Descender

The descender is the part of a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline. Letters with descenders include g, j, p, q, and y. The length of the descender — referred to as the descender depth — varies between typefaces and is one of the factors that gives a typeface its particular character and proportion. Long descenders tend to give a typeface an elegant, classical quality; short descenders make a typeface more compact and better suited to text-dense layouts. In logo and wordmark design, descenders require careful consideration in terms of spacing and layout. The visual weight of descenders affects the overall balance of a wordmark, and they can cause challenges when the logo needs to be contained within a tight bounding box or aligned precisely with other elements. Custom wordmark designs often modify or stylise descenders as a distinctive design feature.