A guide to type, first published in 1997 and rebuilt for the web as it is now. It comes in five parts: what letters are made of, how they are spaced and set, where they came from, and what all the words mean.
StructureThe parts of a letter, the lines it is measured against, and the classes of type.SpacingKerning, tracking, leading, word spacing and line length, each with something to drag.DetailsThe small marks that separate careful typesetting from typing.TimelineThe history of letters, from cave paintings to today.GlossaryEvery term in the section, defined, from aperture to x-height.counterspace began in 1997 as a site about typography, built in Flash, and won a Communication Arts design award that year. The original went dark when Flash did. It was rebuilt in 2026. Read our history