Glossary I

ink trap

In characters designed for metal type, a design flaw in which ink tends to accumulate, usually occurring at the juncture of two strokes that meet at an acute angle. In phototypesetting, a similar feature that tends to lose clarity as a result of the photographic process. The solution practiced by type designers in each medium is to carve out or taper a small section of each of the strokes, creating a small wedge of white space at the juncture.

inline

Describes a typeface with white lines appearing inside the character strokes, sometimes intended to imitate carving or chiseling, as if the characters were carved in stone or wood, or to imitate engraving in metal. Inline typefaces are generally reserved for display work (examples: Delphian, Colonna, Castellar).

inscriptional

Describes letterforms derived from stone-carved letters. Although inscriptional letters have been made in various cultures and during many periods of history, graphic artists use inscriptional especially to refer to letters derived from monumental Greek and Roman carvings. Such carvings contain only capital letters with proportions typically based on the square and various divisions of the square.

intercharacter space

The white space between two or more adjacent characters. Also sometimes known as letterspacing. See also letterspacing.

interlinear space

See line spacing.

International Organization for Standardization

See ISO.

interpretation

The design of letterform parts and aspects that differentiate one typeface from another, including serifs, line weight, and curve stress. Includes all design characteristics of the letterform except the basic structure or skeletal form.

ISO

International Organization for Standardization. A world-wide federation of national organizations dedicated to developing and promoting international standards and related activities. Its principal goals are to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services and to develop cooperation in the realms of intellectual, scientific, technological, and economic activity. ISO's work covers most fields except those of electrical and electronic engineering, which are covered by a partner organization, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The short name ISO is not an acronym. It is derived from the Greek root isos, meaning "equal," and was selected so as not to favor any one language of its member organizations.

italic

Traditionally, a typeface in which characters are inclined and some or all of the lowercase letters especially are different in shape from roman letters, having forms reminiscent of cursive writing. Also differentiated from an oblique typeface or sloped roman, an inclined version of a roman with character shapes that are essentially the same as those for the roman. In common use, however, italic is inclusive of many typefaces that are actually obliques.

The first italic typefaces were created in the sixteenth century as independent fonts and were based on chancery script, a style of handwriting used by scribes in the fifteenth-century papal courts. Shortly thereafter italics were first designed to blend with companion roman typefaces; most italics today are still designed for this purpose. Italic typefaces designed for the Latin alphabet incline to the right and usually have slightly narrower letterforms than their roman counterparts.

Style manuals specify many uses for italics and obliques, for example, in formal book typography, to give emphasis to words, to indicate titles of books, and to highlight words from other languages. A few fonts have italic forms but are rendered upright. See also cursive, oblique, true-cut italic.

italic offset

In the spacing (fitting) of an italic or oblique typeface by the type designer, a slight shift of individual characters to the left. Intended to make words or characters appear evenly spaced when they appear within a line otherwise typeset in an upright typeface, such as a companion roman; also to improve the optical left alignment of characters from different typefaces. Usually a standard character such as the capital O is first shifted to the left, then other characters are spaced in relationship to this character.