Editing Typeface (section)

==Typeface anatomy==
{{main|Typeface anatomy}}
Typographers have developed a comprehensive vocabulary for describing the many aspects of typefaces and typography. Some vocabulary applies only to a subset of all [[writing system|scripts]]. ''Serifs'', for example, are a purely decorative characteristic of typefaces used for European scripts, whereas the glyphs used in Arabic or East Asian scripts have characteristics (such as stroke width) that may be similar in some respects but cannot reasonably be called serifs and may not be purely decorative.

===Serifs===
{|  style="float:right; margin:15px 0px 15px 15px;"
|-
| [[Image:Serif and sans-serif 01.svg]]
| Sans serif font
|-
| [[Image:Serif and sans-serif 02.svg]]
| Serif font
|-
| [[Image:Serif and sans-serif 03.svg]]
| Serif font with serifs<br />highlighted in red
|}

Typefaces can be divided into two main categories: '''[[serif]]''' and '''[[sans serif]]'''. [[Serif]]s comprise the small features at the end of strokes within letters. The printing industry refers to typeface without serifs as '''sans serif''' (from French ''sans'', meaning ''without''), or as ''grotesque'' (or, in [[German language|German]], ''grotesk'').

Great variety exists among both serif and sans serif typefaces. Both groups contain faces designed for setting large amounts of body text, and others intended primarily as decorative. The presence or absence of serifs represents only one of many factors to consider when choosing a typeface.

Typefaces with serifs are often considered easier to read in long passages than those without. Studies on the matter are ambiguous, suggesting that most of this effect is due to the greater familiarity of serif typefaces. As a general rule, printed works such as newspapers and books almost always use serif typefaces, at least for the text body. Websites do not have to specify a font and can simply respect the browser settings of the user. But of those web sites that do specify a font, most use modern sans serif fonts, because it is commonly believed that, in contrast to the case for printed material, sans serif fonts are easier than serif fonts to read on the low-resolution computer screen.

===Proportion<span class="anchor" id="Proportional font"></span><span class="anchor" id="proportional font"></span><span class="anchor" id="Proportional fonts"></span><span class="anchor" id="proportional fonts"></span><span class="anchor" id="tabular numeral"></span>===
[[Image:Proportional-vs-monospace-v5.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|right|Proportional v monospace]]

A '''proportional''' typeface, also called '''variable-width''' typeface, contains glyphs of varying widths, while a '''[[#Monospaced typefaces|monospaced]]''' ('''non-proportional''' or '''fixed-width''') typeface uses a single standard width for all glyphs in the font. '''[[Duospaced font]]s''' are similar to monospaced fonts, but characters can also be two character widths instead of a single character width.

Many people generally find proportional typefaces nicer-looking and easier to read, and thus they appear more commonly in professionally published printed material.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} For the same reason, [[GUI]] computer applications (such as [[word processor]]s and [[web browser]]s) typically use proportional fonts. However, many proportional fonts contain fixed-width ('''tabular''') numerals so that columns of numbers stay aligned.<ref>{{cite web |title=Understanding numerals |first=Elliot Jay |last=Stocks |url=https://fonts.google.com/knowledge/introducing_type/understanding_numerals |website=Google Fonts |series=Introducing type}}</ref>

Monospaced typefaces function better for some purposes because their glyphs line up in neat, regular columns. No glyph is given any more weight than another. Most manually operated [[typewriter]]s use monospaced fonts. So do [[text mode|text-only computer displays]] and third- and fourth-generation game console graphics processors, which treat the screen as a uniform grid of character cells. Most computer programs which have a text-based interface ([[terminal emulator]]s, for example) use only monospaced fonts (or add additional spacing to proportional fonts to fit them in monospaced cells) in their configuration. Monospaced fonts are commonly used by [[computer programmer]]s for displaying and editing [[source code]] so that certain characters (for example [[parentheses]] used to group arithmetic expressions) are easy to see.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/218623/why-use-monospace-fonts-in-your-ide |title=Why use monospace fonts in your IDE?|access-date=2009-02-22}}</ref>{{better source needed|reason=not a [[wp:RS]], user generated content|date=February 2022}}

