Glossary B
ball terminal
In a typographic character, a stroke ending that is shaped like a ball. Appears most often in serif typefaces.
baseline
A horizontal guideline indicating where the bottoms of characters without descenders appear to align. Often referred to in an imaginary sense. When more than one typeface is set, all characters usually appear to have the same baseline.
beak
See spur.
bit-mapped font
A set of symbols in a specific design (typeface) and size (such as 10 point), in which each symbol is represented as a pattern of dots or small square or rectangular elements called pixels. Typically used for representing type on screen and in the output of low-resolution printers. See also outline font, pixel.
black
See typeface weight.
black letter
A general term for styles of type based on scripts developed mainly in northern Europe around the twelfth century. Scripts and early printing types now classified as black letter vary in design according to the place of origin and speed and method of writing. In some type classification systems, the subcategories of black letter include textura (examples: Cloister Black and Goudy Text), rotunda (example: the lowercase of San Marco), Gothic antiqua (examples: the Troy and Chaucer typefaces of William Morris), and bastarda (example: Duc de Berry), which can include the broken-letter style Fraktur, sometimes classified separately (example: Fette Fraktur). Traditionally, the term Gothic is also used to refer to blackletter typefaces. Typefaces classified as black-letter are also somewhat incorrectly called Old English, a term that actually applies to a specific subgroup of black-letter designs. See also Gothic.
blackwidth
See visual width.
body
In hand composition of metal type, the physical block of metal upon which a character rests in relief. Also, the size or thickness of this metal block, measured from back to front (also known as body size, point size). In digital type design, the area in which a character lies, representing the area otherwise defined in metal by the surface on which the raised character rests.
Using these traditional definitions, the boundaries of the body are usually invisible to the reader. Most characters lie within the area of the body (in metal type, the top surface area), leaving a space of between 5 and 10 percent of the body's height or thickness. This space, which is typically a combination of the space above the highest ascender (or unaccented capital letter) and below the bottom of the lowest descender, is intended to allow clearance between successive lines of type set without extra line spacing or leading. Extra space is also provided within the body in the horizontal direction, to ensure that typeset characters are spaced evenly.
Some contemporary type designers and manufacturers use nontraditional definitions of the body. For example, the body may extend from the top of the highest capital letter or lowercase ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender; alternatively, it may be enlarged in the vertical direction to allow room for the vertical extent of all characters, including capital accents. When designed according to one of these definitions, characters in a typeface usually vary in size from the same characters designed according to the traditional definition. In machine composition with metal type and in phototypesetting, the body is often redefined to include any extra space (line spacing or leading) that is added between lines of type.
In type design, the body is measured in points, millimeters or units (such as "Fontographer units" in the type design software Fontographer); in typesetting, it is now almost exclusively measured in points.
Some type designers also use body to refer to the the visual width of a character (its width without side spaces). In book design, body (as in body type) describes type used for the text of a work, as opposed to type used for display lines. See also kp height, point size.
bold
See typeface weight.
book
See typeface weight.
bowl
The strokes that fully or partially enclose an interior space in such characters as a, b, d, the upper part of g, and O, P, and R. Usually rounded or curved. (The lower part of the g is typically called a loop.)
bracket
The shape that often appears in a character at the junction of a serif and a main stroke. Also called a fillet. Also, one of a pair of characters used for enclosing words and other material: [], also known as square brackets, or (in a form with angled sides similar to <>) angle brackets. In the U.K., also used colloquially for parentheses () and braces {}.
broad-pen writing
Writing created with an instrument in which the nib is shaped like a chisel, having a long edge defined by two sharp corners. When the nib is held at a more or less constant angle to the writing line, the resulting strokes vary naturally in thickness from very thin to the width of the nib's longest edge. Early typefaces were based on this kind of writing, and many more calligraphic typefaces also have a close relationship (examples: old-style designs such as Centaur and Monotype Goudy, display typefaces such as Visigoth and ITC Zapf Chancery).
Broad-pen writing has also had a subtle influence on the character designs of many other typeface styles because it has determined the characteristic locations of thick and thin strokes. For example, the capital A, in a typeface that has some degree of contrast between the weights of its thick and thin strokes, usually has a right diagonal stroke that is heavier or thicker than its left diagonal. (If the weight of these strokes were reversed, in many typeface styles the letter would look incorrect, or as though it were a mirror image.)
built-up fraction
A fraction that is typeset using at least three separate characters (or keystrokes), for example, a superior numeral, fraction bar, and inferior numeral. Setting fractions in this manner enables the compositor to select any combination of numerator and denominator. Also known as combination fraction, and sometimes piece fraction. In digital and phototypesetting, a fraction can also be built up by the software, in which case it is also usually called a composite character. See also composite character, piece fraction.