A to Z Challenge - X for X-height

Theme - Journalism Jargons

This again is a typography term that is used in journalism.

It refers to the height of the small letter 'x' for a particular font for a particular point size.

Some letters have ascenders, like b, d, l, t etc.; and some have descenders, like g, j, p, y etc. The x-height does not include the space occupied by the ascenders and the descenders.

When you include the total height of a letter, including the ascender and the descender, it is called the point size.

Max Naylor [Public domain]

In typography, it's the x-height that is considered while deciding the readability and the amount of space taken by the text. The larger the x-height, better the readability but more the space occupied; and smaller the x-height, more text in the given space but less readable the text.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

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