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INLINE: A letter in which the inner portions of the main strokes have been carved away, leaving the edges more less intact. Inline faces lighten the color while preserving the shapes and proportions of the original face. Outline letters, on the other hand, are produced by drawing a line around the outsides of the letters and removing the entire original form. Outline letters, in consequence, are fatter than the originals and have less definition. Casteller, Smaragd and Romulus Open are examples of inline faces. |
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is from the Greek iota. It first appeared looking
more like a Z in the Semitic and Greek alphabets, with the
Greek form gradually straightening until the Romans flattened it out.
The modern miniscule i acquired its dot when blackletter script had to refine the
difference between two sequential I's, which they first did by putting a short line over the two Is.
After awhile those started looking too much like Us and so the practice became a habit of
dotting every i. In early Christian texts I was the only letter to be written smaller, and above
the baseline of other letters. This may have helped along the use of ascenders and decenders.