Definitions for the vocabulary used across this site. Terms specific to comics lettering are mixed with general typographic terms, because in practice the two sets are used together. Longer treatments of most entries are on the topic pages: structural terms are expanded under letterform anatomy, classification terms in the serif field guide, and comics-specific terms under word balloons.
A to C
- Advance width
- The horizontal distance a layout engine moves after setting a glyph, comprising the glyph itself plus its left and right sidebearings.
- Aperture
- The size of the opening where a partly enclosed counter meets the space around it, as in c, e and s. Open apertures survive small sizes; closed ones do not.
- Apex
- The junction at the top of a letter where two diagonal strokes meet, as in A.
- Arm
- A horizontal or diagonal stroke attached at one end and free at the other, as in E, F and K.
- Ascender
- The part of a lowercase letter rising above the x-height, as in b, d, h and l.
- Baseline
- The invisible line letters sit on, and the primary vertical reference for all other measurements.
- Bevel
- A simulated chamfer on a display letterform, splitting each stroke into lit and shaded facets to imply thickness. Light direction must stay constant across all letters.
- Blue line
- Guide work drawn in pale non-photo blue, invisible to the high-contrast film used for platemaking and therefore left on the artwork.
- Bowl
- A closed curved stroke enclosing space, as in b, o and p.
- Bracket
- The curved transition where a serif joins its stem. Its presence and generosity is one of the main classification cues.
- Bristol board
- Heavy smooth board used for line artwork; plate finish for lettering, vellum finish for drawing.
- Burst balloon
- A balloon with a spiked outline, denoting shouting or a mechanically distorted voice.
- Cap height
- The height of the capitals, measured from baseline to the flat top of a letter such as H.
- Caption box
- A rectangular container for narration or a voice outside the depicted scene. It carries no tail, because it has no source in the panel.
- Contextual alternate
- An OpenType feature substituting a glyph based on its neighbours, most often to avoid identical adjacent letters.
- Counter
- The enclosed or partly enclosed space within a letter. It is a designed shape, not leftover space.
- Crossbar
- The horizontal stroke joining two others, as in A and H.
- Crossbar I
- The capital I with horizontal strokes top and bottom. In all-capital comics lettering it is restricted to the pronoun and to initials.
D to H
- Descender
- The part of a letter falling below the baseline, as in g, p and y.
- Didone
- A serif class with vertical stress, very high stroke contrast and fine unbracketed serifs. Fragile at small sizes.
- Display type
- Letterforms intended for large sizes and short strings, where identification matters more than sustained reading.
- Double-story
- A form with two enclosed or partly enclosed compartments, as in the common lowercase a and g, as opposed to their single-story alternatives.
- Drop shadow
- An offset dark copy of a letterform, used for separation from a background rather than for realism.
- Ear
- The small projecting stroke on the upper right of a double-story lowercase g.
- Em
- A relative unit equal to the current type size; the en is half of it. Both are used for dash widths and spacing.
- Extrude
- A solid mass projected from a display letterform along a fixed angle, implying depth.
- Finial
- A tapered or curved ending on a stroke, distinct from a serif.
- Gutter
- The empty channel between panels. It signals a break in time; a balloon crossing it binds the two panels into one moment.
- Hinting
- Instructions in a font file that adjust outlines at small pixel sizes so stems and heights stay consistent on screen.
I to O
- Inline
- A line carried inside a letterform, following the stroke. Suggests engraved or Victorian display work; the first detail lost at small sizes.
- Italic
- A separately drawn companion with cursive construction. Distinct from an oblique, which is a slanted version of the same drawing.
- Kerning
- Adjustment of the space between a specific pair of glyphs, as distinct from tracking, which affects a whole run.
- Keyline
- A thin secondary outline placed outside a first outline, usually in the background value, to buy separation without added weight.
- Leading
- The vertical distance between successive baselines. Named for the strips of lead once inserted between lines of metal type.
- Ligature
- A single glyph replacing a sequence of characters, either to resolve a collision or, in display work, as a decorative join.
