Anatomy of Typography - SHOULDER

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hoopa
hoopa Posts: 1
in Type Design Technique & Theory
Hey all! Just a quick question. What letters have shoulders? Usually 'n', 'm' and 'h' are mentioned as examples (sometimes 'r' too, or is it an arm/ear/hook?) but are there any more letters that have shoulders?

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  • Alex Visi
    Alex Visi Posts: 192
    edited September 2021
    The shoulder of the /n often translates to the /p with minor adjustments, yet it’s never called that. Terminology is weird.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,469
    /u is a letter whose design should usually be considered alongside /h/m/n, though it’s orientation keeps people from using “shoulder”. 
  • George Thomas
    George Thomas Posts: 655
    In letterpress anatomy the shoulder is the area below the baseline, more commonly referred to today as the descender space.
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,172
    hoopa said:
    What letters have shoulders? Usually 'n', 'm' and 'h' are mentioned as examples

    In the first definition I found online, h, m, and n were part of the definition: the shoulder is the curved part of h, m, and n, period, and no other letters can have shoulders! I suppose this is just as well, because the set of terminology of which this is a part does not seem to be consistent or specific enough to be particularly useful.

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