vocaburary

Absolute measurement are measurements of fixed values. For example, a millimetre is a precisely defined increment of a centimetre.

In typography, many measurements, such as character spacing, are linked to type size, which means that their relationships are defined by a series of relative measurements.

The point is the unit of measurement used to measure the type size of a font. A pica is a unit of measurement equal to 12 points that is commonly used for measuring lines of type.

The x-height of a typeface is the height of the lowercase 'x'.

The em is a relative unit of measurement used in typesetting to define basic spacing functions, and therefore it is linked to the size of the type.  An en is a unit of relative measurement equal to half of one em.

Both the em and en are used in punctuation to provide a measurement for dashes.

The space between letters can be increased by letterspacing or reduced by kerning to give a text book a more balanced feel.

Tracking is adjusting the tracking affects the amount of spacing between characters.

Word spacing adjusts the amount of space between words.  

Horizontal alignment in a text can be range left, range right, centered or justified.  Flush left is the alignment follows the principle of handwriting, with text tight and aligned to the left margin and ending ragged on the right.  Flush right is the right aligning text is less common as it is more difficult to read.  It is sometimes used for picture captions and other accompanying texts as it is clearly distinct from body copy.

A widow is a lone word at the end of a paragraph.

An orphan is the final one or two lines of a paragraph separated from the main paragraph to form a new column, and should be avoided at all costs

Leading is a hot-metal printing term that refers to the strips of lead that were inserted between text measures in order to space them accurately.

Indentation provides the reader with an easily accessible entry point to a paragraph.  In a first-line indent, the text is intended from the left margin in the first line of the second and subsequent paragraphs.  A hanging indent is an indentation from the left or right margin, which effects several text lines.