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Why Are Font Sizes Inconsistent?
by J.D. Miller, staff writer —
W
hat's the deal? 28 point Sterling looks much smaller than 28 point Stone Serif even though they are supposedly the same size. Why is that? (If you're not familiar with points, you can scan this first.)

What is it?
A font size refers to the height of a typeface from the top of the ascenders (like the top of an "f") to the bottom of the descenders (like the bottom of a "g").

Why?
Whatever happens between the top of the ascender and bottom of a descender is up to the type designer. Sometimes a designer won't use all of the space above and below a character so there's extra white space above and below the letters.

Thick and thin
Even if fonts are the same point size (fonts are measured in picas and points), the rest of the character shapes can vary greatly. They can be really tall or short or thin or thick. These different variations give fonts wildly varying appearances and, as a result, font sizes can look very different even if they are actually the same size.

Real world advice
Before deciding on what typeface you would like to use in a project, it's a good idea to be familiar with the actual font and how it appears.

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