Lessons in Typography: A glossary

I started this glossary to create clarity about terminology, especially in areas where the language used in UI and print differs. I hope the project is helpful for others and I plan to keep adding to it–so get in touch if there’s anything, in particular, you’d like me to drill into.

Lesson 1: A lesson in leading

‘line-height’ (UI) = ‘leading’ (print)

This defines the distance between the baselines of two lines of text. In the illustration below, the baseline is shown in red.

‘Line height’ and ‘leading’ are also equal to ‘point size’.‘

‘Point size’ is not the same as ‘body size’ or ‘font-size’

Point size defines the height of the ‘text box’ in most modern graphics tools(including Sketch, Figma, Photoshop and Illustrator). It is equal to leading, rather than font-size.

There are subtle differences in the way typography is rendered on different platforms, operating systems and devices. If you want to learn more, here are a few links to get you started:

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