Baseline (typography)
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This article is about typography. For other uses, see Baseline.
In typography and penmanship, the baseline is the line upon which most letters "sit" and under which descenders extend.
In the example to the right, the letter 'p' has a descender; the other letters sit on the (red) baseline.
Most, but not all typefaces are similar in the following ways as regards the baseline:
- Lined or tabular figures (see Arabic numerals), and capital letters sit entirely above the baseline.
- The following text figures have descenders: 3 4 5 7 9.
- The following lowercase letters have descenders: g j p q y.
- Glyphs with rounded lower extents (0 3 5 6 8 c C G J o O Q U) break the baseline slightly to create the optical illusion that they sit on the baseline.
The vertical distance of the base lines of consecutive lines in a paragraph is also known as line height or leading, although the latter can also refer to the base-line distance minus the font size.
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