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Mean Line: From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

The mean line, also called the midline, is half the distance from the baseline to the cap height in typography. This line may or may not be the x-height depending on the design of the lowercase letters. Round glyphs like o and c will slightly break the mean line in many fonts for aesthetic reasons, appearing visually smaller than flat shapes of the same height due to optical illusions.

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58 views1 page

Mean Line: From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

The mean line, also called the midline, is half the distance from the baseline to the cap height in typography. This line may or may not be the x-height depending on the design of the lowercase letters. Round glyphs like o and c will slightly break the mean line in many fonts for aesthetic reasons, appearing visually smaller than flat shapes of the same height due to optical illusions.

Uploaded by

Alexandra Maria Neagu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mean line

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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For the branded rail service, see West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive.
In typography, the mean line, also called the midline, is half the distance from the baseline to
[1]
the cap height. This may or may not be the x-height, depending on the design of the lower
case letters. A very high or very low x-height may mean that the midline is above or below the x-
height.

This confusion has been perpetuated by books, and websites, on typography which copied from
books on type back to the original book or source on type that first failed to clarify this difference.

Round glyphs will break (overshoot) the mean line slightly in many typefaces, since this is
aesthetically more pleasing; a rounded shape will appear visually smaller than flat-topped (or
bottomed) shapes of equal height, due to an optical illusion.

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