Design AtlasAaTypography
Kerning, leading, variable fonts, kinetic type — the vocabulary of letters. — 39 entries
Hangul jamo composition한글의 초성·중성·종성
A Hangul syllable block is composed of an initial consonant, a vowel, and an optional final consonant, combined by a fixed rule — one Unicode encodes directly as arithmetic.
Square-form vs free-form Hangul네모꼴과 탈네모꼴
Most Hangul typefaces draw every syllable inside the same invisible square — "square-form." Experimental designs that break that grid and let jamo flow at freer heights, closer to Latin letters, are called "free-form."
Vertical writing mode세로쓰기
A layout direction where text flows top-to-bottom instead of left-to-right, and lines stack right to left. CSS implements it with `writing-mode: vertical-rl`.
Ruby annotation루비 주석
Small pronunciation or gloss text placed alongside a base character or word — natively supported in HTML via the `<ruby>` element.
Text emphasis marks강조점 (방점)
An East Asian tradition of marking emphasis with small dots or circles beside or above characters — CSS `text-emphasis` implements it directly.
OpenType features오픈타입 기능
An extension of the OpenType format that lets a single font file hold multiple alternate glyph sets and switch between them by rule — kerning and ligatures through stylistic sets are all part of this same framework.
Tabular numbers표 형식 숫자
Forces every digit (0–9) to occupy the same width, so a column of changing numbers doesn't jitter as digits update.
Stylistic sets스타일리스틱 세트
Alternate glyph designs a type designer pre-draws for the same letters — selected via `font-variant-alternates: styleset()` or the `ss01`–`ss20` tags.
font-feature-settings폰트 기능 설정
A low-level CSS property that turns OpenType feature tags on or off by string, for features that have no dedicated named property — stylistic sets, character variants, and the like.
Contextual alternates문맥 대체 글자
Redrawing the same letter differently depending on its neighbors — more flexible than a ligature, which only ever looks at one fixed pair.
Hanging indent행잉 인덴트
A paragraph style where the first line sits flush left and every line after it is indented instead — the reverse of ordinary indentation.
Korean punctuation conventions한글 문장부호 관습
Marks like corner brackets (「」『』), the interpunct (·), and the ellipsis (……) that Korean typesetting uses differently from — or in addition to — Western punctuation.
Korean line breaking (keep-all)한국어 줄바꿈 (keep-all)
Korean text wraps at any syllable by default. `word-break: keep-all` restricts breaks to spaces — word (어절) boundaries — instead.
Font fallback폰트 폴백
The browser's behavior of trying each font listed in `font-family` in order and rendering with the first one that actually has a glyph for the character.
Font display strategy폰트 디스플레이 전략
A CSS property that decides how text behaves while a custom font is still downloading — hide it until ready (FOIT), or show it in a fallback font first (FOUT).
Font subsetting폰트 서브셋팅
Stripping a font file down to only the glyphs actually used, discarding the rest — especially effective for writing systems with large character counts, like Hangul.
All-caps tracking올캡스 트래킹
Setting text in all caps makes letters read as more crowded, since the rhythm normally given by lowercase ascenders and descenders disappears. Positive tracking is the standard fix for that cramped feel.
Optical margin alignment광학 여백 정렬
Pushing punctuation with little ink and a lot of surrounding white space — quotation marks, bullets, hyphens — slightly outside the text block's edge so the paragraph looks flush, even though its literal edge isn't.
Kerning커닝
Adjusting the space between a specific pair of letters (AV, To, We…) individually — not the same as tracking, which shifts every letter equally.
Tracking트래킹
Uniformly adding or removing space between every letter in a run of text — CSS `letter-spacing`.
Leading리딩 (행간)
The vertical space between lines of text. The name comes from the strips of lead metal printers inserted between lines of type.
Baseline베이스라인
The invisible line most letters "stand" on. Only descenders like g, y, p dip below it.
x-height엑스하이트
The height of lowercase letters with no ascender or descender, like x. Fonts at the same point size can feel bigger or smaller depending on this ratio.
Serif세리프
Typefaces with small feet — finishing strokes — at the ends of letterforms. Rooted in print tradition, often credited with helping body-text legibility.
Sans-serif산세리프
Typefaces without finishing feet — stroke widths stay relatively uniform end to end. "Sans" is French for "without."
Monospace모노스페이스
A typeface where every character occupies exactly the same width — i and m take up identical space.
Variable font가변 폰트
A font format that interpolates axes — weight, width, slant — continuously from a single file, instead of shipping separate Regular and Bold files.
Kinetic typography키네틱 타이포그래피
Typography where individual letters move to carry rhythm or emotion — common in title sequences, captions, and loading screens.
Drop cap드롭캡
An enlarged first letter that spans several lines of the paragraph below it, marking where a chapter or section begins.
Widows and orphans위도우와 오펀
A widow is a short lone word stranded on a paragraph's last line; an orphan is a paragraph's first line left isolated at the bottom of a column. Both are old taboos in editorial design.
Ligature리거처
Drawing two letters that would otherwise collide — fi, fl — as a single merged glyph.
Type scale타입 스케일
A system that multiplies body text size by a fixed ratio (1.2, 1.25, 1.333…) to derive a consistent ladder of heading sizes.
text-wrap: balance텍스트 밸런스
A CSS property that recomputes a multi-line headline's break points so each line ends up roughly the same length.
Small caps스몰캡스
Lowercase letters redrawn as capital shapes, but smaller than full caps and matched in stroke weight to the surrounding text — not simply shrunken capitals.
Optical size옵티컬 사이즈
Drawing the same typeface heavier and wider at small sizes, and thinner and tighter at large display sizes.
Fluid typography플루이드 타이포그래피
Instead of jumping font size at fixed breakpoints, scaling it continuously and smoothly in proportion to the viewport or container.
Measure메저 (한 줄 글자 수)
How many characters fit on one line. Too few and the eye jumps lines too often; too many and it struggles to find the next line.
Font weight폰트 웨이트
A number describing stroke thickness. CSS uses values from 100 (Thin) to 900 (Black) in steps of 100.
Vertical rhythm수직 리듬
Headings, body text, and spacing all moving in multiples of one base unit (usually the leading value), giving the whole page a regular vertical beat.