Font files are based on the original “font”, which was a drawer of metal type. Metal type size was based on the full piece of metal which was sized based on the

Font files are based on the original “font”, which was a drawer of metal type. Metal type size was based on the full piece of metal which was sized based on the full extent of the typeface, including capitals, ascenders and descenders. When typesetting went digital it made sense to continue with this approach since the industry needed a plug-n-play way to use digital assets; that is, a typesetter could use the same concepts and language that existed for physical type as well. As a long time print and digital designer I’m very excited to have these new type tools that meet the needs of digital typesetting on the web!