Japanese terms

Portable term table, snapshot of 04 October 2026, generated from the core translation memory localization/ja-core.tmx of the FontLab writing guide by tools/scripts/export_terms.py. 54 of 289 terms are approved or protected; a proposed translation is a candidate for a native reviewer, and the English term is the fallback until it is approved. Use newer supplied project data when it disagrees with this snapshot.

A status of do-not-translate protects the English spelling; it does not approve a draft English name. The definition says what the term means in FontLab; the note says why the translation was chosen or how to inflect it. The fallback original term is a plain English phrase to translate instead of the term when the term itself will not travel (stem: main stroke; overshoot: optical surplus).

Names

English	Fallback	Japanese	Status	Note	Definition
Adobe Illustrator		Adobe Illustrator	do-not-translate		Adobe Illustrator is the host application for the Vexy Illustrator plug-ins. Use the full name on first mention, then Illustrator. Vexy Lines and Vexy Playlines are separate applications; do not describe them as Illustrator plug-ins.
app.fontographer.net		app.fontographer.net	do-not-translate		app.fontographer.net is the address of the browser edition of Fontographer. Preserve the lowercase domain when naming the destination. Use Fontographer when referring to the application itself.
FLUM		FLUM	do-not-translate		FLUM is an internal documentation-project name, not a customer-facing product or feature. Omit it from published instructions. Refer to the relevant product documentation when directing a reader to help.
FontLab		FontLab	do-not-translate		FontLab is the name of the desktop font editor. Preserve its capital F and L in headings and prose. Fontlab Ltd. names the company; the lowercase fontlab spelling belongs to identifiers such as the Python module and website domains.
fontlab (Python module)		fontlab (Python module)	do-not-translate		The fontlab Python module exposes FontLab scripting functionality. Its name is lowercase and case sensitive. Format it as code in prose, and keep the application name FontLab distinct from the module name in examples.
FontLab 8		FontLab 8	do-not-translate		FontLab 8 names version 8 of the desktop font editor. Put one space before the version number. After establishing the version, use FontLab alone where no other version could be meant. Retain the number in compatibility statements and version-specific instructions.
FontLab 9		FontLab 9	do-not-translate		FontLab 9 is a versioned product name whose house usage remains draft. Its appearance in an interface or format description does not establish release availability. Confirm the version and intended audience before using it in new prose; preserve it when quoting an exact label.
Fontlab Ltd.		Fontlab Ltd.	do-not-translate		Fontlab Ltd. is the company name. Preserve the lowercase l in Fontlab and the period after Ltd. Use FontLab, with a capital L, for the product. The two spellings identify different entities and must not be normalized into one.
FontLab Pass		FontLab Pass	do-not-translate		FontLab Pass is the identity and licensing service at pass.fontlab.com. Use the complete service name when explaining account or licence management. Distinguish the service from the FontLab account used to sign in.
FontLab Studio 5		FontLab Studio 5	do-not-translate		FontLab Studio 5 is a historical version of the font editor. Use the full name in migration instructions, historical descriptions and compatibility statements. Do not shorten it to Studio or use it as the name of another FontLab version.
fontlab.com		fontlab.com	do-not-translate		fontlab.com is the main FontLab website address. Preserve the lowercase domain. Link to the relevant page when a reader needs a particular product, download or instruction, rather than sending every task to the home page.
Fontographer		Fontographer	do-not-translate		Fontographer names a font editor. For its browser edition, use app.fontographer.net as the address. Distinguish a historical numbered edition when compatibility or migration depends on it. Preserve Fontographer.net only where it belongs to an exact project or command label.
Fontographer.net		Fontographer.net	do-not-translate		Fontographer.net occurs in project and command labels. Preserve it when quoting an interface label that uses this spelling. Use Fontographer for the application in ordinary prose and app.fontographer.net for its browser address. Broader house usage of Fontographer.net remains draft.
forum.fontlab.com		forum.fontlab.com	do-not-translate		forum.fontlab.com is the FontLab user-forum address. Use it for a relevant discussion or community question, and identify the destination. A documentation link is preferable when the reader needs an established procedure rather than a discussion.
GlyphRef		GlyphRef	do-not-translate		GlyphRef is the class used to reference a Fontographer glyph through its scripting interface. Preserve the capital G and R and format the name as code. Keep the API identifier separate from the ordinary word glyph.
help.fontlab.com		help.fontlab.com	do-not-translate		help.fontlab.com is a FontLab documentation address. Preserve its lowercase spelling and identify the product or article when linking to it. Use a specific documentation page when the reader needs a particular procedure or reference.
help.vexy.art		help.vexy.art	do-not-translate		help.vexy.art is the Vexy documentation address. Name the relevant product when linking to it, since the Vexy products share vocabulary but differ in features and workflows. Preserve the lowercase domain.
pass.fontlab.com		pass.fontlab.com	do-not-translate		pass.fontlab.com is the address for FontLab account and licence management. Use the domain when naming the destination and FontLab Pass when naming the service. Explain the action the reader can perform there.
Photofont		Photofont	do-not-translate		Photofont is a protected Fontlab Ltd. name, written as one word with a capital P. Preserve this spelling in a notice or reference. Confirm the relevant product and version before adding a claim about functionality.
playlines.vexy.art		playlines.vexy.art	do-not-translate		playlines.vexy.art is the address of Vexy Playlines, the browser application. Preserve the lowercase domain. Use the product name for the application and the address for the destination the reader opens.
Strokes Maker		Strokes Maker	do-not-translate		Strokes Maker is a former name of Vexy Lines. Use Vexy Lines for the current product and retain Strokes Maker when identifying a historical release or explaining the name change. Do not rename an old interface label inside a quotation.
studio.fontlab.com		studio.fontlab.com	do-not-translate		studio.fontlab.com is an unconfirmed service address in the naming register. Keep it draft and do not direct readers there without confirmation of the destination and its availability. A recorded spelling does not establish that a service exists.
TransType 5		TransType 5	do-not-translate		TransType 5 names version 5 of the font conversion application. Keep TransType as one word with capital T in both parts, followed by one space and the version. Use TransType after establishing the version; declare TrT before using it as a short form.
TypeTool		TypeTool	do-not-translate		TypeTool is a protected Fontlab Ltd. product name, written as one word with two capital Ts. Preserve that spelling when naming the product or quoting a notice. Confirm the relevant version before describing its features or compatibility.
Vexy		Vexy	do-not-translate		Vexy is the family prefix in Vexy Lines, Vexy Linestra, Vexy Playlines and Vexy Vextra. It is not a standalone application name. Identify the product when describing an operation; retain Vexy alone when it is the exact name of an interface category.
Vexy Lines		Vexy Lines	do-not-translate		Vexy Lines is the standalone desktop application for converting a bitmap into vector artwork through algorithmic fills. Keep the full two-word name. Distinguish it from Vexy Playlines, the browser application, and from the Vexy Illustrator plug-ins. Its native project format is .lines.
Vexy Linestra		Vexy Linestra	do-not-translate		Vexy Linestra is the Adobe Illustrator plug-in for parametric line fills. Use the two-word product name in prose. Preserve the closed spelling VexyLinestra in an exact filename such as VexyLinestra.aip; a filename spelling does not replace the product name.
Vexy Playlines		Vexy Playlines	do-not-translate		Vexy Playlines is the browser application for converting images into vector artwork at playlines.vexy.art. Use the full name in titles and on first mention, then Playlines where unambiguous. Keep it distinct from Vexy Lines, the desktop application.
Vexy Vextra		Vexy Vextra	do-not-translate		Vexy Vextra is the Adobe Illustrator plug-in for contour editing. Use the full name in a title and on first mention; Vextra is the declared short form. Preserve VexyVextra in an exact filename such as VexyVextra.aip.

