Ascender (height): The portion of a letter in a Latin alphabet that extends above the baseline of a font.

Baseline: The line upon which most letters “sit” and below which descenders extend.

Typography Breakdown

Cap Height: The height of a capital letter that goes above the median.

Descender (height): The portion of a letter in a Latin alphabet that extends below the baseline of a font.

Median (Also known as Mean Line or Mid-Line): The line that determines where non-ascending lowercase letters terminate in a typeface.

x-Height: The distance between the baseline and the mean line in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the letter x in the font (which is where the terminology comes from).

Sans-Serif: A san-serif (san meaning without) is a letterform that does not have serifs as part of its design. Popular san-serif fonts include Helvetica, Arial, and Futura.

Serif: A slight projection found at the ends of a letterform. Popular serif fonts include Garamond, Times, and Bodoni.

Examples of Sans-Serif and Serif fonts