A Question About Text Alignment

[tezdread]

Hey,

When the letters in a word have very slightly different heights or widths, what is the point you align to?

Just looking at 'Century Gothic' the upper most curve on the S and G (in caps) are very so slightly higher than the straight line of the D, E, I and N

The same is true on the vertical line on the S. The curve on the bottom right of the S juts out very slightly from the point on the top of the S

I've always aligned text to the outer point but is this the correct way?

Thanks

PS, sorry may have posted this in the wrong forum. Please move if so...

[sthomas]

I would always align to the top of the 'N'. I think it makes sense to align to the height of the majority of the letters.

There are some fonts families which have more obvious variations in the height of individual characters - therefore your layout will begin to look mis-aligned if for instance, you align an image with the top of the 'S'.

Check out Typophile for more info about alignment

[Katedesign]

Visually you really need to align to the bottom of the letters. . . curved letters will be slightly below the line that flat bottomed letters sit on. Otheriwse they will look at though they are floating above the line.

[tezdread]

Thanks, I find something else I thought was right, isn't glad I joined the forum!

After you saying it, I see that it does make sense to align it to the straight parts and not the curves especially when that is the majority.

I checked Typophile from the link to the home page you gave me sthomas but couldn't find anything specific from the search I carried out, or on Google for that matter but I trust that the advise you've given me is good enough for now :)