Introduction to Type Terminology
There is a great deal of terminology associated with typography. To understand the complexities of legibility and readability, it's important that you are familiar with at least some of the basic terms such as:
serif, sans serif, x-height, counter, descender, and ascender
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Sans serif means: a typeface with no little "feet" at the ends of the letter strokes (like Verdana and Arial)
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Serif means: a typeface with little "feet" at the ends of strokes (like Times New Roman and Georgia)
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x-height: is the height of the lowercase x. It's important because it defines how big the lowercase letters are and how quickly they can be identified. X-heights vary by font even when the size is the same. Verdana has a larger x-height than Times.
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Counter: is the negative space in closed letters (like a, e, b, d etc.). Counters are important because their size impacts how easy it is to read a letter.
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Ascenders and Descenders: are the strokes that extend beyond the body of the lowercase letters (y, d, b, p etc.). Really short or long ascenders/descenders can make letters hard to read!
If you want to learn even more type anatomy and terminology read this article:
While you're there look for the definitions of "ear," "apex," "loop," "spine," "spur" and "tail."
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