X-height

In typography, the x-height or corpus size refers to the distance between the baseline and the mean line in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the letter "x" in the font (which is where the terminology came from), as well as the "u", "v", "w", and "z". (Curved letters such as "a", "c", "e", "m", "n", "o", "r" and "s" tend to exceed the x-height slightly, due to overshoot.) However, in modern typography, the x-height is simply a design characteristic of the font, and while an "x" is usually exactly one x-height in height, in some more decorative or script designs, this may not always be the case.

Lowercase letters whose height is greater than the x-height either have descenders which extend below the baseline, such as "y", "g", "q", and "p", or have ascenders which extend above the x-height, such as "l", "k", "b", and "d". The ratio of the x-height to the body height is one of the major characteristics that defines the appearance of a font. The height of the capital letters is referred to as Cap height.

ee also

*En (typography)
*Small caps

External links

* [http://typophile.com/wiki/X-height Definition of x-height at typophile.com]