There's a new serif in town
By John Kehe
No - not the cowboy kind. We're talking about type here. The word is s-e-r-i-f , and it means the little feet that a letter sits on, an important element in the design of type. Want to know more? Here's a glossary of terms about type:
BASELINE - The imaginary line on which letters rest.
DESCENDER - The part of the letter that dips down below the baseline - such as "j" or "y."
ASCENDER - A vertical stroke that rises above the body of a letter. Think "h" or "f."
BOWL - The rounded, closed part of a letter. A capital "B" has two.
POINT SIZE - Type and leading are measured in point size. One point is about 1/72 of an inch. The Monitor's largest front-page headline is generally 48 pt. The type you are reading now is 9 pt.
FONT - A particular design and size of a type face, available in caps and lowercase letters. For example, 12 pt. Futura Bold is a font; 14 pt. Futura Bold is another font.
ITALIC - A diagonal version of a typeface, usually leaning to the right. Its name comes from the fact this style was invented in Italy.
LIGATURE - Letters that have been joined together in a design. Check out the Monitor's logo - see the "h" and "s"? That's a ligature.
ROMAN - This term just means "regular." It's the most standard version of a type font.
SERIF and
SANS-SERIF - The earliest type was drawn by hand with quill pens, so when a vertical letter stroke came to an end, it was pretty hard to stop the ink from flowing and make a square corner. Early scribes invented a finishing touch called a serif, which looks like graceful little feet. SANS-SERIF means without serifs. We use both styles, for variety, in this newspaper. Can you find both on this page?
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J. KEHE
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