[[ASCII art]] usually requires a monospaced font for proper viewing, with the exception of [[Shift JIS art]] which takes advantage of the proportional characters in the [[MS Mincho|MS PGothic]] font. In a [[web page]], the <code>&lt;tt&gt; &lt;/tt&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;code&gt; &lt;/code&gt;</code> or <code>&lt;pre&gt; &lt;/pre&gt;</code> [[HTML]] tags most commonly specify monospaced fonts. In [[LaTeX]], the ''verbatim'' environment or the [[Teletype Corporation|Teletype]] font family (e.g., <code>\texttt{...}</code> or <code>{\ttfamily ...}</code>) uses monospaced fonts (in [[TeX]], use <code>{\tt ...}</code>).

Any two lines of text with the same number of characters in each line in a monospaced typeface should display as equal in width, while the same two lines in a proportional typeface may have radically different widths. This occurs because in a proportional font, glyph widths vary, such that wider glyphs (typically those for characters such as W, Q, Z, M, D, O, H, and U) use more space, and narrower glyphs (such as those for the characters i, t, l, and 1) use less space than the average.

In the publishing industry, it was once the case that editors read [[manuscript]]s in monospaced fonts (typically [[Courier (typeface)|Courier]]) for ease of editing and word count estimates, and it was considered discourteous to submit a manuscript in a proportional font.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} This has become less universal in recent years, such that authors need to check with editors as to their preference, though monospaced fonts are still the norm.

==={{anchor|metrics}}Font metrics===
[[Image:Typography Line Terms.svg|thumb|410px|The word ''Sphinx'', set in [[Garamond|Adobe Garamond Pro]] to illustrate the concepts of [[baseline (typography)|baseline]], [[x-height]], body size, descent and ascent.]]

{{See also|Font#Metrics|Typographic unit|Metric typographic units}}

Most [[script (styles of handwriting)|scripts]] share the notion of a [[baseline (typography)|baseline]]: an imaginary horizontal line on which characters rest. In some scripts, parts of glyphs lie below the baseline. The ''descent'' spans the distance between the baseline and the lowest descending glyph in a typeface, and the part of a glyph that descends below the baseline has the name ''[[descender]]''. Conversely, the ''ascent'' spans the distance between the baseline and the top of the glyph that reaches farthest from the baseline. The ascent and descent may or may not include distance added by accents or diacritical marks.

In the [[Latin script|Latin]], [[Greek script|Greek]] and [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] (sometimes collectively referred to as LGC) scripts, one can refer to the distance from the baseline to the top of regular lowercase glyphs ([[mean line]]) as the ''[[x-height]]'', and the part of a glyph rising above the x-height as the ''[[Ascender (typography)|ascender]]''. The distance from the baseline to the top of the ascent or a regular uppercase glyphs (cap line) is also known as the cap height.<ref>Cullen, Kristin. ''Layout Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design,''  Jul 2005: 92</ref> The height of the ascender can have a dramatic effect on the readability and appearance of a font. The ratio between the x-height and the ascent or cap height often serves to characterize typefaces.