Type design

English	Fallback	Japanese	Status	Note	Definition
ascender	upward extension	アセンダー	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja; long-vowel mark kept per the JTCA rule (Glyphs keeps it too).	An ascender is the part of a lowercase letter that extends above the x-height, as in b or d. Ascender height describes the intended alignment of these parts and may differ from cap height. Do not confuse this design measurement with similarly named vertical metrics in exported font tables. Line spacing depends on those fields and on the application using them.
baseline	writing line	ベースライン	proposed	Glyphs 3, InDesign and Apple ja all use ベースライン.	A baseline is a reference line used to align text. In conventional horizontal Latin font design, the baseline is at y = 0, with ascenders above it and descenders below it. Other scripts and layout systems can use different baseline conventions. Identify the relevant baseline when discussing alignment across scripts or vertical text.
bowl	round belly	ボウル	proposed	Established katakana term in Japanese Latin type anatomy glossaries.	A bowl is a rounded stroke that encloses a counter, as in b, d or p. Its shape, thickness and junctions affect the letter's balance. The appropriate number of curve segments depends on the design. Nodes at extrema can help editing and hinting, but a fixed segment count does not guarantee compatible masters or good interpolation.
cap height	capital-letter height	キャップハイト	proposed	Glyphs 3 and InDesign ja both use キャップハイト.	Cap height is the distance from the baseline to the top of a flat capital such as H. Rounded or pointed capitals may extend beyond it through overshoot. Record the intended value in Font Info. Cap height describes a design measurement; alignment zones and line-spacing metrics are separate settings, even when their values are related.
character		文字	proposed	Adobe, Apple and Morisawa use 文字 for the abstract character, against グリフ for the drawn shape.	A character is an abstract unit of written text, such as a letter or punctuation mark. A glyph is its visual representation. The relationship is not one to one: several characters can form a ligature, and a character can have several glyph forms. A user-perceived character can also consist of several Unicode codepoints. Keep characters, codepoints and glyphs distinct when discussing encoding or text processing.
contour		パス	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja (パス方向を逆転, 開いたパスを閉じる) and Adobe both call a contour パス. FontForge's 輪郭 rejected; note that パス also means a file path.	A contour is an open or closed sequence of connected line and curve segments. Its nodes and control points describe its geometry. One glyph or vector object can contain several contours. A counter is an area of space, not a synonym for a contour. When explaining fill behaviour, identify the outline format and fill rule before prescribing a contour direction.
counter	enclosed white space	カウンター	proposed	Japanese Latin type anatomy term; FontForge ja has both カウンター and カウンタ. Long vowel kept per JTCA.	A counter is the enclosed or partly enclosed space within a letterform, such as the enclosed space in an o or the open space in a c. The surrounding strokes define it. A closed counter may have an inner contour as its boundary; an open counter does not require a separate contour. Judge its size and shape together with the surrounding strokes.
descender	downward extension	ディセンダー	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja; long-vowel mark kept per JTCA.	A descender is the part of a letter that extends below the baseline, as in p or y. Its design height is usually recorded as a negative coordinate relative to the baseline. Exported descender metrics are separate fields used by applications for layout. Whether a deep glyph clips depends on the relevant metrics, application and text container, not on one design value alone.
diacritical mark	combining mark	ダイアクリティカルマーク	proposed	Adobe Japan and Japanese foundries use ダイアクリティカルマーク. Glyphs' 発音記号 rejected because it normally means phonetic notation.	A diacritical mark is a small sign, such as an acute or a cedilla, that attaches to a base letter to form another character. FontLab builds accented glyphs from a base and a mark through anchors, and the GDEF mark class tells the shaper which glyphs are marks. Say mark glyph for the class member and diacritical mark for the sign.
em	type body	仮想ボディ	proposed	Morisawa's glossary defines 仮想ボディ as the square design body, which is the fallback 'type body'. Glyphs says 全角 (clashes with full-width); keep em as a unit in values.	The em is the square on which a typeface is designed, historically the body of the letter M in metal type. Its height equals the type size, so an em in 12 point text is 12 points. In a digital font the em is divided into UPM font units.
extremum	local extreme point	極点	proposed	The Japanese Glyphs handbook translations say 極点を追加; FontForge uses 極値 and 極大点.	An extremum is a point where a curve reaches a local leftmost, rightmost, topmost or bottommost position. The plural is extrema. Placing nodes at extrema can help editing and hinting. If you add nodes to masters intended for interpolation, preserve the correspondence between their contours and points. Different extremum positions alone do not make masters incompatible.
glyph		グリフ	proposed	Glyphs 3, FontForge, Adobe, Apple and Morisawa all use グリフ. 字形 is kept for letterform in feature names.	A glyph is one drawn shape in a font: a letter, a figure, a mark, or a piece of a composite. A character is what a reader types and a glyph is what a renderer draws, and one character can map to several glyphs while several characters can map to one. You edit a glyph in the Glyph window, where its contours, elements, anchors, and metrics all live together. The distinction matters in any sentence about encoding, since a font maps codepoints to glyphs through the cmap table.
handle		ハンドル	proposed	Adobe and the Japanese Glyphs handbook use ハンドル for Bézier handles.	A handle is an off-curve control point used to shape a curve segment. A cubic Bézier segment has two control points; a quadratic segment has one. Moving a handle changes the curve without moving its endpoints. In tools that display handle arms, the arm connects a control point to an endpoint. Name the curve type when the number or behaviour of handles matters.
ink trap	ink relief notch	インクトラップ	proposed	Established loan among Japanese type designers and foundries; no native term.	An ink trap is a notch cut into a corner where strokes meet, so ink spread or rasterization at small sizes does not clog the join. FontLab makes them as a live Smart Corner variant.
italic angle	slant angle	イタリック角度	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses イタリック角度.	The italic angle is the slope of the upright strokes of an italic or oblique design, measured from the vertical in degrees. FontLab stores it in Font Info, uses it to slant guides and the cursor, and writes it into the post and hhea tables. It is a property of the design, not of a transformation.
lining figures	capital-height figures	ライニング数字	proposed	InDesign, Glyphs 3, FontForge and Apple CoreText ja use ライニング数字.	Lining figures are digits that share the cap height and sit on the baseline, so they align with capitals in tables and headlines. The lnum feature selects them where a font defaults to oldstyle figures.
node		ノード	proposed	The Japanese Glyphs handbook translations and Inkscape use ノード. Adobe's アンカーポイント would collide with アンカー; Glyphs UI ポイント would merge node with point.	A node is a point on a contour where segments meet, and its type decides how they meet. A sharp node lets two segments arrive at any angle. A smooth node keeps the handles collinear so the curve passes through without a kink. A tangent node joins a line to a curve smoothly. A G2 node matches curvature as well as direction. You select a node and drag it, or nudge it, and the segments on both sides follow. Put nodes at the extremes so hinting and interpolation have something to hold.
overshoot	optical surplus	オーバーシュート	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja and its handbook translations use オーバーシュート.	Overshoot is the extension of a rounded or pointed shape beyond an alignment line so that it appears as tall as a flat shape. For example, an o may extend above the x-height and below the baseline. Its amount depends on the design and intended size. PostScript alignment zones can describe these overshoot regions for hinting; there is no universal percentage to apply.
proportional figures	natural-width figures	プロポーショナル数字	proposed	InDesign, Glyphs 3 and CoreText ja use プロポーショナル数字.	Proportional figures have individual advance widths, so a 1 takes less room than an 8. They read well in running text; tabular figures share one width for columns. The pnum feature selects them.
segment		セグメント	proposed	Glyphs 3 and Adobe ja use セグメント.	A segment is the portion of a contour between two on-curve endpoints. It may be a straight line or a curve. A quadratic Bézier segment has one off-curve control point; a cubic segment has two. Describe the segment type and the relevant editing command rather than assuming that every curve has two handles or that changing a node type performs every conversion.
serif		セリフ	proposed	Adobe, Apple, FontForge and Japanese foundries use セリフ.	A serif is the finishing stroke at the end of a stem or arm. Its shape sorts a face into the familiar classes: oldstyle, transitional, Didone, slab. You draw a serif once and reuse it as a component or an element, which keeps a family consistent and makes a late change cheap. Serifs are small, so they take the most damage at low resolution, which is where hinting and careful alignment zones earn their place.
sharp		シャープ	proposed	Adobe and Inkscape ja use シャープ for sharp corners; the node type itself is コーナーノード.	Sharp describes a pointed corner or a node at which contour direction can change abruptly. Image sharpening is a different operation.
sharp node		コーナーノード	proposed	Glyphs and Illustrator ja call this node type コーナーポイント, so コーナー plus ノード. Inkscape's シャープノード is the rejected alternative.	A sharp node joins contour segments without requiring a smooth change of direction. The handles of adjacent segments need not be collinear; a smooth node constrains their direction.
stem	main stroke	ステム	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use ステム.	A stem is a main stroke of a letter, usually the vertical one: the two uprights of an H, the single upright of an l. Stem width sets the weight of a face, and stems that disagree across a family break its rhythm. You measure a stem with the Measurement tool and record the standard widths in Font Info, where hinting and the stem links read them. Vextra reuses the word for the paired edges it detects in general artwork, not only in letters.
swash	flourish	スワッシュ	proposed	InDesign, Glyphs 3 and CoreText ja use スワッシュ (スワッシュ字形 for the feature).	A swash is a decorative flourish that extends a letter, often on a capital or a terminal. Swash alternates live in the swsh feature and in glyphs with a swash suffix.
terminal	stroke ending	ターミナル	proposed	Japanese Latin type anatomy glossaries use ターミナル; context separates it from the Terminal app.	A terminal is the end of a stroke without a serif, such as the ending of a c or f. Its shape may be rounded, angled or cut off, depending on the design. Compare related terminals across a typeface at the intended reading size. The anatomical term does not prescribe how to construct or store the shape in an editor.
