x-height gauges

Contents:

1. Basic characteristics of letters

2. Requirements for type sizes

3. Rx-height gauges

4. Considerations

1. Basic characteristics of letters

1. Three basic characteristics: dimensions of letters

• The vertical dimension of a line of text can be indicated by the height of a lowercase x.

• The distance between lines can be measured from baseline to baseline.

• In latin scripts, the curves of some characters (a, e, o, s, c) extend a little bit above and below the x-height. This is done to make these round characters look as large as the characters with flat tops (k, w, x, z). Tobias Frere-Jones gives a detailed description.

If you cover the x-height by a black bar, it is just possible to see the round curves above and below it.