Typefaces that can be substituted for one another in a document without changing the document's text flow are said to be "metrically identical" (or "metrically compatible").<ref>{{cite book |page=375 |publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann |title=The Computer Graphics Metafile |date=20 May 2014 |first1=L.R. |last1=Henderson |first2=A.M. |last2=Mumford |isbn=9781483144849 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0KeBQAAQBAJ&q=%22metrically+identical%22&pg=PA375}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |page=102 |title=CGM in the Real World |first1=Anne M. |last1=Mumford |first2=Mark |last2=Skall |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |date=7 Mar 2013 |isbn=9783642736292 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUCqCAAAQBAJ&q=%22metrically+identical%22&pg=PA102}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Beginning Ubuntu Linux: Natty Narwhal Edition |page=286 |publisher=Apress |first1=Emilio |last1=Raggi |first2=Keir |last2=Thomas |first3=Sander |last3=van Vugt |date=17 Dec 2011 |isbn=9781430236276 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5i-c2yms6tUC&q=%22metrically+identical%22&pg=PA286}}</ref> Several typefaces have been created to be metrically compatible with widely used proprietary typefaces to allow the editing of documents set in such typefaces in digital typesetting environments where these typefaces are not available. For instance, the free and open-source [[Liberation fonts]] and [[Croscore fonts]] have been designed as metrically compatible substitutes for widely used [[Microsoft]] fonts.<ref name="fc-30-metric-aliases">{{cite web|last2=TAGOH|first2=Akira|last3=Steffens|first3=Jan|last4=Crozat|first4=Frederic|last1=Esfahbod|first1=Behdad|title=30-metric-aliases.conf|url=https://github.com/behdad/fontconfig/blob/master/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf|website=GitHub|publisher=fontconfig|access-date=1 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Liberation fonts and the tricky task of internationalization |first=Nathan |last=Willis |date=19 June 2012 |access-date=26 June 2017 |publisher=[[LWN.net]] |url=https://lwn.net/Articles/502371/}}</ref>

===Optical sizing===
{{main|Font#Optical size}}
During the metal type era, all type was cut in metal and could only be printed at a specific size. It was a natural process to vary a design at different sizes, making it chunkier and clearer to read at smaller sizes.<ref name="How To Choose The Right Face For A Beautiful Body">{{cite web|last1=Reynolds|first1=Dan|title=How To Choose The Right Face For A Beautiful Body|url=http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/05/how-to-choose-the-right-face-for-a-beautiful-body/|website=Smashing|date=21 May 2012|access-date=13 September 2015}}</ref><ref name=MicroPlus>{{cite web|last1=Frere-Jones|first1=Tobias|title=MicroPlus|url=https://frerejones.com/blog/introducing-microplus|publisher=Frere-Jones Type|access-date=1 December 2015}}</ref> Many digital typefaces are offered with a range of fonts (or a variable font axis) for different sizes, especially designs sold for professional design use. The art of designing fonts for a specific size is known as [[Font#Optical size|optical sizing]]. Others will be offered in only one style, but optimised for a specific size. Optical sizes are particularly common for serif fonts, since the fine detail of serif fonts can need to be bulked up for smaller sizes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ahrens  |last2=Mugikura |title=Size-specific Adjustments to Type Designs |url=http://justanotherfoundry.com/size-specific-adjustments-to-type-designs |publisher=Just Another Foundry|access-date=21 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Coles|first1=Stephen|title=Book Review: Size-specific Adjustments to Type Designs|url=http://typographica.org/typography-books/size-specific-adjustments-to-type-designs/|website=Typographica|access-date=21 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Kupferschmid|first1=Indra|title=Multi-axes type families|url=http://kupferschrift.de/cms/2012/05/multi-axes-families/|website=kupferschrift|date=13 May 2012 |access-date=8 December 2014}}</ref>

Typefaces may also be designed differently considering the type of paper on which they will be printed. Designs to be printed on absorbent [[newsprint]] paper will be more slender as the ink will naturally spread out as it absorbs into the paper, and may feature [[ink trap]]s: areas left blank into which the ink will soak as it dries. These corrections will not be needed for printing on high-gloss cardboard or display on-screen. Fonts designed for low-resolution displays, meanwhile, may avoid pure circles, fine lines and details a screen cannot render.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Reynolds |last2= Koeberlin|title=Socialist TV Typeface Videtur Finally Freed|date=5 April 2013 |url=http://ilovetypography.com/2013/04/06/socialist-tv-typeface-videtur-finally-freed/ |publisher=FontFont |access-date=24 May 2015}}</ref>

=== Typesetting numbers ===
[[Image:Mediaevalziffern.svg|thumb|right|[[Hoefler Text]] uses non-lining or lower-case figures.]]
[[File:Proportional & tabular figures.png|thumb|Proportional (left-side) and tabular (right-side) numeric digits, drawn as lining figures.]]