UPM	units per type body	UPM	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja keeps UPM (UPM の変更) and glosses it 全角ユニット数. Abbreviation kept. Keep numeric controls compact: LSB/RSB (French AG/AD), UPM and PPM. Expanded terms belong in explanatory help; the full Family Dimensions Units Per eM label is an intentional exception. Team UI convention in Proteus 1751b28b0.	UPM, units per em, specifies how many font units make up one em. It sets the scale for outline coordinates and metrics when a renderer converts them to a text size. Values such as 1000 and 2048 are common; TrueType outlines do not require a power of two. When changing UPM, distinguish changing the scale value from rescaling the outlines and metrics.
winding direction	drawing direction	パス方向	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja says パス方向; FontForge says アウトラインの向き.	Winding direction is the order in which a contour runs, clockwise or counter-clockwise, and it decides which areas the renderer fills. FontLab follows the PostScript convention: outer contours wind counter-clockwise and counters wind clockwise. The letter O is two contours, one each way. You check direction before you export, and reverse a contour when a counter fills solid or an outer shape turns hollow. A renderer applies the rule at draw time, so the error shows in the proof rather than in the editor.
x-height	small-letter height	x ハイト	proposed	Glyphs 3 and InDesign ja write x ハイト. エックスハイト is the fully katakana alternative used in running prose.	The x-height is the height of a lowercase x above the baseline, and it stands for the height of the lowercase in general. It does more for apparent size than the point size does: two faces at the same size look different when their x-heights differ. You record it in Font Info so hinting and alignment zones can use it, and you draw round letters slightly above it to allow for overshoot. Write it lowercase with a hyphen, even at the start of a sentence recast to avoid one.

Font engineering

English	Fallback	Japanese	Status	Note	Definition
advance height		縦送り幅	proposed	Derived from 送り幅 (advance width); FontForge says 縦書き時の送り幅. Same rendering as vertical advance, which names the same value.	The distance the text position advances vertically after a glyph. It is the vertical counterpart of advance width, not the height of the visible outline.
advance width	glyph box width	送り幅	proposed	FontForge ja and Japanese OpenType engineering usage. Glyphs 3 says グリフ幅 and JIS X 4051 says 字幅; 字幅 is reserved here for the width axis and width class so the two stay distinct.	Advance width is the horizontal distance allocated to a glyph before layout adjustments, measured in font units. In an OpenType font, the base values are stored in the hmtx table. Kerning and other positioning operations can adjust advances during layout without rewriting those base values. Advance width differs from the visible outline width; a space can have an advance without an outline.
alignment zone	height band for snapping	アラインメントゾーン	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses アラインメントゾーン; FontForge says ゾーン.	An alignment zone is a region around a common vertical alignment, such as the baseline or cap height, used in PostScript hinting. It can include the overshoot of rounded letters. A rasterizer uses zone information when fitting outlines to a pixel grid. Keep this mechanism distinct from design measurements and from the control-value and instruction mechanisms used in TrueType hinting.
anchor	attachment point	アンカー	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja both use アンカー for mark attachment points. This is why node is not アンカーポイント.	An anchor is a named attachment point in a glyph that says where a mark belongs. A base letter carries a top anchor, and the accent carries a matching one, so the accent lands in the same relation on every letter that uses it. You place anchors in the Anchors and Pins panel, and FontLab uses them both to build composites and to generate mark attachment lookups in GPOS, which is what positions marks in text the font never composed itself.
anti-aliasing	edge smoothing	アンチエイリアス	proposed	Adobe ja (Photoshop, Illustrator) and open source graphics tools use アンチエイリアス; アンチエイリアシング is the rarer long form.	Anti-aliasing paints partly covered pixels in intermediate shades so a rendered outline looks smooth. FontLab's preview can show anti-aliased, monochrome or subpixel rendering so you can check how hints behave under each. Write the hyphenated form.
autohinting	automatic screen fitting	オートヒンティング	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja (オートヒンティングを適用しないグリフ); derived from ヒンティング.	Autohinting generates hints for a font from its outlines and its declared stems and zones, in one pass over the glyphs. It is a starting point rather than a finish: it hints the regular cases well and leaves the awkward glyphs for you. You run it after the alignment zones and standard stem widths are correct in Font Info, because it reads them. Then you check the glyphs that matter at text sizes and correct by hand what the pass got wrong.
axis		軸	proposed	FontForge ja uses 軸 and デザイン軸; Glyphs 3 uses 補間軸 and 軸の位置. Plain 軸 is the shared core.	An axis is one dimension of font variation, such as weight, width or optical size. In an OpenType variable font, each axis has a four-character tag and a minimum, default and maximum value. Registered tags, such as wght, have defined meanings. Preserve tag spelling and case, and check the axis registry when assigning a custom tag.
axis map	axis value mapping	軸マッピング	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja says 軸のマッピング for axis mappings; compacted.	An axis map converts user coordinates on an axis, such as weight 400, to the design coordinates of the masters. It is stored in the avar table and lets a slider feel even when masters are not.
bottom sidebearing		下サイドベアリング	proposed	Derived from サイドベアリング, parallel to Glyphs 3 左サイドベアリング.	The space below the glyph outline within its vertical advance. This value participates in vertical text spacing rather than horizontal spacing.
component		コンポーネント	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses コンポーネント throughout; FontForge mixes it with 構成要素.	A component is a reference to another glyph placed inside this one, so that aacute holds the a and the acute rather than copies of their outlines. Change the source glyph and every glyph that references it follows. You build composites from components, position them with anchors, and keep them as references through to export, where a TrueType flavoured font stores them in the glyf table. In FontLab a component is one kind of element reference.
composite glyph	assembled glyph	複合グリフ	proposed	FontForge ja uses 複合グリフ. Glyphs' コンポーネントグリフ rejected as longer.	A composite glyph is built from references to other glyphs rather than from its own outlines: an accented letter, a currency symbol with a bar, a stacked fraction. You assemble it from components and anchor them to the base, so a change to the base or to the mark reaches every composite that uses it. Composites keep a large accented character set consistent and small. A composite that has been decomposed is no longer one, and no longer follows its sources.
conversion profile	export settings set	変換プロファイル	proposed	No attestation; fallback translated with the usual software words 変換 and プロファイル.	A conversion profile is the saved set of choices TransType applies to a conversion: the output format, the naming scheme, the filters, and the options that go with them. You build a profile once for a job you repeat, then run it over a new set of sources without repeating the decisions. It matters because a family converted with two different sets of options ships as two families that do not quite match, which shows up in a font menu rather than in a test.
