Solutions E-Signature

Glossary of terms

Font terminology can be a bit confusing even to seasoned computer users. We have compiled the following glossary of terms found throughout our site. We would like to thank the font team at Macromedia (http://www.macromedia.com) for their permission to reproduce portions of their very complete font reference material.

- A -

Application
A computer program, designed to perform a specific function such as word processing or illustrating.

Ascent
A font's maximum distance above the baseline. Click here for an example.

- B -

Baseline
The line upon which the letters of a font rest. Click here for pictures.

Bitmap
A grid of individual dots or pixels that make up the graphic display. Each pixel (or picture element) corresponds to bits in the computer's memory.

Byte
A unit of data consisting of a small number of bits; usually a byte equals a series of eight bits and signifies a character.

- C -

Cap Height
The height of uppercase letters. Click here for an example.

Cap Line
The imaginary line which represents the uppermost part of capital letters and some characters' ascenders. Click here for an example.

Character
A symbol in writing. A letter, punctuation mark, or figure.

Character set
The characters, symbols, and numbers that make up one single font.

- D -

Descender Line
The lowest line that a character's descender extends to, like the line beneath the lower case "j" and "y". Click here for an example.

Downloadable font
A font that can be temporarily stored in the printer's memory.

Dots Per Inch (dpi)
The measure of resolution for a video monitor or printer. High-resolution printers contain usually at least 1000 dpi. Laser printers typically have a resolution of 300 dpi; monitors usually contain 72, 75, or 90 dpi.

- E -

- F -

Face
Short for "typeface"; the style of a font or set of character images

Family
All the type sizes and styles of one character. A complete character set of a font. The group shares a common design but can differ in attributes such as character width, weight, and posture (ie., roman vs. Italic). A typical computer family unit frequently contains four fonts- Roman, Italic, Bold and Bold/Italic- in all sizes.

Font
In modern usage the term "font" is often confused with "typeface" and "family". Traditionally, the term font represents a complete set of characters or symbols, which share the same size and style. For example, 12 point Goudy Oldstyle Bold is a font. Fonts can be as small as the basic alphabet or up to hundred of characters. Some languages, like Japanese, can exceed these numbers, which make them more difficult to access from the standard keyboard. Originally derived from the word "found" as a typefoundry.

- G -

- H -

Hints
Information embedded to enhance the appearance of characters printed or imaged at low resolutions (72-600 dpi). ATM and True Type can make advantage of hints to render more uniformly shaped screen fonts across the character set.

- I -

- J -

- K -

Kerning
Moving pairs of letters either closer together or farther apart to adjust and improve the space between them.

Kerning pairs
Combinations of characters pairs where the space between them has been modified to improve readability

Keystroke
A single pressing of a key on the keyboard.

- L -

Leading
The space, measured from baseline to baseline, added between successive rows of text in a document. Check here for example.

- M -

Megabyte
A measurement unit; 1,048,576 bytes denoted by the letters "M" or "MB".

Meanline
The top (imaginary) point of all lowercase characters without ascending. Also called "x-height" Click here for an example.

MMPC2MAC
Macromedia PC to Macintosh font conversion utility. Converts files created for the Macintosh on a PC into a Macintosh font files ready for installation. To get a copy click here.

- N -

- O -

- P -

Pica
A unit of Typographic measurement equal to 0.166 inches or 12 points.

Pixel (PICture ELement)
Square dots that represent the smallest units displayed on a computer screen. Typical monitors display 72 pixels per inch. Characters and graphics are created by turning pixels on or off.

Point
A unit of typographic measurement equal to approximately 1/72 inch (0.01383 inches). 72 points (representing 1 inch) is normally the largest point size available in pull-down menus. This is a hold over from the days when printing was done with metallic type. In most up-to-date applications, you should be able to select higher point sizes simply by typing the required size into the pull-down or in the format character dialog box.

Point size
The height of the type body. A standard type measurement system was originally developed by the Parisian type founder Pierre Fournier le Jeune in 1737. In the days of metal type, the point size was the total number of points in the height of metal type, including the ascent and descent of the letters, and the metal above and below the letters (i.e., built-in leading).

Pop-up
A menu (also known as pull-down or drop-down) that appears in a dialog box or in a main menu when related information is selected.

- Q -

- R -

Resolution
The number of dots in an image's screen display or printed output. A monitor's resolution refers to the number of pixels per linear inch. Printed resolution refers to dots per linear inch (see dpi). To learn how to change your screen's resolution, click here.

- S -

Scale
To change the size of a character or image by altering it proportionally.

Scan
To digitally capture an image and save it in a format that can be manipulated or altered from within a computer application. The resulting image is a bitmap file. If you wish to send us your signature via e-mail, scan it with a resolution of at least 600 dpi and save in either .jpg, .gif, .tif, .pcx, .bmp (Windows) format.

Scroll bar
The window bars containing arrows that allow the document to be moved so that other parts of it become visible.

Style
A visual variation of a basic typeface used to create emphasis. Typestyle is important since it can attract (or repel) the reader's eye. The four basic computer styles are Plain, Bold, Italic, and BoldItalic.

- T -

TTF
A file in an outline font format (True Type Font) that is used both in screen display and printing.

Tracking
The overall letterspacing in text. Tracking can also be used to tighten or loosen a block of type. Some programs have automatic tracking options which can add or remove small increments of space between the characters.

Transient Font
A font which stays in the printer memory only until the current document is finished printing.

True Type
Apple and Microsoft's outline font format designed to be used with the Mac System 7 operating system and Microsoft Windows 3.x and later versions.

Typeface
A set of characters which share a similar appearance.

- U -

- V -

- W -

- X -

X-height
The height of a face's lowercase letters, or the size from mean line to baseline of the lowercase 'x'. The lowercase 'x' is used for measurement since it usually sits squarely on the baseline and has no ascenders or descenders. Click here for an example.

- Y -

- Z -

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