Typography
01 / Anatomy & Classification
Key question
What is a font made of?
Anyone wishing to talk about typography needs words for its parts. Baseline, x-height, serif, and counter are not mere jargon: they explain why one font is easy to read at small sizes, whilst another only works when it is large.
Learning objective: You can name the parts of a letter, assign typefaces to a classification, and use the font weights and styles within a family purposefully.
Anyone who knows the parts can see the differences.
1.1 / The Anatomy of Type
Lines, lengths, shapes.
All letters in a typeface sit on common baselines. Their spacing determines the character of the typeface and how large it appears.
01
Baseline and x-height
Letters sit on the baseline. The x-height is the height of lowercase letters, excluding ascenders and descenders.
02
Ascenders and descenders
The parts of b, d, h or g, p, q that extend above the x-height or below the baseline.
03
Serifs and counters
Serifs are the small feet at the ends of strokes. Counters are the enclosed or partially enclosed spaces, such as in an o, a, or e.
Two fonts at the same size can appear vastly different in size. What matters is the x-height, not the value in points or pixels.
The x-height determines how large a typeface appears.
1.2 / Font classes
Order in the sea of fonts.
Fonts can be classified according to their shape. The most important categories are: Serif (Antiqua) with serifs and varying stroke weight, Slab Serif with bold block serifs, Sans Serif (Grotesque) without serifs, alongside script and handwriting styles, as well as blackletter types such as Fraktur.
There are subtle differences within the groups: modern serif (Didone) features sharp contrasts, geometric sans-serif is based on circles and squares, while humanist sans-serif is rooted in handwriting. With Helvetica and Univers, Swiss typography made neo-grotesque typefaces world-famous.
Every class has its own tone.
1.3 / Family and Cuts
One font, many voices.
A font family includes several styles: different weights from light to black, widths from condensed to extended, plus italics. A true italic is completely redrawn, whereas an oblique is merely slanted.
Good font families also offer small caps, different styles of numerals, and special characters for many languages. For the Rheinufer Theatre, a single family with three weights is often enough: Regular, Italic, and Bold.
A good family is worth many books.
Exercise
A type specimen sheet
Task: Create a type specimen sheet for the Rheinufer Theatre featuring three typefaces from different classifications.
STEP 1
Choose one serif, one sans-serif, and one other typeface of your choice.
STEP 2
Capitalise the same word and label the baseline, x-height, ascender, and descender.
STEP 3
Assign each font to a classification and describe its character in three words.
STEP 4
Show all available cuts for a family.
Evaluation: Which font suits the theatre best, and what makes you say that?