CVT table		CVT テーブル	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja says cvt テーブル; tag protected, noun translated.	The CVT table holds the control values that TrueType hinting instructions refer to: the stem widths, heights, and other measurements a font wants held constant across glyphs. An instruction cites a CVT entry rather than a raw number, so one change to the table reaches every glyph that cites it. You work with it through the TrueType Hinting panel. It ships in the font, alongside the instructions themselves and the prep and fpgm programs that set the machine up.
design space	variation range	デザインスペース	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses デザインスペース.	A design space describes the positions defined by a font project's variation axes. Masters provide source data at specified locations; instances represent results at selected locations. User coordinates and internal design coordinates may be connected by a mapping, or may have the same values. State which coordinate system a number belongs to when the distinction affects a procedure.
device correction	per-size pixel correction	デバイス補正	proposed	No attestation; FontForge says デバイステーブルの調整 and Glyphs デルタ. Fallback translated.	A device correction adjusts a kerning or positioning value by whole pixels at one pixel size, to fix rounding at that size only. Stored in GPOS device tables; rarely needed on modern rasterizers.
dimensions		寸法	proposed	No attestation for this FontLab grouping; 寸法 is the plain Japanese word for design dimensions.	The font or family vertical values, such as ascender, descender, capital height, x-height and line gap. Distinguish these values from glyph spacing and canvas measurements.
element		エレメント	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja has エレメントの移動, and Morisawa's glossary lists エレメント. 要素 rejected as too generic for a FontLab object.	An element is FontLab's container for a piece of drawing inside a glyph: one or more contours, an image, or a reference to another element. A glyph holds elements, and an element holds contours, which is the layer of structure that makes a serif or a stem reusable across a family. You work with elements in the Elements panel and with the Element tool. The word is FontLab's own; other editors call the nearest thing a path group or a component.
element reference	shared drawing link	エレメント参照	proposed	Derived from エレメント and 参照 (FontForge ja uses 参照 for references).	An element reference is a placed copy of an element that still points at the original. Edit the original and every reference updates. You use references to share a serif, a stem, or a whole letter across a family, and you decompose a reference only when a glyph genuinely needs to diverge. A component is the familiar case of an element reference: one glyph placed inside another. Keep references intact through the design phase, since decomposing early throws away the link that makes a late change cheap.
family dimensions		ファミリーの寸法	proposed	Derived from 寸法 (dimensions).	The vertical values used to establish line layout for a font family. Platform-specific ascender, descender and line-gap fields belong to this group.
Flex		フレックス	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja writes フレックス; FontForge keeps Flex ヒント. One fixed name for the PostScript hint.	Flex is a PostScript hint that flattens a shallow curve, such as a cup serif, to a straight line at small sizes. FontLab marks glyphs that carry it. Keep the name.
font dimensions		フォントの寸法	proposed	Derived from 寸法 (dimensions).	The design dimensions of a font master, including ascender, descender, capital height and x-height. These values describe the vertical proportions of the design.
font target	export target	ターゲットフォント	proposed	No attestation; fallback translated. 出力フォント was the alternative; ターゲット keeps the short form 'target' usable.	A font target is what TransType produces from a source: the output font, with its format, its names, and the filters applied on the way. Sources go in on one side and targets come out on the other, and one source can produce several targets. You set the target options before you convert, and you name the target in a procedure step so a reader knows which side of the conversion a setting belongs to.
font unit		フォントユニット	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja both say ユニット for font units.	A font unit is the coordinate step of a font's design grid. UPM says how many of them make one em, so a 700 unit stem in a 1000 UPM font is 70 percent of the em. Metrics, kerning values and node coordinates are all stated in font units.
fractional coordinates	non-integer coordinates	小数座標	proposed	No attestation; fallback 'non-integer coordinates' translated.	Fractional coordinates are node positions with decimal places, kept for curve fidelity while you draw. Font formats store integers, so FontLab rounds on export or when you turn on Round coordinates for the font.
friendly glyph name	readable glyph name	読みやすいグリフ名	proposed	No attestation; fallback 'readable glyph name' translated. Glyphs' デザイン用グリフ名 names its own scheme.	A friendly glyph name is the readable name FontLab shows for editing, such as Aacute, as opposed to the production name written into the exported font, such as uni00C1. FontLab can keep both and convert on export.
ghost hint	edge-only fitting instruction	ゴーストヒント	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses ゴーストヒント.	A ghost hint is a PostScript hint with a special width that marks one edge, such as the top of a round letter, when there is no stem to hint. It aligns that edge to an alignment zone.
hint	screen fitting instruction	ヒント	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use ヒント.	A hint is a stored instruction that tells a rasterizer how to align a stem or a zone to the pixel grid at small sizes. PostScript hints describe stems and zones; TrueType hints are instructions. FontLab draws hints in the Glyph window and generates them with autohinting. The word stays English in every language.
hint zone	hinting height band	ヒントゾーン	proposed	No attestation as a compound; built from ヒント and ゾーン (Glyphs TTF ゾーン, FontForge ゾーン).	A hint zone is a horizontal band, such as the baseline or the x-height, inside which a rasterizer snaps overshoots to the same pixel row. FontLab stores zones in Font Info and shows them in the Glyph window. An alignment zone is the PostScript name for the same thing; hint zone is the general term.
hinting	screen fitting	ヒンティング	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses ヒンティング.	Hinting is the extra information a font carries so that its outlines land predictably on a pixel grid at small sizes. PostScript hinting declares stems and alignment zones and leaves the rasterizer to interpret them. TrueType hinting gives instructions that move points explicitly, with the control values in the CVT table. You work on PostScript hints in the glyph and in Font Info, and on TrueType hints with the TrueType Hinting tool and panel. Autohinting produces a starting point you then correct.
instance	generated design	インスタンス	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use インスタンス; Glyphs sometimes says スタイル, rejected because style is a separate concept.	An instance is a particular result at a location in a font's variation space. A named instance, such as Semibold, gives a selected location a name that applications can present. Other locations need not have names. In FontLab, configured instances can be exported as static fonts or included as named instances in a variable font.
interpolation		補間	proposed	Glyphs 3, FontForge and Adobe ja use 補間.	Interpolation calculates values between source values. In font design, it can calculate outlines, metrics and other data from masters at specified design-space locations. Outline interpolation requires corresponding contour and point structures. Structural compatibility makes the calculation possible, but does not guarantee a good drawing: inspect intermediate results as well as the masters. Extrapolation calculates beyond the source range.
kern exception	pair spacing exception	カーニング例外	proposed	Derived from カーニング; 例外 is the plain word and the usual Japanese term for a class kerning exception.	A kern exception is a pair value that overrides what the classes would otherwise apply. One member of a class rarely behaves like the rest, and the exception says so without breaking the class apart. You create one in the Kerning panel by kerning the single pair while its classes stay in place. Keep exceptions few: a class with many exceptions is the wrong class, and the cheaper fix is to split it rather than to list every disagreement.
kerning	pair spacing correction	カーニング	proposed	Glyphs 3, FontForge, Adobe, Apple and Morisawa all use カーニング.	Kerning adjusts the spacing of particular glyph combinations beyond their normal advances. A pair such as AV may need a different gap from the one produced by its unadjusted metrics. OpenType fonts commonly store horizontal kerning in GPOS lookups associated with the kern feature; some formats and workflows use a separate kern table. Name the mechanism when it matters to export or compatibility.
kerning class	pair spacing group	カーニングクラス	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use カーニングクラス.	A kerning class groups glyphs that need the same kerning. You put every glyph that behaves alike on one side into one class, then kern the class once instead of kerning each pair inside it. FontLab applies the class value to every member pair and keeps single pairs as exceptions where a member needs its own value. Classes matter because a text face carries thousands of readable pairs, and a hand kerned list of that size is unmaintainable. FontLab writes the result into GPOS as class based positioning.
kerning pair	spacing-corrected pair	カーニングペア	proposed	FontForge ja uses カーニングペア; Morisawa says ペアカーニング for the feature.	A kerning pair associates two glyphs, or two kerning classes, with a spacing adjustment. In horizontal kerning, a negative value normally reduces the gap and a positive value increases it. An individual glyph pair may provide an exception to class kerning, but it can also exist without a class rule. Check pairs in representative text as well as in isolation.
left sidebearing		左サイドベアリング	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use 左サイドベアリング; Glyphs abbreviates to 左SB. Keep numeric controls compact: LSB/RSB (French AG/AD), UPM and PPM. Expanded terms belong in explanatory help; the full Family Dimensions Units Per eM label is an intentional exception. Team UI convention in Proteus 1751b28b0.	The horizontal space between the glyph origin and the left edge of its outline. It contributes to the glyph advance width and its spacing.
