: Why is lowercase "L" usually higher than capital "I"? I've often wondered this, but I haven't really sought an answer to it until now. Obviously, fonts do need to distinguish small "L" and

@Berryessa866

The difference isn't anything specifically to do with a lower case "L" and capital "i", but all captials and ascenders. The short answer is they align to different metrics. There is a "Cap height" that all capital letters align to and an "ascender line" that ascenders align to.

You can see some basic font metrics, including the difference in cap and ascender heights in the typeface "Avenir" here:



The ascender height and cap height can be the same, often the ascender height is taller than the cap height but rarely (I can't think of any, but I won't say never) the other way around.

One reason is readability. Capital letters are generally all the same height and easy to distinguish from lower case letter so their height isn't an issue, the height of ascenders however can greatly affect readability, so they need to be taller—especially when there is a larger x-height—giving you more vertical variation.

It can also help in balance the visual weight of a typeface and is an important part of designing a typeface, from a purely visual perspective.

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