{"id":16666,"date":"2014-08-25T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=16666"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:46:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:46:43","slug":"10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know","title":{"rendered":"10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a passion for design, but you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell your x-height from your ascender and you think a B\u00e9zier Curve is a new chair from IKEA. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a quick guide to some essential terminology to get your feet wet in the typography ocean. Since design is a visual art, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve provided some examples from Creative Market shops to illustrate the different terms.
\nFor starters, every font exists along four imaginary parallel lines: ascent, median, base and descent.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Ascent<\/span><\/h2>\n

This is the top most line that the upstroke from lowercase letters such as l, h, and d should reach. Not to be confused with the cap height<\/strong> which is the apex of your capital letters. You can see a good variance in cap height versus ascent in Roadstar Font Script.<\/a> In some fonts these two heights are the same, or the cap height is actually taller than the ascender, such as Blake<\/a>.
\n\"TypeTerms-1\"<\/p>\n

<\/span>Median (aka: mean line, x-height)<\/span><\/h2>\n

The median is where most of your lower case letters should reach their maximum height. This is also called the x-height, because it is set from the height of the x in your font. Cabrito Sans<\/a> is a elegant font that keeps a strict median, which gives it a very calm and controlled feel.
\n\"TypeTerms-1\"<\/p>\n

<\/span>Base Line<\/span><\/h2>\n

All your characters sit on the base line. It is the lowest point of all capital letters and most lowercase letters. Notice how even in a messy font like Ship Painter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Rough<\/a> all the characters sit on the same line.
\n\"TypeTerms-4\"<\/p>\n

<\/span>Descent<\/span><\/h2>\n

For characters that have strokes that go below the baseline like j, g, and q, the descent marks the lowest point that their lines meet. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just have to be straight lines either; check out the creative descents of Daisy Font.<\/a>
\n\"TypeTerms-4\"<\/p>\n

<\/span>Ascender\/Descender<\/span><\/h2>\n

The ascender is the upward stroke above the x-height in a lowercase letter like d, b, or h. It should touch the ascent. Dawnora Headline<\/a> has short ascenders that make the letters appear much wider. The descender is the opposite: it reaches from the baseline to the descent in letters like q, p, and j.
\n\"TypeTerms-4\"<\/p>\n

<\/span>Serifs<\/span><\/h2>\n

These are small finishing strokes on ends of characters. They fall in line or perpendicular to the four lines mentioned above to guide the reader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eye across the page. Always Here<\/a> is a great example of an outside-the-box serifed font. While it has the extra strokes, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t match up with the cap and base lines. This creates a handwritten feel while keeping the classical fancy of serifs. Fonts that lack a serif are known as sans serif or simply sans. They tend to feel more modern such as Uni Sans.<\/a>
\n\"TypeTerms-9\"<\/p>\n

<\/span>Counter<\/span><\/h2>\n

This is a description for the negative space inside a letter. It can be completely enclosed by a letter like an O or an A, but letters like S and H also have counters. Check out how the narrow black counters in CA Royal Spy<\/a> make the font appear taller than it is. Playing with the space inside can dramatically affect the overall look of a font. Tattoo Deco<\/a> really plays with where you can use counters in a character.
\n\"TypeTerms-10\"<\/p>\n

<\/span>B\u00e9zier Curves<\/span><\/h2>\n

These are mathematical curves that can be scaled to any size. They are one of the essentials for computer typography, especially when making fancy serifs and tails on your characters. Melany Lane<\/a> has some great curves. Notice how on the L in Lane the loops have the same curls just in different sizes.
\n\"TypeTerms-10\"<\/p>\n

<\/span>Kerning<\/span><\/h2>\n

In my humble opinion, kerning is one of the most important aspects of typefaces. To put it simply, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the amount of space between characters in a font. As a designer, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll want to learn how to manually kern. Not all characters are formed equally so some need more space from another character. Bringin<\/a> is a font with a great use of the space between letters: some are almost touching, while in others you could fit an entire character between them.
\n\"TypeTerms-12\"<\/p>\n

\n

Header image created using Typography<\/a> by Suez Lycett Photography.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a passion for design, but you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell your x-height from your ascender and you think a B\u00e9zier Curve is a new chair from IKEA. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a quick guide to some essential terminology to get your feet wet in the typography ocean. Since design is a visual art, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve provided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[129,166,455,37],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-16666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-lettering","tag-fonts","tag-type","tag-typography"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know - Creative Market Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a passion for design, but you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell your x-height from your ascender and you think a B\u00e9zier Curve is a new chair from IKEA. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Creative Market Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/crtvmrkt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-25T13:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-19T21:46:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Creative Market\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@creativemarket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@creativemarket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Creative Market\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know\",\"name\":\"10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know - Creative Market Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/28051721\\\/TypeTerms-3.jpg.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-25T13:00:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-19T21:46:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d6927fab89f28e3dd8f6bb7b36219d66\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/28051721\\\/TypeTerms-3.jpg.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/28051721\\\/TypeTerms-3.jpg.webp\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Creative Market Blog\",\"description\":\"Creative Market Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know - Creative Market Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know","og_description":"So you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a passion for design, but you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell your x-height from your ascender and you think a B\u00e9zier Curve is a new chair from IKEA. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t","og_url":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know","og_site_name":"Creative Market Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/crtvmrkt","article_published_time":"2014-08-25T13:00:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-19T21:46:43+00:00","author":"Creative Market","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@creativemarket","twitter_site":"@creativemarket","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Creative Market","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know","url":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know","name":"10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know - Creative Market Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/08\/28051721\/TypeTerms-3.jpg.webp","datePublished":"2014-08-25T13:00:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-19T21:46:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d6927fab89f28e3dd8f6bb7b36219d66"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/08\/28051721\/TypeTerms-3.jpg.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/08\/28051721\/TypeTerms-3.jpg.webp"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/10-typography-terms-every-designer-should-know#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10 Typography Terms Every Designer Should Know"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/","name":"Creative Market Blog","description":"Creative Market Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16666"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=16666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}