Lib		Lib	proposed	Kept in Latin script as the name of the UFO lib dictionary, as the reviewed languages do.	Lib is the custom metadata dictionary of a font or a master, mirroring the UFO lib and stored in VFJ. Scripts and tools keep their own keys there.
line gap		行間アキ	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja both translate the hhea and typo line gap as 行間アキ.	The line gap is extra vertical space between lines that a font recommends beyond ascender and descender. hhea and OS/2 each store one.
line height		行送り	proposed	JIS X 4051 and Adobe ja define 行送り as the distance between successive baselines. Glyphs' 行の高さ is the rejected alternative.	The distance between successive text baselines. It includes the relevant ascender, descender and line-gap contributions; line gap alone is only the additional space.
link metrics	tie spacing to another glyph	メトリクスをリンク	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja says メトリクスをマスターとリンク.	Link metrics ties a glyph's sidebearing or advance width to another glyph or to an expression, so the value follows its source. FontLab shows linked metrics with the expression and updates them when the source changes.
linked metrics		リンクされたメトリクス	proposed	Derived from メトリクスをリンク; Glyphs 3 says リンクされたフォント for linked items.	Glyph spacing values linked to another glyph or to an expression. Updating the source or expression changes the dependent advance width or sidebearings.
mark attachment	combining mark positioning	マーク接続	proposed	FontForge ja uses マーク接続 (マーク接続クラス, マークからベースへの接続).	Mark attachment positions a combining mark relative to a base glyph, a ligature component or another mark. OpenType GPOS lookups describe the anchor relationships, and the shaping engine applies the positioning during layout. FontLab can generate attachment code from suitable anchors. Check the relevant generation settings and test combinations, including stacked marks, rather than assuming that every anchor automatically becomes a lookup.
master	source design	マスター	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use マスター; long vowel kept per JTCA.	A master provides source outlines and other font data at a specified location in a design space. Masters can describe weight, width or other variations, including intermediate locations. FontLab uses corresponding data from masters to calculate instances. For outline interpolation, check contour and point compatibility in each affected glyph; the word master alone does not guarantee that every glyph is present or compatible.
master compatibility	matching master structure	マスター互換性	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses マスター互換性.	Master compatibility is the condition every glyph must meet before it can interpolate: the same number of contours in the same order, with the same number of nodes and the same start point in each. FontLab reports incompatible glyphs and gives you Matchmaker to repair them by matching contours and start points between masters. Fix compatibility before you tune shapes, because a repair that reorders nodes moves every curve that depends on them.
metrics		メトリクス	proposed	Glyphs 3, InDesign and Font Book ja use メトリクス; FontForge's メトリック rejected.	Metrics are the measurements that place a glyph in a line: its advance width and its two sidebearings. Vertical metrics are a separate set, the font wide values for ascender, descender, and line gap. You work on horizontal metrics in the Metrics panel and with the Metrics tool, and on vertical metrics in Font Info. Say which set you mean whenever a page discusses both, because a reader who applies a horizontal instruction to the vertical fields breaks line spacing everywhere the font is used.
metrics expression		メトリクス式	proposed	Derived from メトリクス; 式 is the standard word for an expression.	An expression that calculates a glyph advance width or sidebearing from other values. It describes a spacing relationship rather than a canvas measurement.
metrics key		メトリクスキー	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses メトリクスキー.	A glyph reference or expression used to derive a spacing value. The referenced value determines an advance width or sidebearing.
pin		ピン	proposed	Issue 160 catalog family review: named point inside an element, distinct from a glyph-layer anchor. Proteus Resources/helptips.json def.anchorpin defines the behavior. Preserve this term across panel, tool, action and help labels; proposed terminology, not native-team approval.	A pin is a named point inside an element. Use pins to position elements with expressions and to attach elements to each other. An anchor is a named point in a glyph layer, used for component placement and mark attachment. Create either with the Guides tool and edit it in the Anchors and Pins panel.
PPM	pixels per type body	PPM	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja keeps PPM; write ピクセル/em in explanatory prose. Keep numeric controls compact: LSB/RSB (French AG/AD), UPM and PPM. Expanded terms belong in explanatory help; the full Family Dimensions Units Per eM label is an intentional exception. Team UI convention in Proteus 1751b28b0.	PPM, pixels per em, is the size at which a rasterizer renders a font: how many pixels one em occupies. TrueType hints, device corrections and bitmap strikes are specified per PPM. In explanatory prose expand it; in hinting fields the short form is usual.
production glyph name	shipping glyph name	製品用グリフ名	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses 製品用グリフ名 and 製品用名.	A production glyph name is the name written into the exported font, chosen for compatibility with tools and the Adobe Glyph List, such as uni00C1 rather than Aacute.
rendering	drawing on screen	レンダリング	proposed	Standard loan in Apple, Microsoft and graphics software ja.	Rendering is the conversion of an outline into pixels on a screen or a printer. The rasterizer of the operating system or of FontLab's preview reads the outline, applies the hints and paints the result. FontLab previews rendering at chosen pixel sizes so you can judge hints. Rasterization names the same step from the pixel side.
required glyphs	mandatory glyphs	必須グリフ	proposed	No attestation; CoreText says 必須 for required features. Fallback translated.	Required glyphs are the ones the OpenType specification and common tools expect at the start of a font: .notdef, NULL or uni0000, CR or uni000D and space. FontLab can add them on export.
right sidebearing		右サイドベアリング	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses 右サイドベアリング; abbreviates to 右SB. Keep numeric controls compact: LSB/RSB (French AG/AD), UPM and PPM. Expanded terms belong in explanatory help; the full Family Dimensions Units Per eM label is an intentional exception. Team UI convention in Proteus 1751b28b0.	The horizontal space between the right edge of a glyph outline and the end of its advance width. It contributes to spacing.
sidebearing	side space	サイドベアリング	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use サイドベアリング.	A sidebearing is the space between a glyph's outline and the edge of its advance width: the left sidebearing before the shape, the right sidebearing after it. Together with the advance width it sets how the glyph spaces against every other glyph, which is the work that carries a text face further than kerning does. You edit sidebearings in the Metrics panel or with the Metrics tool, one glyph at a time or across a selection, and you check them in a word rather than in isolation.
size		サイズ	proposed	Universal in Adobe, Apple and Glyphs ja.	The size of an object or the chosen size of displayed text. Name a specific width or height when only one direction is intended.
spacing		スペーシング	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use スペーシング.	The adjustment of glyph advance widths and sidebearings to establish the space between letters. Kerning makes additional adjustments to particular pairs.
standard stem	reference stem width	標準ステム	proposed	No attestation as a compound; built from ステム.	Standard stems are the representative horizontal and vertical stem widths declared in a font for hinting. The rasterizer snaps stems near those widths to the same pixel count, so like stems stay alike at small sizes.
stem link	stem tie	ステムリンク	proposed	No attestation; built from ステム and リンク (Glyphs 3 uses リンク for links).	A stem link ties two edges of a stroke together as a stem, so hinting can hold their distance as the size changes. A vertical link governs a horizontal measurement and a horizontal link governs a vertical one. You add links in the glyph, either by hand or from an autohinting pass, and you keep them consistent with the standard stem widths declared in Font Info. Vextra reuses the term for the paired edges it detects in artwork that is not type.
styling group name		スタイルグループ名	proposed	No attestation; Glyphs 3 says スタイルリンク for style linking. Fallback translated.	The styling group name, SGN, ties together the styles an application reaches through its bold and italic buttons, and the styling link value and styling link name say which slot each style takes in that group. The mechanism is older than typographic family names and narrower: four slots, no more. You set these fields in TransType when a family has to behave correctly in applications that still drive style selection from those buttons.
subsetting	cutting down a font	サブセット化	proposed	Font Book and FontForge ja use サブセット化.	Subsetting exports only part of a font, such as the glyphs a page uses or one codepage, to make a smaller file. The OS/2 embedding bits can forbid it.
top sidebearing		上サイドベアリング	proposed	Derived from サイドベアリング.	The space above the glyph outline within its vertical advance. This value participates in vertical text spacing rather than horizontal spacing.
tracking	uniform letter spacing	トラッキング	proposed	Illustrator and Apple ja use トラッキング; InDesign's 字送り is the alternative.	Tracking changes the spacing across a run of text, rather than correcting particular pairs as kerning does. Layout applications apply it to text. TransType's Tracking filter changes spacing in the font data itself. That changes the font's starting metrics; a layout application can still apply additional tracking to text set in the resulting font.
