both capital and small letters. However, documents where either written in
small or capital letters. Only after the invention of the printing press, both
sizes/writing styles where combined in one document. As small letters are
more frequently used than capital letters, printers used to keep the type for
small letters in the lower type case and the type for capital letters in the
upper type case of a desk. This practice led to the name uppercase and
lowercase letters.
Orphan
An orphan is a word or short line at the beginning or end of a column that
is separated from the rest of the paragraph (see illustration).
Overshoot
Round or pointed capital letters like S or B deviate slightly in height from
noun-rounded letters like X or T for the purpose of an equal optical
appearance. The degree to which capital letters go below the baseline or
above the cap height is called overshoot.
Serif / Serifs
Serif is both used as synonym for Antiqua fonts and as a noun for any of
the short lines stemming from and at an angle to the upper and lower ends
of the strokes of a latin letters, arabic figures or special characters as the red
lines in the following graphic indicate.