Typography Terms

Do Designers Really Need to Know Typography Terms?

Who uses typography terms? Designing interactive websites with graphics? Awesome. Coding them? Not so much.

8 Typography Terms Every Designer Forgets

Typography terms are important for designers. If you are a designer and working in team of designers then it might be confusing for you. So, better to learn terms that makes your work easy.

Interesting let’s get to know.

Term 1

LEADING

The amount of space between the baseline of two lines of text. CSS wise, this is your line height. It’s recommended to stick to 120% of the type size.

The more words you have in a line, the more leading you will need to maintain a pleasurable reading experience.

Term 2

TRACKING

Loose or tight, tracking is the amount of space between groups of characters. Like leading, best practices are tied to readability.

0.5 The UIUX design community is awesome

0 The UIUX design community is awesome

1.5 The UIUX design community is awesome

Term 3

KERNING

Easily confused for tracking. Kerning is the space between two characters. Consider a capital character like W which has empty space below the final line, notice the width and cramping tilt vs the capital H in Hello?

Well / Hello

Term 4

JUSTIFIED

Justified type tends to look clean because the start and end of the lines are both aligned to the left and right.  However, just because it fits in a box doesn’t make it more readable for users. In fact, because there are less visual line clues it’s hard to digest.

Term 5

ASCENDER

Ascender also known as the topline, this line shows where the top of letters such as k and f touch. Wild, but the line can often be higher than the capital line.  Mind blown a little? Zoom in and you’ll see the magic.

I Get a Kick Out of Designing Products.

Rahul Sharma

Term 6

BEARDLINE

More commonly known as the descender, but I prefer beard line. Descenders are the parts of characters that drop below the baseline. Letter such as p, g, and q.    

Term 7

RAGGED RIGHT

Text aligned to the left. In western culture, this compliments the natural way we read. Typically, text is products 90% ragged right. Be sure to use a grid to avoid the text swinging too far.  It’s good to have equal padding and margin for readability.

Term 8

RAGGED LEFT

Text aligned to the right. When reading left to right, ragged left can often disrupt reading flows. Product wise, ragged left can be applied to drop-downs, buttons, and text in the right of tables and navigation. It’s generally best to use this as a contrast to the majority of text.

CONCLUSION

If you are curious to know more about typography terms. Stay tuned for more updates on design and development.

Rahul Sharma

Rahul Sharma is a Founder of Logical IDEA and Bee Flirty. He is a Professional WP Developers, UX Designer, and Digital Marketing Expert. Previously, He Worked as a Digital Marketing Head for An eCommerce Startup. He Graduated with honors from Lovely Professional University with a Dual Degree in Information Technology.

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