Parts of a Typeface – Label the Anatomy of Type

All 11 parts on the diagram

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Start here: the three lines 3

Baseline The line the letters sit on. Descenders hang below it.
X-height How tall the lowercase letters are, measured on the x. Ascenders rise above it.
Cap height The height of a capital letter above the baseline. It is best measured on a flat letter such as H.

Strokes 4

Stem A straight upright stroke of a letter. The H has two.
Crossbar The level stroke across the H's middle. The A has one too.
Serif A small projection at the end of a main stroke. A typeface without them is a sans serif.
Bowl A curved stroke that encloses a space. The space inside it is the counter.

Spaces and ends 4

Counter The space enclosed inside a letter. In the o it is closed all the way round.
Descender The part of a letter below the baseline. The letters g, j, p, q and y have one.
Terminal A stroke's end without a serif. Here it is the free end of the e.
Ascender The part of a lowercase letter above the x-height. The letters b, d, f, h, k, l and t have one.

How this list was compiled: Read 2026-10-01; a name is kept only where both sources use it. (1) Wikipedia, Typeface anatomy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface_anatomy : baseline, x-height, cap height, ascender, descender, stem, bowl, counter, crossbar, serif and terminal. (2) The type foundry Monotype's two glossaries, counted as one source: Anatomy of a Character by Ilene Strizver, https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-1/type-anatomy/anatomy (ascender: on lowercase b, d, f, h, k, l, t, the part that rises above the x-height; bowl: a curved stroke that closes off a space, the counter; cap height: baseline up to the capitals' top, best measured on a flat letter such as E, H or I; counter: the space a character encloses, partly or fully; descender: the bit of g, j, p, q, y that descends below the baseline; serif: projections sticking out of main strokes; stem: a straight vertical stroke; terminal: a stroke end with no serif; x-height: how tall lowercase letters are, the x in particular), and Typography terms, https://www.monotype.com/resources/studio/typography-terms (baseline: the unseen line the letters seem to sit on; crossbar: the stroke, usually level, across the middle of capital A and H). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-01 from plain geometry; no font, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

Label the parts of a typeface on five large letters. Start with the three lines every letter is measured against, then the strokes, the spaces and the ends.

Read the full guide

Three lines

Letters sit on the baseline. The x-height is the height of the lowercase letters, and the cap height is the height of the capitals. A part that rises above the x-height is an ascender; a part that drops below the baseline is a descender.

Strokes and spaces

A stem is a straight upright stroke, and a bowl is a curved one that closes round a space, the counter. A stroke ends in a serif or, without one, in a terminal. Use Quiz me as an anatomy of type quiz, or Find it as a typography anatomy quiz in which you tap the part named.

Ascender and descender say which way they go: one ascends above the small letters, one descends below the line.

Questions and answers

What are the main parts of a typeface?

Three measures, the baseline, x-height and cap height, and the parts of the letters themselves: stems, bowls, crossbars and serifs, the counters they enclose, and the ascenders and descenders that reach above and below the small letters.

What is the difference between a bowl and a counter?

The bowl is the curved stroke. The counter is the space the stroke encloses. In a p the round stroke is the bowl and the space inside it is the counter.

What is x-height in typography?

The height of the lowercase letters, measured on the x and leaving out ascenders and descenders.