Typography

The art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed.

More terms you might want to know

TIFF File

A Tagged Image File Format is a file format for storing images losslessly.

Stroke

The path of any movement, mark, shape, or other feature of a design. It can be the border of an element or even the tight edge of a text box, etc.

Tittle

The typographic term for the dot above the letters 'i' and 'j'.

Ligature

A form of typographic ornament used by a type designer for decorative purposes. Common ligatures are based on joining two or more letters together, often with figures embedded in the design

Body Copy

The main text of an advertisement or editorial as opposed to headings and subheadings.

Wordmark

A logo which is usually a combination of text and graphic imagery that acts as the company's symbol.

User Interface (UI)

A type of graphical interface that allows the user to interact with the application on a screen, such as a computer monitor or smartphone, using various types of input devices.

Baseline

An imaginary line on which most letters "sit". As such, it equals the height of an em square. The expected result of a baseline is to reference the height with which text is aligned. The alignment ranges from ascenders, which are the upper strokes in b, d, and h, down to descenders like j or y.

Affinity Diagram

A data visualisation tool that can be used to explore and group people's thoughts or reactions to a set of concepts. Affinity diagrams are often used in user research and design thinking as an experimental technique for generating new ideas or solutions.

The emergent patterns in these visual representations can help identify which aspects your audience will respond well to, thus enabling decisions on the information architecture and next steps in the process.

It is important to note that affinity diagrams were initially developed for qualitative research but have since been adapted for quantitative research (though they are not typically used with statistical data).

Small Caps

Small uppercase letters, generally about half as tall as regular uppercase letters.

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