Typography Word of the Day: Counter

Going negative with the space

Checking in with the fundamentals this time, we come to the counter, which is, as all experienced typophiles know, is the hole in, if not the doughnut, in some of the roman glyphs that make the word up: the empty space in the d, the o, and however many are in the version of the g you’ve used.

Bringhurst terms it “the white space enclosed by the letterform”, whether it be open (in the case of the “C”, for instance) or closed (such as the space inside the “D”).

We shant be thinking of a better way to express it ourselves.

Reference: The Elements of Typographic Style, v2.5 by Robert Bringhurst