How to Talk Type
Type has its own vocabulary, with roots that go back centuries and span many cultures and languages, mingling German, Italian, and English with a lot of French. The word font, for example, comes from the French language and means “fount” or “source” (although these days in France a font is inexplicably called a police de charactères).
Most of this vocabulary relates to either the positioning of type on the page or the features of characters themselves. You could delve into a ton of arcane stuff here, but this section includes just what you need to know to use your programs' type controls.
The Measure of Type
Type has its own measuring system. Actually, it has two measuring systems: one absolute and one relative. Let's look at ...
Get Macintosh Bible, 8th Edition, The now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
