Glossary

A-D

Ashi (feet)

A generic term used for radicals located at the bottom of a kanji.

Counter

The inside space surrounded by strokes.

It is mainly used in the context of Latin typography, but it is also a concept in common with “Futokoro” in kanji and kana.

Corporate Font

Font established to regulate a corporate brand image.

Beginning of a brushstroke (pen stroke)

Beginning part of writing of a line that constitutes the character.

Ending of a brushstroke (pen stroke)

Ending part of writing of a line that constitutes the character.

Character shape

Shape of a written character.

Character width

Right and left width of a character.

CJK font

Font that corresponds to the three languages of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Block style

One kind of typeface.
Each stroke of a character is written clearly and not in the cursive style.
The standard writing method taught at school in Japan currently.

Adobe-Japan1 (Character set)

The character set standard specified for Japanese fonts by Adobe KK.
As of June 2021, it is defined from Abode Japan 1-0 to 1-7.

E-H

Hen

A generic term used for radicals on the left side.

Inside space between strokes (Futokoro)

Space between strokes that constitute a character.

Hiragana

Phonogram specific to Japan that constitutes writing kanji in the cursive style.
“あいう,” etc.

Horizontal typesetting

Typesetting to arrange characters in a horizontal direction.
In Japanese, characters proceed from left to right, and lines proceed from top to bottom.

Glyph

Characters included in a font or its shape.
The same character may have multiple glyphs, such as the full width character “ア” and half width character “ア.”

Family

Font group created with a consistent design on the same concept.
Often, there are variations with different weight, character width, inclination, contrast, etc. within the group.

I-L

Kamae

A generic term for radicals used to cover the inside of a kanji.

Kanmuri (crown)

A generic term used for radicals located on the top of a kanji.

Inside space between strokes (Futokoro)

Space between strokes that constitute a character.

Kanji

Ideogram originating in China, also used in languages in the surrounding area.
“永東愛,” etc.

Katakana

Phonogram specific to Japan that is made up by taking a part of kanji.
“アイウ,” etc.

Kana

Characters used in Japanese notation, created based on kanji.
Kana mainly means hiragana and katakana today.

Latin alphabet

Phonogram used centered in European languages including English.

Japanese

Japanese sentences. Or characters used in that notation.

Leaving space between words

“Leaving space between words” is a notation method to separate words and phrases with word spaces (blanks).

Kerning information

Information on adjusting space between characters for each glyph or combination of glyphs.

Kana in small script

Indicates a palatalized doubled consonant, etc.
Kana indicated in small characters, such as “ゃ” for “や.”

Imaginary body

Square frame used to design each glyph.

M-P

Nyou

A generic term for radicals located from the left to the bottom right of a kanji.

OpenType

The font format is developed by Microsoft and Adobe. The retail fonts supplied by Type Project are all OpenType.

Punchcutter

A craftsman who cuts letter punches. A letter punch is an original mold used in making the concave shape mold that is to become a metal type used in letterpress printing. The letter part has a convex shape. Before mechanical engraving became popular, all letter punches were cut in full-scale and right and left reversed by hand.

Parenthesis

Punctuation mainly used in pair to enclose characters and sentences to distinguish them.
“「」『』(),” etc.

Punctuation mark

文中や文末で使用し、文章の区切りを示す約物。
「、。」など。

Mincho typeface

One kind of typeface.
Features include thick vertical stroke, thin horizontal stroke, triangle ornament of the “uroko.”

Q-T

Tare

A generic term for radicals located from the top to the bottom left of a kanji.

Self-Hosting

In regard to web font, a website creator arranges and utilizes font data on a server.

Radical

One part of kanji.
Categorization can be made by meaning (水 (water), 糸 (string), 木 (wood)), position (偏 (side), 旁 (right-hand radical), 冠 (crown)), etc.

Typesetting

Work to constitute paper space by combining type and illustration, or a type page.

Solid typesetting

Typesetting to arrange characters without narrowing or widening the space between imaginary bodies.

Type face

A frame one size smaller than an imaginary body.
Used as an indication to arrange character size.

Roman typeface

One kind of typeface.
Features include an ornamental “serif” attached at the end of a stroke.

Sans-serif typeface

One kind of typeface.
Unornamented stroke is a feature.

StdN (Character set)

It is the standard Japanese character set Adobe-Japan 1-3 with the adoption of the JIS 2004 character shape.

U-Z

x-height

Literally, a term originating from the height of the lower case letter “x.” This forms the standard height for the lower case letters “a, c, e, x, z,” etc. in typeface design.

Web Font

Technology that enables displaying text on a web page in a specific font by reading font data from the internet.

Written in kanji and kana

Notation method in which kanji, hiragana, and katakana are mixed.
“この文章も漢字仮名交じり。” – This text is also written in kanji and kana.

Word space

Blank inserted between words and phrases to separate them.

Vertical typesetting

Typesetting to arrange characters in a vertical direction.
In Japanese, characters proceed from top to bottom, and lines proceed from right to left.

Weight

Thickness and thinness of a font.
At Type Project, “L, R, M, B, Blk,” etc. are attached in the font name for indication.