The Typographic 30
Complete Species & Laws Registry
Old Style
Calligraphic roots with diagonal stress.
Transitional
Vertical axis and sharper contrast.
Modern
Extreme contrast and flat serifs.
Slab Serif
Heavy, blocky industrial serifs.
Neo-Grotesque
Neutral, clean Swiss standard.
Geometric
Built from simple geometric shapes.
Humanist Sans
Sans-serif with organic proportions.
Monospaced
Characters occupy the same width.
Script
Mimics elegant formal handwriting.
Display
Designed for high-impact headings.
Kerning
Pair-specific optical spacing.
Tracking
Uniform spacing across a block.
Leading
Vertical space between lines.
Baseline
The invisible anchor line.
X-Height
Height of lowercase glyphs.
Measure
Ideal characters per line.
Hierarchy
Guiding order of importance.
Alignment
Structural anchor vs margins.
Descender
Strokes below the baseline.
Ascender
Strokes above the x-height.
Widows
Isolated words at ends.
Orphans
Lines isolated at starts.
Case
Strategic use of Upper/Lower.
Superscript
Characters set above the line.
Weight
Stroke thickness variations.
Ligature
Joined characters for flow.
Small Caps
Uppercase at x-height.
Italics
Slanted variations for stress.
Cap Height
Baseline to top of flat caps.
Grid Law
The underlying layout system.
