From " the Fundamental of Creative Design" - Gavin Ambrose/ Paul Harris

Typography Terminology

Courtesy: http://blog.nella.org/ jra's thoughts




Point:
The point system is used to specify typographical dimension of a page.
Point - 1/72 of an inch, used by American and British Typo systems. Typo design is done in points
12 points = 1 pica
1 point = 0.35mm
1 pica = 4.22 mm
6 pica= 1 inch

Didot
Europeans use Didot
12 didot = 1 cicero
1 didot=0.38mm
1 cicero=4.5mm


 Em=basic unit of measurement for a given typeface derived from the wodth of its lower case "m",
 i.e 1 em = the point size of the typeface


Kerning and Ligatures
Kerning concerns space between two letter. Sometimes combination of two albhabets have more then required space between two alphabets, the excess is reduced by kerning. Letters which are often kerned are known as kerning pairs.



Courtesy: http://blogs.msdn.com; Unni's blog












Ligatures is the technique of joining two letters to reduce space by simply using crossbar or removing dots.

Courtesy: : www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/opentype/over.htm








Leading:
In typography, refers to the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type ( courtesy : Wikipedia)

courtesy:http://www.gregoryciotti.com