"F" - the best letter ever?

Face.

The part of metal type that is inked for printing. Also another word for typeface.

Family.

See Type family.

FAX machine.

An electronic device that scans documents and transmits them over telephone lines. Documents are received and output by another FAX machine.

Film font.

A photographic film master used in some typesetting machines. Characters from a film font are exposed through lenses of different sizes onto paper or film. Unlike digital typesetting, typesetting systems using film fonts cannot set an entire page complete with graphics.

Finder.

A computer program that generates the desktop and is used to access and manage files and disks. See Multifinder.

Firmware.

Software that has been written into nonchangeable memory that does not need to be loaded into the system for each use. Most printers and output devices store their software in this form.

Fit.

Refers to the spatial relationships between letters after they are set into words and lines.

Floppy disks.

Portable, flexible disks housed in a 3.5-inch hard plastic case and inserted into a disk drive, which reads the information on the disk.

Flush left (or right).

The even vertical alignment of lines of type at the left (or right) edge of a column.

Folio.

Page number.

Font.

A complete set of characters in one design, size, and style. In traditional metal type, a font meant a particular size and style; in digital typography a font can output multiple sizes and even altered styles of a typeface design.

Font/DA Mover.

An application that allows a user to add and/or remove fonts and desk accessories from a file on a disk.

Font substitution.

During output of a page, font substitution is the replacement of a requested but unavailable font by another (usually similar) available font.

Footer.

An identifying line, such as a page number and/or a chapter title, appearing in the bottom margin of a document. Footers repeated throughout a document are called running footers or running feet.

Footprint.

The amount of space a machine such as a computer takes up on a surface such as a desktop.

Format.

The overall typographic and spatial schema established for a publication or any other application.

Formatting.

In digital typesetting and phototypesetting, the process of issuing specific commands that establish the typographic format.

Foundry type.

Metal type used in hand composition.

Furniture.

Rectangular pieces of wood, metal, or plastic used to fill in excess space when locking up a form for letterpress printing.