DOCUMENT INTRODUCTION
This document complies to the default page setup and Normal style used by
Microsoft® Word 97. Although the primary purpose of this document is to provide
users with two full pages of text for the purpose of format control, it also contains
some useful information. For example, several word processing definitions are
given.
NOTE
The following paragraphs define a number of typographic and word processing
terms. If you are unfamiliar with typography, you may wish to read the text.
Otherwise, use the document for its intended purpose—to practice format
control.
Typographics has been around for centuries. It uses established measures, such
as points and pica, which are easily converted to inches or centimeters. Look at
the following definitions.
Point A point is approximately 1/72 of an inch. It is measured from the
descender to the ascender of a character, where a descender might be the tail of
a y or q and an ascender is the top of an h or t. Therefore, 10-point text means
that 10/72 of an inch exists from the bottom of the type's descender to the top of
its ascender.
Pica
There are 12 points in a pica. Therefore, there are six picas per inch.
Typographers apply the term pica to line lengths, margins, page widths, and
page heights. Many typographers and printers use line guages, which are
calibrated in picas and points.
Baseline
The baseline is an invisible line on which type rests. Descenders
extend below the baseline.
X-Height
The x-height of a letter is the distance from the baseline to the top
of lowercase letters, like x, a, or m. Ascenders extend above the top of the xheight.
Leading Leading (taken from the days when molten lead was used to make type)
is the measure, in points, between the baselines of adjoining lines of text. If a
typographer specifies 12 on 13 (or 12/13) for a type size, then you can expect
12-point text on 13-pont line spacing. This provides a 1-point gap between
ascenders and descenders. A setting of 12/12 can cause ascenders and
descenders to touch, depending on the selected typeface. (Some typefaces are
slightly shorter than others, which violates the measurement convention.)
Typographers used to use narrow strips of lead, measured in points, to establish
the desired spacing between lines of text.
Kerning Kerning is used to change the space between adjoining letters. The word
"To," in large type, often appears to have an excessive gap between the T and
the o. If this is on a title page, you might want to kern the letters to make it look
better. Word lets you change the space between letters by highlighting the
desired characters or words, and then using the Format|Character menu's
Spacing control. Here, you can adjust the space between characters in either
direction (positive or negative kerning). The following example shows the word
"To" in normal spacing and then with positive and negative kerning.
Normal To
Positive To
Negative
To
Carding The term carding is defined as inserting small increments of space
between lines to force adjoining pages to align at the top and bottom. Hot lead
typographers sometimes used this technique. For example, if the right-hand page
is two lines shorter than the left-hand page, thin "cards" can be inserted between
lines until the page bottoms come into alignment.
Recto and Verso
The term recto refers to right-hand pages, while verso refers
to left-hand (reverse side) pages. Page numbers always begins with 1 or i—both
right-hand pages. Therefore, all odd-numbered pages are right-hand (or recto).
Conversely, all left-hand pages have even numbers. For example, the reverse
side of page 1 is 2, hence the term verso applies to 2, 4, 6, ii, iv, vi, and so on.
Font
A font is a unique type design. For example, courier normal is a
typewriter style, medium weight typeface. Courier bold and courier italic are other
fonts in the courier family. Courier fonts are monospace, that is, each character
occupies the same amount of space. Other fonts, like Helvetica, Arial, Palantino,
Century Schoolbook, Times Roman, and Times New Roman are proportional
spaced. That is, each character occupies an amount of space according to its
width. For example, an i occupies less space than an m or w.
As you can see, typography has its own special measures a unique set of
terminology. Many terms carry over into word processing and desktop publishing.
Word 6.0 for Windows combines the power of full-featured word processing and
desktop publishing.