Glossary N

nib

The point of a pen.

nonspacing accents

In digital and phototypesetting, one of two kinds of accents. Because the logic of the software usually does not recognize their widths (they often have a width value of zero), they can usually be typeset only in combination with another character or space. Also known as combining accents. See also floating accent, spacing accent.

nonlining numerals

See old-style numerals.

numeral

A character that represents a number. The arabic numerals are the figures 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. They are named arabic because of their historical origin in Middle Eastern cultures, although they are different from the set of numerals now used in the Middle East that are designed to harmonize with Arabic typefaces. In computer coding systems, they are often known as digits.

Roman numerals are alphabetical symbols used by the classical Romans to represent numbers: I = 1, II = 2, III = 3, IV = 4, V = 5, X = 10, and so on. Roman numerals are still in use today, generally for ceremonial applications, on timepieces, in certain proper names (such as Richard III), and for applications in book design such as preliminary pagination. See also figures, lining numerals, old-style numerals.

nut fraction

See horizontal fraction.