Glossary

Type design mixes geometric, typographic, and technical terms. These are the meanings used in Counterpunch’s interface and handbook.

• Glyph — a stored character shape: a letter, number, or symbol.
• Contour — a connected outline path that is part of a glyph.
• Node / point — an editable location on a contour.
• Layer — a stored design state of a glyph, often a master in a variable font.
• Axis — a variable dimension such as weight or width.
• Master — a key design at a location in that space.
• Instance — a named style at chosen axis values.
• Interpolation — generated shapes between masters.
• Assistant editing — the pen toggle in the Assistant title bar. Off: inspect only. On: the assistant may mutate the font and edit an unsaved Script Editor buffer.
• Metrics key — a sidebearing formula such as =n+10 or ==|H.
• Undo surface — the focused Cmd/Ctrl+Z stack (Canvas, Overview, Font Info, Features, or Automation). History lists edits; it does not change which surface undo uses.
• Filter script — Python in Counterpunch/Filters that decides which glyphs Overview shows.

Axes are covered in Axes and masters. Scripting starts in Python in Counterpunch.