Nomenclature of Type

Traditional terminology has carried over to electronic implementations of type.

Uppercase and lowercase originally referred to the positions occupied by capital and small letters in the typecase. Spacing between lines of type were controlled by inserting thin strips of lead.

This process is still called leading, even in the electronic implementation.

The term Line spacing, the distance between the baseline of one line of type and the next is more descriptive.

Terminology for typography has been developed over several centuries and are still in use. The typefaces of some fonts include short cross strokes or serifs that project outward from the main strokes or stems at top and bottom of letter.

Fonts having letters without serifs are called sans serif. Such a typeface appears more streamlined than those with serifs.

Serif type faces are often used for body text in books and newspapers, while sans serif are often used in headlines.

The best known serif typeface is “Times", while the best known sans typeface is “Helvetica”.

Other variations of typefaces such as "plain", "roman", "italic", etc. are generally available.