TrueType instruction	pixel fitting instruction	TrueType インストラクション	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses インストラクション; FontForge says TrueType 命令.	A TrueType instruction is one step of the program a TrueType font runs to fit an outline to the pixel grid. Instructions are the TrueType form of hints. FontLab writes them from visual TrueType hints and can keep the ones a font already has. Say instruction for the code and hint for what the reader draws.
typographic family name		タイポグラフィックファミリー名	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja says タイポグラフィック ファミリー名; closed up per the compound rule.	The typographic family name, TFN, is the name that groups every style of a family under one entry, and the typographic style name, TSN, is what distinguishes a style inside it. They sit beside the older four style family and style names that legacy applications read. You set them in TransType and in Font Info, and you keep them consistent across a family, because an app that reads these fields builds its font menu from them.
update metrics		メトリクスを更新	proposed	Derived from メトリクス; Glyphs 3 talks of メトリクスキー being updated.	Recalculate glyph spacing values from their links or expressions. This command updates the advance widths and sidebearings that depend on those relationships.
variable font		バリアブルフォント	proposed	Glyphs 3, InDesign, Morisawa and Adobe Fonts ja use バリアブルフォント.	A variable font contains data for design variation along one or more axes. Applications select axis values and calculate the corresponding outlines and other variable data. Named instances identify selected locations, but users are not limited to those locations when the application exposes axis controls. A variable font's supported range depends on its data; it need not contain every style in the family.
variation location	position in the variation range	バリエーション位置	proposed	No attestation; Glyphs 3 says 軸の位置 for an axis location. Fallback translated.	A variation location is a point in the design space, given as one value per axis. Masters and instances each have one, and the Variations panel slider shows the current one.
vertical advance	glyph box height	縦送り幅	proposed	Derived from 送り幅; FontForge says 縦書き時の送り幅.	The vertical advance is the distance a glyph advances in vertical text, the counterpart of advance width for East Asian layout. Stored in vmtx.
vertical metrics		縦方向メトリクス	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses 縦方向メトリクス and 縦メトリクス.	The font-wide vertical values used for line layout, including ascender, descender and line gap. FontLab groups these as dimensions, distinct from glyph spacing metrics.
visual kerning	shape-measured spacing correction	ビジュアルカーニング	proposed	No attestation; built from カーニング. Illustrator's オプティカル names Adobe's own method.	Visual kerning is kerning that FontLab proposes by measuring the shapes, so that a font gets a usable first pass without a person typing thousands of values. You run it over a selection, then review what it produced, because a measurement of two outlines does not know about the words a reader will meet. Treat the result as a draft: keep the pairs it got right, correct the ones it did not, and kern the difficult pairs by eye in real words.
weight axis	thickness axis	ウエイト軸	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja says ウエイト軸.	The weight axis, tag wght, varies stroke thickness from light to bold. In a variable font it is the most common axis; its master locations use the usWeightClass scale, such as 400 for Regular and 700 for Bold.
weight class		ウエイトクラス	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses ウエイトクラス; FontForge writes ウェイトクラス.	The weight class is the OS/2 value from 100 to 900 that tells applications how heavy a style is, with 400 for Regular and 700 for Bold. Style linking and menus rely on it.
width axis	narrow-to-wide axis	字幅軸	proposed	Illustrator ja labels the wdth slider 字幅; kept apart from 送り幅 (advance width).	The width axis, tag wdth, varies letter proportions from condensed to extended. It is distinct from advance width, which is the spacing of one glyph, and from the geometric width of a shape. Its scale is a percentage of normal width.
width class		字幅クラス	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses 字幅クラス.	The width class is the OS/2 value from 1, ultra condensed, to 9, ultra expanded, that tells applications how wide a style is. It is a classification, not the width axis value and not the advance width.

OpenType

English	Fallback	Japanese	Status	Note	Definition
Adobe Glyph List		Adobe Glyph List	do-not-translate		The Adobe Glyph List maps standard glyph names to Unicode codepoints, so that a glyph named aacute is understood as U plus 00E1 by any tool that follows it. You name glyphs by it wherever it covers the character, because tools and text engines can then infer the mapping without being told twice. Where it does not cover a glyph, you fall back to a consistent scheme of your own and assign codepoints explicitly. Write the name in full on first mention, then AGL.
alternate glyph	glyph variant	異体字	proposed	InDesign and Illustrator ja, Glyphs 3 (すべての異体字) and Morisawa's glossary use 異体字 for OpenType alternates.	An alternate glyph is another form of the same character, selected through an OpenType feature such as salt or a stylistic set. Its name usually carries a suffix, as in a.alt or g.ss01.
cmap		cmap	do-not-translate		The cmap table maps character codes to glyph indices. Its Unicode subtables provide the initial mapping used in text rendering; other subtables support particular encodings or variation sequences. FontLab generates these mappings from the project's encoding data. A glyph without its own Unicode assignment can still appear in typed text through substitution, such as a ligature or alternate selected by the shaping engine.
code page	legacy character table	コードページ	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses コードページ; closed compound per the house rule.	A code page is a numbered legacy encoding, such as Windows 1250 for Central European languages, that maps one byte to one character. The OS/2 table lists the code pages a font supports, and FontLab derives that list from the glyphs present. Write two words.
color font table		カラーフォントテーブル	proposed	Built from テーブル, the Glyphs 3 and FontForge word for a font table.	Colour-font tables store data for colour glyph rendering. Formats include COLR with CPAL, SVG, sbix, and CBDT with CBLC. They differ in how they describe vector or bitmap content and in application support. Including several formats can extend coverage, but does not guarantee rendering in every application. Identify the exported formats and test the intended targets.
contextual alternates	context-dependent variants	前後関係に依存する字形	proposed	InDesign and Glyphs 3 ja both name the calt feature this way.	Contextual alternates, the calt feature, cover substitutions an app makes because of what sits around a glyph rather than because a reader asked. In a script face the text engine replaces an entry stroke after a letter that already ends in one, and in a face with repeating shapes it replaces the second of a pair. You write the rules with context in feature code, and apps usually leave calt on by default, which makes it the feature most likely to surprise you when a rule is too broad.
cursive attachment	joined-script connection	筆記体接続	proposed	FontForge ja names the GPOS lookup type 筆記体接続.	Cursive attachment joins glyphs by matching an exit anchor of one glyph to the entry anchor of the next, so connected scripts such as Arabic and Nastaliq flow. It is the curs feature, built from anchors.
design languages		デザイン対象言語	proposed	No attestation; translated as the languages the design targets, like German Zielsprachen. Literal デザイン言語 would mean a visual design language.	Design languages, the meta table dlng record, list the languages the typeface was designed for. Supported languages, slng, list every language it can set. Both are language tags, not feature tags.
encoding		エンコーディング	proposed	Glyphs 3, Apple, InDesign and Morisawa's glossary use エンコーディング.	An encoding maps character codes to glyphs. Unicode is the encoding modern fonts use; legacy encodings such as Mac Roman or a code page map one byte to one glyph. FontLab shows the font in a chosen encoding in the Font window and writes the cmap from it. Say encoding for the mapping and code page for a numbered legacy table.
feature code	layout rule code	フィーチャーコード	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses フィーチャーコード.	Feature code is the text syntax that describes OpenType features: classes, lookups, substitution and positioning rules, grouped into features by tag. It is usually called FEA, after the file extension. You edit it in the Features panel, compile it to check for errors, and keep it under the same review as the drawings, since a rule that fires on the wrong glyph is as visible as a wrong outline. FontLab compiles it into GSUB and GPOS at export.
fractions		分数	proposed	InDesign, Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use 分数.	Fractions are numerical forms such as ½. In OpenType, the frac feature supports diagonal fraction composition through glyph substitution. A font may provide precomposed fraction glyphs, numerator and denominator forms, or both. The separate numr and dnom features provide numerator and denominator forms. Do not substitute the sups and subs feature names for these mechanisms or promise support for every input sequence without testing it.
glyph index	glyph number	グリフインデックス	proposed	FontForge ja uses グリフインデックス, Font Book グリフのインデックス; GID stays as the abbreviation.	A glyph index is the number a glyph occupies in the font's own order, counting from zero. Text engines work in indices after the cmap has done its job, and binary tables reference glyphs by index rather than by name. You rarely set one by hand, but you meet it when you inspect a compiled font or debug a lookup that fires on the wrong glyph. The index depends on glyph order, so it changes when the order does.
glyph name		グリフ名	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use グリフ名.	A glyph name identifies a glyph in an editing project, feature code or a tool's data. Names such as a, a.sc and a.alt can distinguish related drawings. They are separate from Unicode assignments and glyph indices, and need not survive in every exported format. After renaming a glyph, check references in feature code, classes and scripts, including references the editor cannot update automatically.
