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In typography, the x-height or corpus size refers to the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lower-case letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the letter ''x'' in the font (the source of the term), as well as the ''u'', ''v'', ''w'', and ''z''. (Curved letters such as ''a'', ''c'', ''e'', ''m'', ''n'', ''o'', ''r'' and ''s'' tend to exceed the x-height slightly, due to overshoot.) One of the most important dimensions of a font, x-height is used to define how high lower-case letters are compared to upper-case letters. ==Design considerations== High x-heights are often found in fonts intended for display, such as on signs and advertising hoardings, which need to be read clearly from a distance. This, though, is not universally the case: some display typefaces such as Cochin have low x-heights, to give them a more elegant, delicate appearance when printed large. Many sans-serif designs, such as Helvetica, that are intended for display text have high x-heights, some such as Impact very high indeed. Medium x-heights are found on fonts intended for body text, allowing more balance and contrast between upper- and lower-case letters and a brighter page. They then increase again for optical sizes of font designed for small print, such as captions, so that they can be clearly read printed small.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.adobe.com/uk/type/topics/opticalsize.html )〕 High x-heights were particularly common in designs in the 1960s and 70s, when International Typeface Corporation released variations of older designs with boosted x-heights; notable examples of this trend include Avant Garde Gothic and ITC Garamond. More recently, some typefaces such as Mrs Eaves and Brandon Grotesque have been issued with distinctively low x-heights to try to create a more elegant appearance. While computers allow fonts to be printed at any size, professional font designers such as Adobe issue fonts in a range of optical sizes optimized to be printed at different sizes. As an example of this, Mrs Eaves exists in two versions: an original style intended to give an elegant, bright appearance, and a less distinctive 'XL' design intended for body text. Some research has suggested that while higher x-heights may help with reading smaller text, a very high x-height may be counterproductive, possibly because it becomes harder to identify the shape of a word if every letter is nearly the same height. For the same reason, some sign manuals discourage all-capitals text. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「X-height」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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