Have you ever wondered why some parts of letters are called tails and stems, and what are other parts besides them called?
As David Maier explains, a lot of the terminology seems to come from human and animal counterparts with roughly the same shape or position (eye, tail, head, foot, shoulder, arm, beak). Others are more directly descriptive (crossbar, terminal, bowl).
Here is what the various letter parts are called:
Great share. Very interesting. And btw, this was the first time in a long time when I clicked on your blog, it opened instantly. 🙂
Yay! I’m so glad to hear it 🙂
Looks like a typesetter’s dictionary–wait, are there still typesetters anymore or is this all done on a desktop keyboard?
There must still be a few around. right?
Strange how these topics come up. I’m just looking into getting more training in typography. Thank you for the post.
Claire
Synchronicity at work! Glad to have helped, Claire 🙂