Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).

Serif and Sans Serif
Serif fonts are usually easier to read than sans-serif fonts. This is because the ‘serif’ makes the individual letters stand out more and easier for our brains to recognize quickly. Without the serif, the brain has to spend longer recognizing the letter because the shape is less striking. Commonly for printed work the typeface to use a serif font for the body of the work and a sans-serif font is often used for headings and captions.

Serif - Serifs are thought to have originated in the Roman alphabet with inscriptional lettering—words carved into stone in the Roman period. There are many serif typefaces, some of the most commonly used today are, Times New Roman, Garamond, and Cambria.

Times New Roman is the most commonly used serif typeface which was commissioned by a British newspaper, The Times, in 1931, After just one year, the design was released for commercial sale. The Times stayed with Times New Roman for 40 years, but with new production techniques developing and the format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004 it caused the newspaper to switch font five times from 1972. Despite this all the new fonts have been only slightly different versions of the original New Roman font.

Sans Serif- In typography, a sans serif typeface is one that does not have the small features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the Latin word "sine", through the French word sans, meaning "without". In print, sans-serif fonts are more typically used for headlines than for body text. Some of the most commonly used sans serif typefaces used in present day are Arial, Verdana and Calibri.

Arial was originally known as Sonoran Sans Serif. It acquired its current name when Microsoft started to include it in Windows. The most commonly used sans serif typeface, arial is a computer font packaged with Microsoft Windows, other Microsoft software applications. Arial is also a typeface family which includes the common standard Arial (Arial Std) and other slightly different versions of the original, including Arial Black, Bold, Extra Bold, Condensed, Italic, Light, Medium, Monospaced, Narrow, and Rounded.

Base line: the imaginary line upon which all type rests on

X-height: the main part of the lower case which is equal to the height of the lowercase ‘x’

Ascender: the part of the letter form of the lower case which rises above the x-height as in ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘f’, ‘h’, ‘k’ or ‘l’

Descender: the part of the letter ‘g’, ‘j’, ‘p’, ‘q’ and ‘y’ that goes below the baseline

Cap height: height of the capital letter. The ascenders of some lowercase actually rises sometimes a little bit above the cap height.

Type size: refers to the overall depth of the typeface and is measured from the top of the highest character to the foot of the lowest.

Stroke or stem: vertical or oblique part of a letter. It can be more or less thick or thin.

Counter: An enclosed or partially enclosed portion of a type character such as ‘p’, ‘q’ or ‘b’

Kerning and Leading

Kerning adjusts the spaces between letters so that the placement appears to flow and be the same between each and every letter. Certain letter combinations such as Ta have too much space between them. With kerning, you can adjust the spacing to make letters closer together (or further apart) so that the words don't look jumbled.

Leading is also called "line spacing." Leading originally referred to strips of lead that typesetters placed between lines of type in order to space them out. When you're reading something, the spaces between the line you're reading and the lines above and below that line are supposed to guide your eyes from one line to the next.

Subscript and Superscript


A subscript or superscript is a number, figure, symbol, or indicator that appears smaller than the normal line of type; it is set slightly below or above it. Subscripts are at or below the baseline, whereas superscripts are always above.