A plain-English glossary of typography terms to help you understand typefaces, spacing, hierarchy, readability and design language.

Typography shapes how written content looks, feels and reads. It affects brand personality, readability, hierarchy and the confidence people feel when they interact with your website, campaign or printed material.

The language around typography can feel technical, especially when designers start talking about baselines, kerning, leading and x-height. This glossary explains the key terms in plain English, so design conversations feel clearer and more useful.

Typography glossary terms

Alignment

Alignment is the position of text within a page, column or container. Text can be left aligned, right aligned, centred or justified. Alignment affects readability, pace and the overall structure of a layout.

Ascender

An ascender is the part of a lowercase letter that rises above the x-height, such as the upper strokes in b, d, h and l. Ascenders influence spacing, rhythm and legibility in a typeface.

Baseline

The baseline is the invisible line that most letters sit on. It helps keep text aligned and balanced across a word, line or larger layout.

Cap height

Cap height is the height of capital letters in a typeface, measured from the baseline to the top of the uppercase letters. It affects how large, formal or compact a typeface feels.

Condensed

A condensed font has narrower letterforms than the standard version of a typeface. It can help fit more text into a limited space, but it needs careful use so readability does not suffer.

Descender

A descender is the part of a lowercase letter that drops below the baseline, such as the lower strokes in g, j, p, q and y. Descenders affect line spacing and how comfortably text reads.

Diacritic

A diacritic is a mark added to a letter to change pronunciation or meaning, such as an accent or umlaut. Diacritics matter for language support, accessibility and accurate typography.

Display font

A display font is designed for larger uses such as headlines, posters, packaging or campaign graphics. Display fonts can carry a lot of personality, but they are usually less suitable for long body copy.

Drop cap

A drop cap is a large first letter that drops into the opening lines of a paragraph. It is mostly decorative and is often used to create a more editorial feel.

Extended

An extended font has wider letterforms than the regular version of a typeface. It can create a bold, spacious or dramatic effect, especially in headings and display work.

Finial

A finial is the tapered or rounded end of a letter stroke. It is a small detail, but it can help give a typeface its character and tone.

Font

A font is a specific style, weight or size within a typeface family. For example, a typeface may include regular, italic, bold and extra bold fonts.

Geometric font

A geometric font is built from simple shapes such as circles, squares and triangles. These fonts often feel clean, modern and structured, which can be useful in branding and digital design.

Glyph

A glyph is the visual form of a character, symbol or punctuation mark within a font. Letters, numbers, icons and special characters can all be glyphs.

Ink trap

An ink trap is a small space built into certain letterforms to stop ink spreading and blurring the shape in print. It is especially useful at small sizes or on absorbent paper.

Italic

Italic text is slanted and is often used for emphasis, titles, quotes or contrast within a block of copy. True italics are usually designed separately from upright roman styles.

Justification

Justification aligns text to both the left and right edges of a column. It can create a tidy block of text, but poor justification can create awkward spaces between words.

Kerning

Kerning is the adjustment of space between individual letter pairs. Good kerning helps words feel balanced and prevents awkward gaps or clashes between characters.

Leading

Leading is the vertical space between lines of text. Good leading gives copy enough breathing room and makes longer passages easier to read.

Ligature

A ligature combines two or more characters into one designed glyph, such as fi or fl in some fonts. Ligatures can improve spacing and make text feel more polished.

Lorem ipsum

Lorem ipsum is placeholder text used to test layouts before final copy is ready. It can help show spacing and hierarchy, but real content is always better for judging a design properly.

Monospaced font

A monospaced font gives every character the same width. It creates a technical, grid-like look and is often used for code, tables or structured technical content.

Orphan

An orphan is a short line or isolated word separated awkwardly from the rest of its paragraph. It can interrupt reading flow and make a layout look less considered.

Overhang

Overhang is the slight extension of curved or pointed letterforms beyond alignment lines. It helps letters such as O, S and A look visually aligned rather than mechanically uneven.

Point size

Point size is a typographic measurement used to set text size. It gives a useful reference, but different typefaces can look larger or smaller at the same point size because of their proportions.

Rag

Rag is the uneven edge of left-aligned or right-aligned text. A well-managed rag makes text easier to read and avoids distracting shapes down the side of a paragraph.

Sans serif

A sans serif typeface does not have small decorative strokes at the ends of letterforms. Sans serif fonts often feel clean, modern and direct, especially in digital interfaces.

Script font

A script font imitates handwriting or calligraphy. Script fonts can feel personal or elegant, but they need careful use because they can be harder to read at small sizes or in long passages.

Serif

A serif is a small stroke at the end of a letterform. Serif typefaces often feel more traditional, editorial or formal, although their personality depends heavily on the specific design.

Slab serif

A slab serif typeface has thick, block-like serifs. It can feel bold, sturdy and confident, making it useful for headlines, posters and identity work.

Small caps

Small caps are capital letters designed at a smaller height, usually close to lowercase height. They can be useful for acronyms, labels and refined typographic details.

Spine

The spine is the main curved stroke in the letters S and s. Its shape has a strong influence on the character and balance of those letters.

Typeface

A typeface is the overall design family for a set of letters, numbers and symbols. A typeface can include several fonts, such as regular, bold, italic and light.

Tracking

Tracking is the overall spacing across a group of letters. Unlike kerning, which adjusts specific letter pairs, tracking changes spacing more broadly across a word, line or block of text.

Tittle

A tittle is the dot above a lowercase i or j. It is small, but it still affects readability and the personality of a typeface.

Type size

Type size describes how large text appears. It can be affected by point size, x-height, weight and the proportions of the typeface, so two fonts set at the same size can still feel different.

Typography

Typography is the design and arrangement of type. It covers the choice of typefaces, spacing, hierarchy, alignment and the way written language is presented visually.

Weight

Weight is the thickness of a typeface's strokes. Common weights include light, regular, medium, bold and extra bold. Weight can create emphasis, hierarchy and tone.

Widow

A widow is a short final line or isolated word that sits on its own at the end of a paragraph. It can make text blocks look unbalanced and is often adjusted during layout refinement.

X-height

X-height is the height of lowercase letters in a typeface, based on the height of the lowercase x. It has a major effect on how large, open and readable a typeface feels.

More design glossary terms

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