Aperture

Opening at the end of an open counter.

Arm

A horizontal stroke not connected on one or both ends.

Ascender

An upward vertical stroke found on lowercase letters that extends above the typeface’s x-height.

Baseline

The invisible line where letters sit.

Bowl

A curved stroke that encloses a letter’s counter.

Counter

Fully or partially enclosed space within a letter.

Crossbar or Bar

A horizontal stroke.

Descender

A downward vertical stroke found on lowercase letters that extends below the baseline.

Diagonal Stroke or Stem

An angled stroke.

Ear

A small stroke projecting from the upper right bowl of some lowercase g’s.

Finial

A tapered or curved end

or Terminal

Hairline

The thin strokes of a serif typeface.

Ligature

Two or more letters are joined together to form one glyph.

Link

A stroke that connects the top and bottom bowls of lowercase double-story g’s.

Loop

The enclosed or partially enclosed counter below the baseline of a double-story g.

Lowercase

The smaller form of letters in a typeface.

Serif

“Feet” or non-structural details at the ends of some strokes.

Shoulder

A curved stroke originating from a stem.

Small Caps

Uppercase characters that appear as a smaller size than the capital height of a typeface. Short for “small capitals”.

Spine

The main curved stroke for a capital and lowercase s.

Spur

A small projection from a curved stroke.

Stem

Primary vertical stroke.

Tail

A descending stroke, often decorative.

Terminal

The end of a stroke that lacks a serif.

Uppercase

A letter or group of letters of the size and form generally used to begin sentences and proper nouns. Also known as “capital letters”

x-height

The height of the main body of a lowercase letter.

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vs

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Modern Numerals

vs

Old Style Numerials

Old names for

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Diacritic

A special mark added to a letter to indicate a different pronunciation, stress, tone, or meaning.