Talk:Ascender (typography)

Question
Is ascender + descender = font size? In Freetype it doesn't seem so (e.g. font size = 24; ascender + descender = 29). Why? --87.162.236.78 (talk) 14:13, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Disambiguation
There are so many "Ascender" topics in Wikipedia now, some of which are listed in the header to this article and some which aren't, like Pterodactyl Ascender, that I would like to suggest that this page be moved to Ascender (typography) and this page made into a disambiguation page instead, listing all the Ascender topics. - Ahunt (talk) 15:15, 31 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Lacking any objections this move has been made, the typography nav box has also been amended. - Ahunt (talk) 23:31, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Dichotomy
"In typography, an ascender is the portion of a minuscule letter in a Latin-derived alphabet that extends above the mean line of a font. That is, the part of a lower-case letter that is taller than the font's x-height."

the figure to the right of this definition doesn't conform to the definition.

according to the figure, the 'h' in 'Sphinx' goes above the 'mean line,' but NOT into the 'ascender height' area. in that figure no other miniscule letter comes close to the ascender area.

the definition leads one to believe that the 'h' should be going into the 'ascender height' area.

according to its name, it might make sense that the 'ascender' area be the area used only for accent marks. if this word 'ascender' relates to 'accent,' (or to the effect accents have in the pronunciation of a word - make the sound of it "ascend") then: the current figure would be right, and the current definition would have to be changed.

24.190.135.54 (talk) 19:36, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Relationship with cap height?
I'm not sure why, but in some fonts the ascender line is higher than the cap height (in others it's the same and in others it's lower). Why is this so? I find it odd that in words like "Illness" or "Playlist" the height of the lowercase l is (in these fonts) greater than that of the capital I and P, respectively. In fact, it's even greater than the capital L. This happens even in sans-serif fonts that make the l curved to differentiate it from capital I, and in seriffed fonts, where I's serifs should be enough for distinction. So what's going on here? --Waldir talk 10:40, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Contradictory Statements
"In typography, an ascender is the portion of a minuscule letter in a Latin-derived alphabet that extends above the mean line of a font. That is, the part of a lower-case letter that is taller than the font's x-height." That last sentence is a clear contradiction with another article on Wikipedia named: Mean Line. It states that "In typography, the mean line, also called the midline, is half the distance from the baseline to the cap height. This may or may not be the x-height." This confusion will continue unless all articles in relation with these terms are fixed to their correct definitions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:FF09:2700:D8EE:7F17:6DA9:808B (talk) 17:54, 14 June 2016 (UTC)