Most typefaces, especially modern designs, include a complementary set of numeric digits.<ref name="HFJ Numbers">{{cite web |title = Numbers |url = http://www.typography.com/fonts/numbers/overview/ |publisher = Hoefler & Frere-Jones |access-date = 2015-10-06 }}</ref>

Numbers can be typeset in two main independent sets of ways: ''lining'' and ''[[non-lining figures]]'', and ''proportional'' and ''tabular'' styles.{{efn|There are a few other styles occasionally used, most notably small-cap figures set uniformly at the height of the small capitals, and 'short-ranging figures' slightly lower than cap height.}}

Most modern typefaces set numeric digits by default as lining figures, which are the height of upper-case letters. [[Non-lining figures]], styled to match lower-case letters, are often common in fonts intended for body text, as they are thought to be less disruptive to the style of running text. They are also called ''lower-case numbers'' or ''text figures'' for the same reason.

==== Tabular figures ====
{{main|Tabular figures}}
The horizontal spacing of digits can also be ''proportional'', with a character width tightly matching the width of the figure itself, or ''tabular'', where all digits have the same width. Proportional spacing places the digits closely together, reducing empty space in a document, and is thought to allow the numbers to blend into the text more effectively.<ref name="gotham">{{cite web |title = Gotham: Numerics |url = http://www.typography.com/fonts/gotham/features/gotham-numerics |publisher =[[Hoefler & Frere-Jones]] |access-date = 2014-08-04 }}</ref> As tabular spacing makes all numbers with the same number of digits the same width, it is used for typesetting documents such as price lists, stock listings and sums in mathematics textbooks, all of which require columns of numeric figures to line up on top of each other for easier comparison.<ref>{{cite web |last = Strizver |first = Elaine |title = Proportional vs. Tabular Figures |url = http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-3/numbers/proportional-vs-tabular-figures |website = fonts.com |publisher = Monotype Imaging |access-date = 2014-08-04 }}</ref> Tabular spacing is also a common feature of simple printing devices such as [[cash register]]s and date-stamps.<ref>{{cite web |title = Revenue |url = http://www.typography.com/fonts/numbers/inside/revenue |publisher = Hoefler & Frere-Jones |access-date = 2014-08-04 }}</ref>

Characters of uniform width are a standard feature of so-called [[monospaced font]]s, used in programming and on typewriters. However, many fonts that are not monospaced use tabular figures. More complex font designs may include two or more combinations with one as the default and others as alternate characters.<ref>{{cite web |last=Butterick |first=Matthew |title = Alternate figures: consider the context |url = http://practicaltypography.com/alternate-figures.html |website = Butternick's Practical Typography }}</ref> Of the four possibilities, non-lining tabular figures are particularly rare since there is no common use for them.<ref>{{cite news |last=Saller |first=Carol |title = Old-Style Versus Lining Figures |url = http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/03/14/old-style-versus-lining-figures/ |newspaper=[[Chronicle of Higher Education]]|access-date = 2014-08-04 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Bergsland |first=David |title=Using numbers in the proper case |url=http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/bergsland/numbering_typography.html |publisher=Design & Publishing Center |access-date=4 August 2014 |archive-date=19 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071019050624/http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/bergsland/numbering_typography.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Peters Figure Styles">{{cite web |last1=Peters |first1=Yves |title=OpenType at Work {{!}} Figure Styles |url=https://www.typenetwork.com/news/article/opentype-at-work-figure-styles-part-1 |website=Type Network |access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref>

Fonts intended for professional use in documents such as business reports may also make the bold-style tabular figures take up the same width as the regular (non-bold) numbers, so a bold-style total would appear just as wide as the same sum in regular style.<ref name="Hoefler Fonts for Complex Data">{{cite web |last=Hoefler |first=Jonathan |author-link = Jonathan Hoefler |title = Fonts for Complex Data |url = https://www.typography.com/blog/fonts-for-complex-data |publisher = Hoefler & Co. |access-date = 2018-07-29 }}</ref><ref name="gotham"/><ref>{{cite web |first=Christian |last=Schwartz |author-link = Christian Schwartz |title = Neue Haas Grotesk: Features |url = http://www.fontbureau.com/nhg/features/ |publisher=The Font Bureau, Inc. |access-date = 2013-12-23 }}</ref>