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The o has been kerned
The font height (24 points) is measured
closer to the f.
from ascender to descender.
t
size and type~ace.
Baseline
Ill
Proportional
Serif
spacing
L;ading is the
baseline to baseline
measurement.
3.1.3 Font spacing and pitch
You probably first heard the word pitch in connection with typewriters.
Typewriters normally use monospaced spacing: they give each character the
same amount of space on the line.
About half the fonts available for laser printers use monospaced spacing too.
Pitch is always expressed as so many characters per inch. Ten-pitch, for
example, means a font with ten characters in each inch of the line.
Typesetters for centuries have used two special sizes of type for most text.
Elite characters are 10points high and print 12characters per inch. And pica
characters are 12points high and pitched at 10characters to the inch. You'll
often run across these monospaced font sizes in the laser printing world.
ideally each character in a word should nestle against its neighbors so they
appear evenly spaced. But adjacent round characters are apt to look too far
apart, while flat-sided characters may appear too close.
Proportional spacincqtakes into account the differences in widths among
letters (compare ii with w.
Proportionally spaced printing is easier to read
than typewriter-style printing in which all characters, including punctuation,
have the same width.
Real typesetters equip certain characters with kerns, letter parts that extend
out to overlap adjoining letters. In this word TJ!PCJ the J is kerned closely
against the T. Kerning separates great type from good type.
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