Anatomy of Type

Some examples of type anatomy which I found useful when re-familiarising myself with different features of letterforms before I start working on the type specification for the type workshops. My typeface is a san-serif typeface called Motor Oil 1937 M54. I need to find characteristics about it which make it instantly recognisable so you know it's Motor Oil just by looking at it.

It's pretty complicated at times, for me anyway, sometimes you get features like a 'counter' and an 'eye'. There must be a reason for all these words for the features so I'm going to try and work it out so it helps me remember.

You can see here the negative space inside the 'd' letterform is called a counter, whereas the same characteristic inside the 'e' is called the 'eye. Only the counters in an e are called an 'eye'

Similar characteristics on the 'a' and 'g' are quite similar. On the 'a' the sort of teardrop is called the Terminal and on the g it's called the Ear, another unique characteristic that only g's have.

You can have bracketed serifs and unbracketed seris. Serifs with a curved entrance are called bracketed serifs, a right angle, more contemporary style serif is called unbracketed serif.

The stroke on the N and the stem as seen on the L are similar in terms of characteristics. They're both connecting other parts of the letterform to each other but they have different names. It seems that a diagonal 'connection' rather than a vertical one is called a stroke.