User Guide

Glossary
AFM: (Adobe Font Metrics) A specification for storing (in
a text file) font metrics information such as character
widths, kerning pairs, and character bounding boxes.
Application: A computer program, designed to perform a
specific function such as word processing or illustrating.
Ascent: A font’s maximum distance above the baseline.
ASCII: (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) A numbering scheme used for identifying
printing characters.
Adobe Type Manager (ATM): The program that improves
your screen font display by eliminating jagged edges on
Type 1 fonts.
Baseline: The line upon which the letters of a font rest.
Basepoint: Fontographer’s reference point from which
distances are measured, and about which the special effect
transformations may be performed.
BCP: Bezier Control Point. One of two points which guide
a Bzier curve.
Bezier curve: Mathematical equations commonly used to
describe the shapes of characters in electronic typography.
The Bezier curve was named for Pierre Bezier, a French
computer scientist who developed the mathematical
representation used to describe that curve.
Bit: A contraction of BInary digiT, this word signifies the
smallest unit of data a computer holds, and represents a
two-way choice like ‘on or off,’ or ‘black or white.’
Bitmap: A grid of individual dots or pixels that make up the
graphic display. Each pixel (or picture element) corresponds
to bits in the computer’s memory.
Bitmap font: A character set created by turning on or off
Fontographer User's Manual
Glossary Page #1