Brief 2 - Design Principles - What is a Book? : Research Into Anatomy of Type

THE ANATOMY OF TYPE

Characters The basic typographic element is called a character, which is any individual letter, numeral, or punctuation mark. The capital letters are called caps, or uppercase (u.c.) characters. Small letters are called lowercase (l.c.) characters. Numbers are called numerals or figures. Modern, or lining numerals are cap height. Oldstyle numerals have ascenders and descenders. Special characters Pi characters are special characters used for: Math signs Punctuation marks Accented characters Reference marks On Macintosh computers, special characters can be viewed for any font with the Key Caps utility under the apple menu. Ligatures are character pairs which have been re-designed as optional single characters. Standard characters set in Adobe Garamond. Ligature characters set in Adobe Garamond Expert and Adobe Garamond Alternative. Character components Typographic characters have basic component parts. The easiest way to differentiate characteristics of type designs is by comparing the structure of these components. AscenderThe lowercase character stroke which extends above the x-height. BarThe horizontal stroke on the characters ‘A’, ‘H’, ‘T’, ‘e’, ‘f’, ‘t’. BaselineThe imaginary horizontal line to which the body, or main component, of characters are aligned. BowlThe curved stroke which surrounds a counter. Bracket A curved line connecting the serif to the stroke. Bracketed serifs with cupped bases  Brecketed serifs with flat bases Unbracketed serifs Contrast The amount of variation in between thick and thin strokes. Minimum contrast Extreme contrast Counter The empty space inside the body stroke. Descender.The lowercase character stroke which extends below the baseline. Loop The bottom part of the lowercase roman ‘g’. Sans serifFrom the French, meaning “without serif”. A typeface which has no serifs.Sans serif typefaces are typically uniform in stroke width. SerifTapered corners on the ends of the main stroke. Serifs originated with the chiseled guides made by ancient stonecutters as they lettered monuments. Some serif designs may also be traced back to characteristics of hand calligraphy. Note that serif type is typically thick and thin in stroke weight. Shoulder The part of a curved stroke coming from the stem. StemA stroke which is vertical or diagonal. StressThe direction in which a curved stroke changes weight. Oblique, or angled, stress Semi-oblique stress Vertical stress TerminalThe end of a stroke which does not terminate in a serif. X-heightThe height of the body, minus ascenders and descenders, which is equal to the height of the lowercase ‘x’. Avant Garde Melior Goudy Oldstyle X-heights vary among typefaces in the same point size and strongly effect readability and gray vaule of text blocks.  http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/type_basics/ -------------------

http://www.typographydeconstructed.com/

This website is extremely useful in showing the deconstruction of type. I will get all my terminology from here but recreate it myself on a double page. 

I love this simple layout it is easy to read and understand. It makes understanding type a lot easier and quickly allows you to find the name for the different aspects of the letter.