The ascender is the stroke of the letterform that extends above the main body of a character as in b, d, f, h, k, and t . The descender is the stroke that extends below the x-height as seen in g, j, p, q, and y . Two other components of a letterform are the counter and the bowl . A counter is the partially enclosed area as found in c, m, s, and u . The style After form comes style.
Typefaces are either serif or sans serif.
Serif describes the short line that stems from the beginning or ending of a letter stroke. Palatino is a good example of serif. Sans serif simply means without serif. The ubiquitous Helvetica typifies this category of straightforward-looking fonts. Serif is generally more readable while sans serif is more legible.