It occured to me that in all fonts I know of, different characters have a different height. Why is this so? Are there fonts where all characters have the same height? If so, is there a name for this class of fonts?
Some more details:
Of course it is understandable that a letter like
Qneeds to go below the baseline, such that it lines up well with other characters likeO.
Still, is there a font where no character exceeds the baseline?
Second case, and this one is actually more interesting for me, it seems that letters like
I,Tetc are in general shorter than “rounder” letters likeCorO.
Zoom:
The rounder letters only overshoot the baseline by a few percent, but still this is quite annoying in certain cases; so I would like to know the reason for this, as well as any possible workaround, best of course a reference to a font where this does not occur, but also any explanation of this phenomenon.
I did find this question about the same symptom, but it does not address the underlying issue at all.
Answer
Capitals with curves are designed slightly larger than the other letters to counteract an optical illusion, which otherwise would make those letters look too small, even though in reality they wouldn’t be.
Here is an example. The top image is the original unaltered font. The bottom I have altered to make the top and bottom of the C match the letters A and E exactly.
You may be able to find a font which has been designed that way, however it wouldn’t be a good design if the letters look wonky (even though they aren’t).
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : ImportanceOfBeingErnest , Answer Author : Billy Kerr