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Some Basic Facts about Fonts
7-2
7
Appendix
Some Basic Facts about Fonts
This section summarizes some of the basic facts you should know about fonts.
What Is a Font?
A font is a collection of letters and symbols used when printing a document. In
general, a group of letters and symbols sharing a common design is referred to as
a font. A font consists of the letters A to Z in both upper and lowercase, digits, and
symbols.
The design that distinguishes one font from another is referred to as a "typeface."
Each font has a typeface name, such as Courier, CG Times, Letter Gothic, etc.
Attributes of Fonts
All fonts share some common characteristics, which are called "attributes." The
typeface is one such attribute. The letters and symbols that are actually printed are
determined by the values of a collection of these attributes.
Typeface The design of the letters (e.g., Courier, CG Times, Helvetica, or Gothic).
Stroke Weight
The thickness of the lines with which the letters are drawn (e.g., bold,
medium, or light).
Style
Whether the letters are drawn straight or at an angle (e.g., upright or
italic).
Point Size Height of the letters (e.g., 10 point or 5 point).
Pitch (cpi)
Number of characters that are printed in one inch (e.g., 10 cpi, 12 cpi, or
Scale).
Character
Width (Fixed/
PS)
Indicates whether the character width is set to "Fixed" or "Proportional."
Orientation Orientation of the characters on a page ("Portrait" or "Landscape").
Symbol Set
The rule that defines the correspondence between the character codes
coming from the host computer, and the letter forms that appear on the
page (e.g., Roman-8).