Typography Terms*

Absolute measurements are measurements of fixed values and are expressed in finite terms that cannot be altered.

Relative Measurements happen when character spacing is linked to type size, which means that their relationships are defined by a relative measured series. 

Points is the unit of measurement used to measure the type size of a font, which refers to the height of the letter. One point = 1/72 of an inch or 0.35 mm.

Picas are a unit of measurement, and one pica = 12 points and 6 picas (72 points) = 1 inch. It is commonly used for measuring lines of type.

X- Height is the main body part of a letter, excluding its ascenders and descenders. 

The em is a relative unit or measurement used in typesetting to define basic functions, which makes it linked to the size of the type.  If thee size increases or decreases the em does the same. It is equal to the size of any given type and is used to defining elements such as paragraph indents and spacing.

The en is equal to half of one "em." 

Dashes ( hyphen, en, em) both the em and en are used in punctuation to provide a measurement for dashes.  The "hyphen" is smaller then an "en" and 1/3 of an "em" and it also serves as a compound modifier where two words become one. The en dash is used to separate pages numbers, dates, and to replace the word "to" in constructions implying movement

Alignments can either be justified which is when the word spacing on separate line is irregular, unlike range left type where all the lines have the same spacing. There is also flush left which is the same principle of handwriting and it is aligned to the left margin and ends ragged on the right. Flush right is less common and more difficult to read, and it is aligned to the right margin and jagged on the left.

Letterspacing is the addition of space between letters to improve the visual look of type and opens up the text. 

Kerning is the removal of space between characters.

Tracking adjusts and affects the amount of spacing between characters. 

Word spacing adjusts the amount of space between words. 

Widow lone word at the end of a paragraph (occurs in justified text.) 

Orphan is the final one or two lines of a paragraph separates from the main paragraph to form a new column and should be avoided at all costs.

Leading is a hot metal printing term that originates from the lead strips that were inserted between text measures in order to space them evenly.  Now it is the space between lines of text in a text block.

Indents are moving text in from the margin by a specified amount and provides easily accessible entry point to a paragraph. First line indent is when the text is indented from the left margin only in the first line of a paragraph.  A hanging indent is when the first line of the text is not indented but the rest of the paragraph is, its the opposite of first line indenting.