Lexmark Monochrome Laser Complete Printer Reference (1.7 MB) - Page 152

Some fonts combine several weight and style modifications; for example, Helvetica Narrow Bold Italic. A group of several weight and style variations of a single typeface is called a typeface family. Most typeface families have four variations: regular, italic, bold, and bold italic. Some families have more variations, as the following illustration for the Helvetica typeface family shows: Pitch and point size The size of a font is specified as either a pitch or point size, depending on whether the font is fixed space or proportional. In fixed space fonts, each character has the same width. Pitch is used to specify the size of fixed space fonts. It is a measure of the number of characters that will print in one horizontal inch of type. For example, all 10-pitch fonts print 10 characters per inch (cpi) and all 12-pitch fonts print 12 cpi. In proportional (or typographic) fonts, every character can have a different width. Since proportional fonts have characters with different widths, the font size is specified in point size, not pitch. Point size refers to the height of the characters in the font. A point is defined as 1/72 inch. The characters in a font printed at 24 point are twice as large as the characters in the same font printed at 12 point. The following illustration shows samples of a font printed in different point sizes: 48 point 36 point 24 point 18 point 12 point 10 point Understanding fonts 152