Design Nomenclature / Type
Arm
Also called leg
- Type
- 2D
A stroke attached at one end and free at the other, projecting horizontally or upward — the three of E, the top of T, the upper stroke of K and Y. A leg is the same thing pointing down and usually bearing weight: the lower diagonal of K and R. Neither encloses a counter.
Not to be confused with
- CrossbarA horizontal stroke connecting two stems, as in A and H. Strictly, a stroke that crosses a stem rather than joining two — the horizontals of t and f — is a cross stroke, and the one in e is simply the bar. The angle of the e's bar is a diagnostic: slanted in humanist faces, level from the garaldes on.
- TailA descending stroke, usually decorative or terminal rather than structural — the flourish of Q, the leg of R where it swings out, the descending finish of a single-storey g or a y. Tails are the most extended parts of a face and the first thing to collide with the line below.