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The words for type

Lesson 3 of 11 in Terminology.

Typeface vs Font: What is the Difference Between Them? · Envato Tuts+

Lesson

The typeface and font distinction is the one typographers care about and almost nobody else observes. Historically a typeface is the design and a font is a specific physical set of it at one size and weight. Software collapsed the two, and most people now use font for both.

Baseline, x-height, cap height, ascender and descender marked on a word.

An ink drawing of a printer pulling out one drawer of small metal type pieces from a tall wooden cabinet of drawers holding the same type at other sizes and weights. — A printer's cabinet where each drawer holds one design at one size and weight. Each drawer was once called a font, and the whole cabinet one typeface.

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Question 1, locked
Two typefaces are set at exactly the same point size and one looks far bigger. What explains it?
- Point size measures the body the letters sit on, not the letters, so x-height decides the apparent size
- Point size measures cap height, and cap heights differ from foundry to foundry
- The larger one is a font rather than a typeface, so it carries a fixed physical size
- Leading is counted inside the point size, which pushes one face visually larger
Question 2, locked
Which of these words means this? “All the weights and styles of one typeface.”
- Primary, secondary, tertiary
- Family
- Dieline
- GSM
Question 3, locked
Which of these words means this? “How heavy a style is. Light through to black.”
- Clear space
- Weight
- Lockup
- Mark

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