Descender

{{Short description|Portion of a letter that extends below the baseline of a font or script}} {{Other uses}} thumb|390px|Descenders are parts of a character that lie below the baseline.|class=skin-invert-image In typography and handwriting, a '''descender''' is the portion of a grapheme that extends below the baseline of a font.

For example, in the letter ''y'', the descender is the "tail", or that portion of the diagonal line which lies below the ''v'' created by the two lines converging. In the letter ''p'', it is the stem reaching down past the ''ɒ''.

In most fonts, descenders are reserved for lowercase characters such as ''g'', ''j'', ''q'', ''p'', ''y'', and sometimes ''f''. Some fonts, however, also use descenders for some numerals (typically ''3'', ''4'', ''5'', ''7'', and ''9''). Such numerals are called old-style numerals. (Some italic fonts, such as Computer Modern italic, put a descender on the numeral ''4'' but not on any other numerals. Such fonts are not considered old-style.) Some fonts also use descenders for the tails on a few uppercase letters such as ''J'' and ''Q''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Mcclam |first=Erin |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-15-1438578486_x.htm |title=Typeface designers mix art, engineering |work=USA Today |date=2007-09-16 |access-date=2013-04-25}}</ref>

The parts of characters that extend above the x-height of a font are called ascenders.<ref name="macworld">{{cite web|first=Lesa |last=Snider |url=http://www.macworld.com/article/2033779/typography-for-all-demystifying-text-for-high-impact-messages.html |title=Typography for all: Demystifying text for high-impact messages |work=Macworld |date=2013-04-23 |access-date=2013-04-25}}</ref>

Descenders are often reduced in small-print typefaces for uses such as newspapers, directories or pocket Bibles to fit more text on a page. More radically, on 20 May 1802 Philip Rusher of Banbury patented a new Patent Type with eliminated descenders and shortened ascenders.<ref>{{cite book|title=English Patents of Inventions, Specifications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bheS8CveebwC&pg=PA14-IA11|year=1856|publisher=H.M. Stationery Office|pages=14–15}}</ref><ref name="Goudy1977">{{cite book|author-link=Frederic Goudy|first=Frederic|last=Goudy|title=Typologia: Studies in Type Design & Type Making, with Comments on the Invention of Typography, the First Types, Legibility, and Fine Printing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s5Js_NPRflwC&pg=PA141|date=1 January 1977|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-03308-5|pages=141–142}}</ref><ref name="Rusher Rasselas">{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Samuel |title=Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. By Dr. Johnson. Printed with Patent Types in a Manner Never Before Attempted. Rusher's Edition |date=1804 |publisher=P. Rusher |location=Banbury |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-GksvnNIkYC |access-date=11 August 2021}}</ref><ref name="Johnston Weird">{{cite web |last1=Johnston |first1=Alastair |title=Weird And Wonderful Typography - Yet Still Illegible |url=https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/03/weird-and-wonderful-yet-still-illegible/ |website=Smashing Magazine |date=21 March 2012 |access-date=11 August 2021}}</ref> The type did not prove successful, nor did another use in 1852.<ref name="Shutford1852">{{cite book|author=William White (of Shutford.)|title=A Complete Guide to the Mystery and Management of Bees;|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jYbNAAAAMAAJ|year=1852|publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, and Company; and Hamilton, Adams, and Company: Oxford; H. Slatter: Reading; Rusher and Johnson: Banbury; J. G. Rusher}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=John Cheney and His Descendants: Printers in Banbury Since 1767 |date=1936 |location=Banbury |pages=26–31}}</ref> The Art Nouveau display typeface Hobo and headline typeface Permanent Headline which also eliminate descenders have both been somewhat popular since.<ref name="Karlgeorg Hoefer Devroye">{{cite web|last1=Devroye|first1=Luc|title=Karlgeorg Hoefer|url=http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-31543.html|website=Type Design Information|accessdate=17 June 2016}}</ref>

Some early computer displays (for example, the Compukit UK101) and printers (for example, the Commodore 4022<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/4725/Commodore-4022-Printer/|title=Commodore 4022 Printer|website=The Centre For Computing History}}</ref>) restricted the vertical spacing of characters so that there was no space for correct display of descenders. Instead, characters with descenders were displaced vertically upwards so that the bottom of the descender was aligned with the baseline. Contemporary systems that did not have this restriction were described as supporting ''true descenders''.

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{Wiktionary-inline}}

{{Typography terms}}

Category:Typography