- Nib
- The writing tip of a pen. Pointed flexible nibs vary stroke width by pressure; broad-edge nibs vary it by direction.
- Onomatopoeia
- A written representation of a sound. In comics it is drawn as display typography rather than set as text.
- OpenType
- A font format supporting large character sets and programmable substitution features such as alternates, ligatures and contextual rules.
- Optical size
- A design axis providing different drawings for different sizes, typically reducing contrast and opening spacing as size decreases.
- Outline
- A stroke applied outside a letterform, most often used to separate display lettering from a busy background.
- Overprint
- Printing an ink on top of another rather than knocking a hole in it. Black text normally overprints so registration shifts stay hidden.
- Overshoot
- The small amount by which round and pointed letters exceed a reference line, correcting the illusion that they are shorter than flat-topped letters.
P to S
- Panel
- A single framed image in a comics sequence; the unit of time in the medium.
- Pica and point
- Traditional typographic units. There are 12 points to a pica and, in the modern computer definition, 72 points to an inch.
- Raster
- An image stored as a fixed grid of pixels, resolution-dependent and unsuitable for lettering that may be rescaled.
- Reading order
- The sequence in which elements in a panel are encountered by the eye, running left to right and top to bottom in Latin-script comics.
- Registration
- The alignment of printing plates. Text is set in a single ink so misregistration cannot blur it.
- Ruling pen
- An adjustable instrument laying a line of constant width against a straightedge.
- Sans serif
- A letterform without serifs at the stroke ends.
- Serif
- A finishing stroke at the end of a main stroke. Its bracket, weight and angle are the primary classification cues.
- Shoulder
- The curved stroke leaving a stem and returning to the baseline, as in h, m and n.
- Sidebearing
- The space built into a glyph on its left or right, which together with the glyph width determines default spacing.
- Slab serif
- A serif class with heavy rectangular serifs and low stroke contrast, bracketed or unbracketed.
- Small caps
- Capitals drawn at approximately x-height with adjusted weight, not merely scaled-down full capitals.
- Spine
- The central curved stroke of an S.
- Spur
- A small projection off a curved stroke, as at the base of some capital G forms.
- Stem
- The main upright stroke of a letter; its weight sets the colour of the whole alphabet.
- Stress
- The axis through the thinnest points of a round letter. Oblique stress derives from the broad-edge pen; vertical stress had to be invented.
- Stroke contrast
- The ratio between the thickest and thinnest strokes in a letterform.
- Swash
- An extended decorative stroke on a letter, usually available as an alternate rather than as a default.
T to Z
- Tail
- In lettering, the descending stroke of a Q or R. In comics, the tapering wedge connecting a balloon to its speaker.
- Terminal
- The end of a stroke carrying no serif: flat, angled, tapered, rounded or finished with a ball.
- Thought balloon
- A scalloped container for unspoken thought, connected by a trail of bubbles instead of a tail.
- Tracking
- Uniform adjustment of spacing across a run of text, as opposed to kerning a single pair.
- Trap
- A small notch cut into a joint so that ink spreading at press does not fill the junction solid. Also called an ink trap.
- Uppercase and lowercase
- Capitals and minuscules, named for the cases in which metal sorts were stored.
- Vector
- Artwork stored as mathematical paths, resolution-independent and the correct format for lettering.
- Vertex
- The junction at the bottom of a letter where two diagonals meet, as in V and W.
- Weight
- Stroke thickness relative to letter size. Independent of width, which is horizontal proportion.
- Whisper balloon
- A balloon with a broken or dashed outline denoting quiet speech, usually with reduced letter size.
- x-height
- The height of the lowercase body, excluding extenders. Its ratio to cap height is the most consequential proportion in a typeface.
Standard illustrated definitions for the general typographic terms above are published in the Google Fonts glossary. Character names, properties and encoding behaviour are defined by the Unicode Consortium, and specimen material showing these features in original printed form is held by research collections such as the Letterform Archive.