A glyph is the drawn shape that represents a character in a given font. The same character can have several glyphs, such as a single- or double-story “a”, and conversely a single glyph can represent several characters, such as the “fi” ligature.
Where to see it
The glyphs of a font can be browsed in the Glyphs panel of layout software or in type design applications such as Glyphs or FontLab, which display them as a grid. A professional text font often contains several hundred, or even several thousand when it covers many languages.
Why this detail matters
Telling glyphs apart from characters helps to better understand and make the most of a font:
- The glyph is what carries a font's style: changing fonts changes the glyphs, but not the characters of the text;
- The number and variety of glyphs say a lot about the richness of a font, from the languages it covers to its alternates and ligatures;
- The Glyphs panel makes it possible to insert signs that are not on the keyboard, such as arrows, ornaments or letter variants.
Related term
A character is the abstract unit of a text, defined by its meaning; the glyph is its visible form in a given font.