GPOS		GPOS	do-not-translate		GPOS is the OpenType table that holds positioning: kerning, mark attachment, cursive attachment, and any rule that moves a glyph without replacing it. FontLab writes your kerning here, as pairs and as class based positioning, and builds the mark lookups from your anchors. You reach it through feature code rather than by editing the table. A font may also carry a legacy kern table; modern text engines read GPOS and many ignore the other.
GSUB		GSUB	do-not-translate		GSUB is the OpenType table containing glyph-substitution lookups. It supports operations such as replacing a glyph with an alternate, forming a ligature or selecting a form from its context. FontLab compiles feature code into these structures. To diagnose a missing substitution, check the glyphs, compiled rules, feature selection, language and shaping order in the target application.
ligature	joined letters	合字	proposed	Glyphs 3, FontForge and InDesign ja use 合字; Apple's リガチャ is the rejected loan.	A ligature is a glyph used to represent a sequence of characters, such as fi. OpenType substitution can replace several glyphs with one ligature glyph. The liga and dlig features distinguish standard and discretionary ligatures. Shaping does not change the underlying text; whether a later document export preserves searchable text also depends on that export and its text mappings.
localized forms	language-specific variants	言語特有の字形	proposed	Corpus pick from Glyphs 3 feature names; FontForge says 国・地域固有の字形.	Localized forms are glyph variants selected for a text run's language. The OpenType locl feature can provide these substitutions, for example Bulgarian forms of Cyrillic letters. The shaping engine needs the relevant language information, which the application may obtain from a setting or other context. The substitution changes glyph selection, not the underlying characters or their codepoints.
lookup	procedure	ルックアップ	approved	Fontographer 5 Japanese manual, Features and Lookups section (PDF page index 369), uses ルックアップ in explanatory prose; FontForge Japanese translations corroborate it. Keep the approved contextual Rules panel title. Preserve literal FEA lookup/lookupflag keywords, identifiers and OpenType structure names. Ordinary search senses are separate.	A lookup groups substitution or positioning rules of one type in GSUB or GPOS. Features reference lookups, and several features can share one. The shaping engine selects features and may process them in script-specific stages; within a stage, LookupList order matters. Source-code order alone does not describe the complete shaping sequence. Inspect the compiled tables and the target engine when diagnosing ordering problems.
mark glyph	combining mark glyph	マークグリフ	proposed	Derived from マーク and グリフ.	A mark glyph is an accent or other combining mark that attaches to a base glyph through anchors. The GDEF table classes it as a mark so shaping engines position it rather than advancing past it.
nonspacing mark	zero-width combining mark	非スペーシングマーク	proposed	Derived from Glyphs 3 非スペーシング and マーク; names Unicode category Mn.	A nonspacing mark is the Unicode general category Mn: a combining mark with zero advance, such as a combining acute. It differs from FontLab's nonspacing element, which is a property of an element inside a glyph.
oldstyle figures	lowercase-style figures	オールドスタイル数字	proposed	InDesign, Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use オールドスタイル数字.	Oldstyle figures are numerals with varying heights, often including forms with ascenders and descenders. The OpenType onum feature selects them when provided by the font. Figure height and figure width are separate choices: oldstyle figures can be proportional or tabular. Use tabular widths when numerals must align in columns, whether their forms are oldstyle or lining.
OpenType class	layout glyph group	OpenType クラス	proposed	Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja use クラス; format name kept in Latin script.	An OpenType class is a named group of glyphs that feature code can address at once, written with an at sign before the name. One rule over two classes replaces a page of single rules, and one edit to a class reaches every rule that cites it. You define classes in the Classes panel or in feature code, and you keep their order stable, because a substitution between two classes pairs them by position. Kerning classes are a separate mechanism with the same idea.
OpenType feature	layout feature	OpenType フィーチャー	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja says OpenType フィーチャー. InDesign's OpenType 機能 rejected for consistency with フィーチャー.	An OpenType feature identifies typographic behaviour through a four-character tag, such as liga, smcp or ss01. Feature records reference substitution or positioning lookups. In FontLab, you can write feature code and compile it into the font. Whether and when a feature is applied depends on the shaping engine, script, language and application settings; not every feature is a user-controlled switch.
OS/2 table		OS/2 テーブル	proposed	Tag protected, noun translated with テーブル as in Glyphs 3 and FontForge ja.	The OS/2 table carries the font's metadata for applications: vertical metrics, weight and width classes, embedding permissions, the panose values, and the codepage and Unicode range bits that say what the font covers. You fill it from Font Info rather than by hand, and you check it before release, because a wrong weight class puts a font in the wrong slot in a menu and wrong vertical metrics change line spacing in every browser. Write it with the slash: OS/2.
Private Use Area		Private Use Area	do-not-translate		A private-use area is one of three Unicode blocks whose codepoints can receive meanings by private agreement. Different fonts or systems may assign different meanings to the same private-use codepoint. Use a documented agreement when encoding custom symbols there. An alternate glyph reached through a feature does not require its own private-use assignment.
single substitution		単純置換	proposed	FontForge ja names GSUB type 1 単純置換; 単一置換 is the literal alternative.	A single substitution replaces one glyph with one other glyph, the simplest GSUB lookup type. Small caps, stylistic alternates and localized forms are mostly built from it.
small caps	small capitals	スモールキャップス	proposed	InDesign and Illustrator ja use スモールキャップス. 小型大文字 (FontForge) and 小さな大文字 (Apple) rejected.	Small caps are capital shapes drawn at roughly lowercase height, with their own weight and width rather than scaled capitals. Apps apply the smcp feature to put them in place of lowercase letters, and c2sc to put them in place of capitals, so a run set in both features becomes uniform. You draw them as separate glyphs, usually with a dot sc suffix, and write both features. Scaled capitals look thin beside real text, which is the reason to draw them rather than let an app fake them.
stylistic set		デザインのセット	proposed	InDesign and Illustrator ja name ss01 to ss20 デザインのセット. Apple's スタイルセット is the alternative.	A stylistic set is a numbered group of alternate glyphs a reader can switch on, from ss01 through ss20. Each set holds alternates that belong together: a single storey a with a matching g, a set of flat topped figures. You name each set in the font so an app can show a readable label instead of a number, and you keep one idea per set. A set that mixes unrelated alternates gives a reader nothing they can decide about.
tabular figures	equal-width figures	等幅数字	proposed	InDesign and Glyphs 3 ja use 等幅数字 (等幅ライニング数字).	Tabular figures all carry the same advance width, so columns of numbers line up whatever digits they contain. Apps apply the tnum feature to put them in place of proportional figures. You draw them as a separate set and give every one the same width, centring the narrow digits inside it. They matter in any table, price list, or running total, and they look loose in prose, which is why a font offers both sets rather than choosing for the reader.
Unicode codepoint	character code	Unicode コードポイント	proposed	Standard Japanese Unicode term; 文字コード (Morisawa) is broader and was rejected.	A Unicode codepoint is an integer from U+0000 to U+10FFFF. Not every codepoint has an assigned character. Write it with U+ and at least four hexadecimal digits, as in U+0041 for A. In a font editor, a glyph's Unicode assignment connects it to an encoded character; the exported cmap records the relevant mapping.
variation selector	variant picker character	異体字セレクター	proposed	Established Unicode term 異体字セレクタ; long vowel added per JTCA, as Microsoft now writes. FontForge's 字形選択子 rejected.	A variation selector is a Unicode character that follows a base character to request a specific glyph form. The pair is a variation sequence, mapped in the cmap format 14 subtable; a default mapping points at the base glyph.
writing system		文字体系	proposed	The Japanese Glyphs handbook and general usage say 文字体系. Font Book's スクリプト rejected because it also means a Python script.	A writing system is the set of characters and rules a language writes with, such as Latin, Cyrillic or Arabic. OpenType calls it a script and identifies it by a four letter tag. Say writing system in prose and script tag for the identifier, so the reader does not confuse it with a Python script.

File formats

English	Fallback	Japanese	Status	Note	Definition
AI file		AI file	do-not-translate		An AI file is an Adobe Illustrator document, and it is the container the Vexy Illustrator plug-ins work inside. It holds paths, strokes, fills, appearances, and the live effects that a plug-in adds. You do not export an AI file from the plug-ins; you work in one. Write it as an AI file or an Illustrator document, never as an ai, and name Adobe Illustrator in full on first mention in the same document.
