Kerning vs. Tracking
Kerning in the digital world is the addition or reduction of space between a pair of characters to improve the overall balance and consistency of the spacing. Most well-designed typefaces include kerning pairs so that the type is beautifully set without too much additional work on the part of the designer. Tracking is the addition or […]
Solidus vs. Fraction Bar
The solidus (known as a slash and many other names) is an oblique stroke going from upper right to lower left, occasionally extending slightly below the baseline. It was formerly written to separate shillings from pence, and now used in numerical dates as in 1/25/58, as a substitute for a conjunction such as in East/West, and ratios. We […]
Character vs. Glyph
Typographic terminology is sometimes very specific and can be very confusing – even for seasoned designers. A character is the symbol representing an individual letter, numeral, punctuation, sign, symbol, accent, or other elements in a typeface. A glyph is the actual representation of that character. Several glyphs may represent one character as in this example.
