User Guide

Glyph Window
345
V e r t i c a l Me t r i c s
Every font has several vertical metrics values for alignment of text:
x Heigh t
Caps Heigh t
Descender
Ascender
The Ascender line defines the position of the top of lowercase characters
(usually the topmost point of the Latin ‘b’).
The Descender line defines the position of the bottom of the lowercase
characters (usually the bottom point of ‘p’).
The Caps height defines the height of the uppercase characters (without
overshoot). Usually it is the height of the ‘H’.
The x Height is the height of most lowercase characters, like ‘x’ or ‘v’.
In FontLab you can modify the vertical metrics values in the Font Info
dialog box, but you can also preview and change them visually in the Glyph
Window.
Make sure that the Vertical metrics layer
is active and not locked.
In the Editing field vertical metrics appear as gray lines with a label at the
right:
Ascender
Descender
Caps height
x Height
To change a metric, just drag its line with the Edit tool.