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Imaginary lines in typefaces
Each part of a letter has a special name. Some parts have more than one name, depending on which book you read, and which century the book discusses.
Ascender line: An imaginary horizontal line running along the top of the ascenders.
Baseline: An imaginary horizontal line that runs along the base of letters.
Cap line: An imaginary line running along the top of capital letters.
Mean line: An imaginary horizontal line that marks the top of lowercase letters without ascenders.
x-height: The height of lowercase letters, excluding ascenders and descenders. The measurement is taken from the lower case x, since this is the only letter with both a flat top and base.
Written by Geoffrey Fletcher
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