Heel - The horizontal line of the letter Gimel that extends from the letter’s baseline to the Kera. Terminal - The round construction that appears at the bottom end of of the letters Lamed and Qof in serif fonts.īud - A leg that does not connect to the roof of the letter. Tip - The edge of the letters Yod and Tet. Trunk - The line that extends from the roof of the letter Pe and folds into itself. Tail - The part at the baseline of the letter Bet that extends to the right.Īrm - A vertical line that extends from the baseline and does not connect to the roof. Stem - A vertical line, which is not a leg or an arm.įlag - The top part of the letter Lamed’s mast.
Of course, you don’t have to memorize the entire list, but it is recommended you’d get to know the basic terminology that allows you to talk about letters and recognize their features.Īttached is an anatomical diagram you can print in your home printer: As in other professions, font designers have a vocabulary and glossary to help distinguish between the different parts of the letter. An important stage in training our typographic vision is examining the anatomy of the letters and learning to take note of the small details that differentiate one font from another. However, in other instances in which the two fonts share similar characteristics – the differences are more nuanced, and difficult to discern by an untrained eye. If we were to examine the differences between a serif font like FrankRuehl and a sans serif font like Almoni DL, the distinction would be evident to all.