What Is a Terminal in Typography?

Every stroke in a letter starts somewhere and ends somewhere. The way it ends is a terminal. The end of the lower tail in a in a classic text face, the cut at the end of the arm of c, the end of the crossbar on t, the tail of y or j: these are all terminals as long as the stroke does not finish with a serif. They are among the most expressive details in type, and you can often identify a typeface from the terminals alone.

Kinds of terminal

A horizontal terminal on c and s is a mark of the grotesque tradition. Helvetica and Arial clip these strokes horizontally, which creates a closed aperture. Humanist faces such as Gill Sans and Frutiger cut the same strokes at an angle, matching a pen, so the aperture stays open.

Why terminals carry personality

Type’s mood lives in these small endings. A bubbly rounded terminal reads playful, which is why rounded fonts are used on children’s products. Sharp, angular cuts read modern and technical. Teardrops and ball terminals recall book printing, and give a warmer, more literary feel. In script fonts, the entry and exit strokes are terminals of a special kind, and extended versions of them, long curling flourishes, are swashes.

Terminals in hand lettering and calligraphy

When you choose a lettering style you are deciding terminals. A few examples:

• Brush pen script: the exit stroke of letters like a, d and e ends in a small flick, lifted off the page to taper. If the flick is inconsistent, the word looks hurried.
• Broad-edge italic: the pen’s angle leaves angled terminals naturally. Hold the angle steady and the terminals match.
• Marker lettering and monoline: the marker tip leaves round terminals automatically, so every stroke end matches. This is why monoline lettering feels tidy.
• Chalkboard lettering: blunt terminals made with the flat side of the chalk, sometimes finished with small triangular serifs.

Practise drills by ending each stroke in the same way, ten times in a row, then check whether your terminals look like siblings. When you outline thicker letters, the outline should round or cut each terminal the same way.

Terminals in fancy text

Terminals are fixed in Unicode styles because the shapes come from the font that renders them. A style like the one from the cursive text generator comes with its own flicks and flourishes. The same Unicode letters in two different fonts can have quite different terminals, which is why a style looks different on iPhone, Android and Windows.

Common confusions

• Terminal is not a serif. A serif is an added foot; a terminal is just the stroke ending.
• A terminal is about strokes, not words. It describes how one stroke ends, not the last letter of a word.
• Spur and beak are different features. A spur is a small projection on a stroke, such as the one on a capital G; a beak is a sharp, hooked terminal, seen on letters such as a, c and f in some faces.