Type at a basic level consists of letterforms. Letterforms can have innumerable variations in their size, proportion, weight, and complexity. They must however always maintain the same basic form. These letterforms are made up of various different components that all have a purpose. Type has different properties including size, width, and letter space. These properties help to divide type into different categories called fonts. They are also a determining factor in the quality of type defined by legibility and readability. It is essential for a designer to know the names of the parts of characters.

By understanding the different components of type, one can make more educated design decisions. Along with anatomy, understanding how type is measured is important to a designer. The size of type is described in points. A point is equal to 1/72 of an inch. The height of type is the height of the body of type, which should not be confused with the visible printed area of a typeface. The body is the distance from the baseline to the top of a lowercase letter, excluding an ascender or descender.