Ascender (typography)

thumb|Examples of ascenders.|class=skin-invert-image

In typography and handwriting, an ascender is the portion of a minuscule letter in a Latin-derived alphabet that extends above the mean line of a font. That is, the part of a lower-case letter that is taller than the font's x-height.

Ascenders, together with descenders, increase the recognizability of words. For this reason, many situations that require high legibility such as road signs avoid using solely capital letters (i.e. all-caps).

Studies made at the start of the construction of the British motorway network concluded that words with mixed-case letters were much easier to read than "all-caps" and a special font was designed for motorway signs. These then became universal across the UK. See Road signs in the United Kingdom.

thumb|The font [[Bembo in metal type. Ascenders such as the "f" stand far above the cap line.|class=skin-invert-image]]

In many fonts intended for body text, such as Bembo and Garamond, ascenders rise above the cap height of the capital letters.

thumb|upright 2.0|alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography|The ascenders are the parts of lowercase characters that lie above the [[mean line.<br />For broader context, see Typeface anatomy.|class=skin-invert-image]]

References