Typography

Documents are written in words; and words, in characters. These characters are visualized with glyphs, shaped by a typeface, and packaged as fonts.

Characters are like humans; same skeletons, different dressings.

The skeleton of the uppercase letter A uses three bones called strokes. For A to be, two strokes must be diagonal, meeting at an apex, while the third stroke must cross them near the middle. If they fail to meet at the apex, these strokes risk forming the uppercase letter H.

Meanwhile, the dressing on those diagonal strokes may have the same or different weights, and their apex can be capped with a serif that extends to the left as a unilateral stroke, or across both sides as a bilateral flat roof. Finally, their base may use or avoid feet, and if it uses them, they can be identical or mismatched, like a traditional serif paired with an elegant swash.

In a sane space, whatever the typeface, the skeletons are the same, but the dressings may differ.