[Illustration: A A, the face B B, the serifs C C, the counter E, the pin-mark F F, the beard G, the shoulder H, the nick J J, the feet K, the groove]
An important feature of a type is the nick on the side of the body. In many cases there may be two, three, or even four nicks on a type. Usually all the types of a font have nicks that are identical in number and position, and when the types are composed in lines these nicks match each other and form continuous grooves on the lower part of the line of type.
The nicks serve as guides to the compositor when taking the type from the case to his composing stick, and they assist in distinguishing the types of one font or face from those of another on the same size of body.[1] Individual letters of different type faces sometimes bear such close resemblance that they are more readily distinguished by the nick or some other body-mark than by the face. A difference in alignment of nicks in a line will readily show the presence of a wrong-font letter. Typefounders sometimes make an extra nick on a few small-capitals (o s v w x z) in order to distinguish these types from the lower-case letters of the same font.
A font of type is an assortment of one size and kind that is used together. It is usually all the type in the composing-room of a certain kind matching in body, nick, and face. A small font may be held in one case, but several cases may be required for a font of large quantity.
An ordinary font of roman type for book work will include these characters:
_Roman Capitals_-- A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ [OE]
_Small Capitals_-- A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ [OE]
_Lower-case Letters_[2]-- a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ [oe] [fi] [fl] [ff] [ffi] [ffl]
_Figures_-- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 (or oldstyle 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0)
_Marks of Punctuation_--Period . comma , colon : semi-colon ; hyphen - apostrophe ' exclamation mark ! question mark ? parenthesis ( bracket [ The latter two are used in pairs () [], the second type being set in reversed position.
_Quotation Marks_ are made by two inverted commas " at the beginning and two apostrophes " at the end of the quoted matter. In some fonts there is a double mark |"| |"| cast on single bodies, but these are not often used.