Type Anatomy & Classification · Page 3 of 8

What are the parts of a letter?

Designers have a name for every part of a letter. Here are the ones you’ll use most.

Every line that makes up a letter is a stroke. Strokes can be thick or thin, and the thickness of a stroke is called its weight. The terms below name the different kinds of strokes, the shapes and spaces they make, and the details at their ends.

How to read the diagrams

Each number points to a part. Find the matching number in the list below the diagram. The letters are Libre Caslon Text, an Old Style serif, because serif letters show the most parts.

Strokes

Uppercase A, V, K and H and lowercase S, t and n with nine numbered parts marked: 1 apex, 2 crotch, 3 arm, 4 leg, 5 stem, 6 cross bar, 7 spine, 8 cross stroke, 9 shoulder. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Main and secondary strokes.

  1. Apex

    The top point where two angled strokes meet, like the top of an uppercase A.

  2. Crotch

    The inside of a vertex, the point where two angled strokes meet at the bottom, like the inside bottom of a V.

  3. Arm

    A secondary stroke that extends horizontally or diagonally from the top of a stroke and does not connect to another stroke.

  4. Leg

    A secondary stroke that extends horizontally or diagonally from the bottom of a stroke and does not connect to another stroke.

  5. Stem

    The upright, or vertical, main stroke of a letter.

  6. Cross bar

    A horizontal stroke that connects two strokes, like the bar of an H or A.

  7. Spine

    The curved stroke through the middle of an S.

  8. Cross stroke

    A horizontal stroke that cuts across a stem, like the bar of a t or f.

  9. Shoulder

    A short, rounded stroke that connects two vertical strokes, or a vertical stroke and a terminal, like the arch of an n.

Curves and spaces

Lowercase b, e and p with five numbered parts marked: 1 bowl of the b, 2 counter inside the b, 3 eye of the e, 4 ascender of the b, 5 descender of the p. 1 2 3 4 5
Round strokes and the spaces inside letters.

  1. Bowl

    A curved stroke that connects to a vertical stroke or to itself, making a closed shape, like the round part of a b.

  2. Counter

    The enclosed, or partly enclosed, space inside a letter.

  3. Eye

    The closed counter at the top of a lowercase e.

  4. Ascender

    The part of a lowercase letter that rises above the x-height.

  5. Descender

    The part of a lowercase letter that dips below the baseline.

Endings and details

Uppercase F, G, S and Q and lowercase h, e, b and i with parts marked: 1 serif and 2 bracket at the foot of the h, 3 terminal of the e, 4 beak of the F, 5 barb of the S, 6 spurs on the G and the b, 7 tail of the Q, 8 tittle of the i. 4 6 5 7 1 2 3 6 8
The details at the ends of strokes. These small shapes are the best clues to a typeface’s category.
Close-up of the foot of the h: 1 serif, 2 bracket.

  1. Serif

    The small line or block, like a “foot,” attached to the end of a stroke.

  2. Bracket

    The piece that connects a stroke to a serif. It can be curved or straight, large or missing.

  3. Terminal

    The end of a stroke that has no serif. A round one is called a ball terminal.

  4. Beak

    A sharp, serif-like ending on the arm of a letter, like the tips of an F or T.

  5. Barb

    A sharp, serif-like ending on a curved stroke, like the tips of a C or S.

  6. Spur

    A small pointed extension off the top or bottom of a stroke, often where a straight stroke meets a curve, like the corner of a G or the foot of a b.

  7. Tail

    The stroke that crosses the lower half of an uppercase Q. Also the descending stroke of some letters, like R, j or y.

  8. Tittle

    The smallest mark on a letter: the dot over a lowercase i or j.

Stress and contrast

Contrast is the difference between the thick and thin strokes in a letter. Stress is the axis created by that thick and thin contrast. To find it, look at a lowercase o and draw a line through its two thinnest points.

The lowercase o in four typefaces with a line through the thinnest parts of each stroke. In the Old Style o the line tilts to the left. In the Transitional o it is nearly upright, and in the Modern o it is upright. The geometric Sans Serif o has even strokes and no stress line.Old StyleTransitionalModernSans Serif
Each dashed line connects the two thinnest points of the o, measured from the real letter outlines. Old Style stress tilts to the left (also called bias or diagonal stress). Transitional and Modern stress is upright or within a few degrees of it, so tell those two apart by contrast. A geometric Sans Serif has even strokes and no stress at all.
Glyph, character or font?

A character is a symbol in writing: a letter, number or punctuation mark. A glyph is the shape a particular typeface gives that character. A typeface is the design of the whole alphabet, and a font is the complete set of its letters, numbers and glyphs in one style, like Caslon Italic.

© Created by Sara Rosenstock, Marietta College Graphic Design.