In European and West Asian

typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

and penmanship, the baseline is the line upon which most letters ''sit'' and below which descenders extend. In the example to the right, the letter 'p' has a descender; the other letters sit on the (red) baseline. Most, though not all,

typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...

s are similar in the following ways as regards the baseline: *

capital letters Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''#Majuscule, majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally ''#Minuscule, minuscule'') in the written representation of certain langua ...

sit on the baseline. The most common exceptions are the J and Q. *All lining figures sit on the baseline: *Some

text figures Text figures (also known as non-lining, lowercase, old style, ranging, hanging, medieval, billing, or antique figures or numerals) are numerals designed with varying heights in a fashion that resembles a typical line of running text, hence the ...

have descenders: *The following lowercase letters have descenders: g j p q y. *

Glyphs A glyph ( ) is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A ...

with rounded lower and upper extents (0 3 6 8 c C G J o O Q) dip very slightly below the baseline (" overshoot") to create the optical illusion that they sit on the baseline, and rise above the x-height or capital height to create the illusion that they have the same height as flat glyphs (such as those for H x X 1 5 7). Peter Karow's ''Digital Typefaces'' suggests that typical overshoot is about 1.5%. The vertical distance of the base lines of consecutive lines in a paragraph is also known as line height or

leading In typography, leading ( ) is the space between adjacent lines of type; the exact definition varies. In hand typesetting, leading is the thin strips of lead (or aluminium) that were inserted between lines of type in the composing stick to incre ...

, although the latter can also refer to the baseline distance minus the font size. Northern Brahmic scripts have a characteristic ''hanging'' baseline; the letters are aligned to the top of the writing line, marked by an overbar, with diacritics extending above the baseline. East Asian scripts have no baseline; each glyph sits in a square box, with neither ascenders nor descenders. When mixed with scripts with a low baseline, East Asian characters should be set so that the bottom of the character is between the baseline and the descender height.

References

Typography Penmanship {{Typ-stub

See also

References