits of tails, links, ears, and loops are considered terminals using the broader definition (see the Microsoft Typography site for further explanation).

Ball terminal is a combination of a dot (tail dot) or circular stroke and the curved bit (hook) at the end of some tails and the end of some arms (a, c, f). Beak terminal refers to the sharp spur or beak at the end of a letterform’s arm and the curved bit (terminal) between the beak and the arm.

Growing at the end of a branch or stem.

Definition: In typography, the descending, often decorative stroke on the letter Q or the descending, often curved diagonal stroke on K or R is the tail. The descender on g, j, p, q, and y are also called tails.

The back, last, lower, or inferior part of something.

A swash is a typographical flourish on a glyph, like an exaggerated serif.

Capital swash characters, which extended to the left, were historically often used to begin sentences. There were also minuscule swash characters, which came either extending to the left, to begin words, or to the right to end them. They were used in former times to help fit the text to the line, instead of spaces of varying widths (“justification”).

Some of the characters in ligatures were called swash characters, even though they did not protrude to the space on either side of the piece of type, such as the tail of a capital “Q” passing under its succeeding “u”. Similarly the tail of a swash “g” would extend to the left beneath a number of preceding letters limited by the set of ligatures the typographer chose for the set.

An extended flourish on a printed character.