Anatomy of Letterforms

19 August 2020

Letters are made up of special lego bits. Here is an incomplete catalog.

I just watched a great typography fundamentals video on Pluralsight.

A part of that training was learning some of the specific parts of letterforms in typography. Here are some of the bits I learned

Stroke

Generically, a line in the letter. Thickness of line.

Vertical stroke.

Vertical stroke above x height.

Vertical stroke below baseline.

Horizontal stroke with no connection on either end. Can be a crossbar as in "A".

Curved part of the stroke that creates an empty interior space

The interior space inside a bowl.

Opening at bottom of letter openings.

Bar at the end of a stroke.

End of lines that don't have serifs.

The thinnest line in a serif typeface.

Curved, bridge-like connectors on serifs.

Decorative extension.

Bottom of "g". Either fully or partially closed.

Decorative projection at the end of a bar.

Angled form where 2 strokes meet.

Tapered ending of some strokes.

And here's a graphic of this anatomy, all together, that I put together.

What other interesting parts of letterform anatomy are there?