P

Pull quote

Short block of text that has been 'pulled' from the main body copy of an article and used to highlight an aspect of the article or a statement from an interviewee.

Pen form

A font family based on the style of a broad-nibbed pen.

Pica

Unit of measurement equivalent to 4,216 mm.

Point

A Point is the smallest of the typographical measuring units. 1 point equals 0,351 mm. There are 12 points in a Pica. The Point system is the most common form of measurement for setting type. Font sizes and line spaces (leading) are nearly always specified in points. The size of a font is measures from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender.

Printer fonts

PostScript fonts are made up of two separate files. The display or bitmap fonts, that are used purely for on-screen display and the printer fonts. Printer fonts contain high quality vector information and are sent to the printer to reproduce a quality printout.

When fully formatted disks are prepared to be sent for pre-press, it is important that both the printer fonts and the bitmap fonts are included. Otherwise it will be impossible for the imagesetter to output high resolution films or plates and the results will be bitmapped or aliased - sometimes referred to as jaggies.

TrueType fonts also contain bitmap and vector data, but the information is combined into one file.

See also: PostScript, TrueType fonts, PostScript Type 1

Proportionally spaced fonts

Proportionally spaced fonts are where each character has its own measurement. Narrow letters such as 'i' have less width than a 'w' for example. This is the standard for typefaces intended for print.

See also: Monospaced fonts