AIP		AIP	do-not-translate		An AIP file is an Adobe Illustrator plug-in binary, and it is how Vexy Linestra and Vexy Vextra reach Illustrator. The filenames close up the product name, VexyLinestra.aip and VexyVextra.aip, while prose keeps the space. You copy the file into the Illustrator plug-ins folder, whose name the operating system may show translated, and restart Illustrator so it loads. Name the file exactly as it ships, since a renamed plug-in does not load.
FLREQ		FLREQ	do-not-translate		An FLREQ file is a licence request the application writes when a machine cannot reach the licensing service, and an FLLIC file is the response that activates it. You send the request from the machine that needs the licence, receive the response, and open it there. The pair exists for machines that stay offline, so name both files in a procedure that uses either, and say which machine each step happens on.
Fog.net		Fog.net	do-not-translate		Fog.net is Fontographer's project data format, and fognet is the Python module that reads and writes it from a script. A project file carries the extension .fog. You meet the format when you script against a project or move one between machines, rather than in ordinary editing, where the dashboard handles saving. The module name is lowercase, as Python module names are, and it goes in code font wherever it appears in prose.
Glyphs file		Glyphs file	do-not-translate		A Glyphs file is the source format of the Glyphs editor, and FontLab reads and writes it so that a project can move between the two. It holds masters, glyphs, metrics, and features in one text file. You use it when a collaborator works in the other editor, and you check the result after the trip, because two editors model masters and components in ways that do not correspond exactly. Write it as a Glyphs file, not as a glyphs.
Lines file		Lines file	do-not-translate		A Lines file is the native document of Vexy Lines, holding the source image, the fills applied to it, and the settings that produced the result. You save to it while you work and export vector artwork when you are finished, because the export keeps the result and not the recipe. Write it as a Lines file with a capital L when you name the format, and as the extension in lowercase with a dot when you mean the file suffix.
OTF		OTF	do-not-translate		OTF is the usual filename extension for an OpenType font with PostScript outlines. These use cubic curves stored in CFF or CFF2 data. State the outline flavour when it matters: OpenType fonts with TrueType outlines also support OpenType layout features. The .otf extension alone does not establish which features, colour formats or variation capabilities a font contains.
SVG		SVG	do-not-translate		SVG is the vector graphics format, and it names two different things in this documentation: a graphic file that a drawing tool exports, and the SVG table inside a colour font. Say which you mean. You export SVG artwork from the Vexy products, and you meet the SVG table when you build a colour font in FontLab. A sentence that says SVG support without saying which one leaves a reader to guess.
TTC		TTC	do-not-translate		TTC is the usual filename extension for a TrueType font collection: several fonts stored in one file. Collection members can share tables, reducing duplication where their data is identical. A collection is a packaging format, not an interpolation model. Distinguish its individual fonts from named instances within a variable font.
TTF		TTF	do-not-translate		TTF is the usual filename extension for a font with TrueType outlines, which use quadratic curves. An OpenType TTF can contain layout features and variation data. Exporting cubic source outlines to this flavour requires curve conversion, which can change the point structure and approximate the original geometry. Check the exported outlines at the intended sizes.
Type 1		Type 1	do-not-translate		Type 1 is an older PostScript outline-font format. It remains relevant when opening archived fonts or explaining conversion workflows. Support depends on the application and version, so identify the target when discussing compatibility. Converting a Type 1 font to OpenType does not automatically supply missing Unicode mappings or new layout features.
UFO		UFO	do-not-translate		UFO, Unified Font Object, is an open source-font format. UFO 3 stores glyph layers, font information, kerning, groups and optional feature code in a directory package or ZIP archive. It also allows images and application-specific data. Interchange depends on what both applications support; a UFO export does not by itself guarantee that every editor-specific property survives.
VFB		VFB	do-not-translate		VFB is the native source format of FontLab Studio 5. FontLab 8 can open and export it, but the format cannot represent every feature of a FontLab 8 project. Use VFC or VFJ for ongoing work in FontLab 8. Name VFB when explaining migration or an exchange workflow that requires the older format, and check the exported result for unsupported data.
VFC		VFC	do-not-translate		VFC is FontLab's native binary format, and the one you work in. It holds everything the editor knows: masters, elements, references, anchors, kerning, features, and the project settings that no font format carries. You save to it while you design and export to OTF or TTF when you ship. Write the format in capitals when you name it and in lowercase with a dot when you mean the extension. Its sibling VFJ stores the same content as text.
VFJ		VFJ	do-not-translate		VFJ is FontLab's JSON source format. It provides a text representation of a FontLab project for workflows that need readable or scriptable data. Use it as a source format, not an installable font. When exchanging files between FontLab versions or external tools, check that the receiving tool supports the data the project uses.
WOFF2		WOFF2	do-not-translate		WOFF2 is a compressed font format for web delivery. Its encoding uses font-specific transformations and Brotli compression. Export it for web use and test the resulting font in the target browsers. The size saving depends on the source font and its contents; do not promise a fixed reduction or infer available features from the extension.

Interface

English	Fallback	Japanese	Status	Note	Definition
action		アクション	proposed	Adobe (Illustrator, InDesign) and Apple both use アクション for an invokable operation; 操作 is the generic alternative.	An action is an operation you can invoke in the application. An action label names the operation; help explains its effect.
add		追加	proposed	Standard command word in Glyphs 3, FontForge, Adobe and Apple Japanese interfaces.	Add inserts another item into the current collection or selection. Name the item when the surrounding control does not make it clear.
alternate		異体字	proposed	Same word as alternate glyph (Adobe, Glyphs 3, Morisawa). Glyphs also has オルタネート for alternate layers; rejected as less familiar.	An alternate is a different glyph form for the same character or purpose. The context determines how you select or substitute that form.
anchor cloud	attachment point cloud	アンカークラウド	proposed	No attestation; katakana compound from アンカー. クラウド alone can read as cloud storage, and 点群 (point cloud) was considered; a reviewer should confirm.	The anchor cloud previews the marks that attach to an anchor by showing them faintly around the glyph in the Glyph window. It checks mark positioning without leaving the base glyph.
auto layer	recipe-built layer	自動レイヤー	proposed	No attestation; built from レイヤー with 自動, as Glyphs says 自動整列 for auto-aligned layers. オートレイヤー rejected as less plain.	An auto layer builds a glyph from a recipe, such as A plus acute, and rebuilds it when the parts change. Turn auto off to edit the glyph by hand.
autohint		オートヒント	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses オートヒント; FontForge says 自動ヒント.	Autohint is the command to generate hints automatically. Use autohinting when naming the process rather than the command.
Brush		ブラシ	proposed	Illustrator, Photoshop and Glyphs 3 ja all use ブラシ.	The Brush tool draws a stroke freehand, and what the stroke becomes differs by product. In FontLab and Fontographer the Brush keeps the path you drew as a centreline and generates the thick outline from it, so the drawing stays editable until you expand it into ordinary contours. In Vexy Lines the Brush paints masks by hand, and a mask decides where a layer's fills can draw rather than being artwork itself. Name the application in any sentence where a reader could take one tool for the other.
collapse		1 点に揃える	proposed	The definition is aligning nodes to one point, so the panel sense 折りたたむ is wrong here. No attestation; described plainly (Illustrator calls a similar command 平均).	Collapse aligns the selected nodes to one point. In the Contour tool it aligns both coordinates; in the Metrics tool only the horizontal one. It moves nodes; it does not merge them.
color flag	color mark	カラーフラグ	proposed	No attestation as a compound; Apple Mail ja uses フラグ for colored flags. Glyphs' カラーラベル rejected to keep flag apart from labels and tags.	A color flag is a color you assign to a glyph cell, a kerning pair or a class to mark it for later. Flags are annotations for the designer and are not exported.
corner angles		コーナー角度	proposed	No attestation; built from コーナー, which Glyphs 3 and Adobe use for a contour corner.	The angles at contour vertices. These geometric measurements describe how adjacent segments meet at a corner and can be displayed on the canvas.
cousins	related glyphs alongside	いとこ	proposed	No attestation; house voice asks for the plain everyday word, as Polish kuzynostwo. The descriptive 関連グリフ was the rejected alternative.	Cousins are related glyphs or other masters that FontLab shows faintly around the current glyph in the Glyph window, so you can compare shapes and spacing while you edit. The name is FontLab's, rendered in each language's house voice.
crop		切り抜き	proposed	Photoshop and Illustrator ja use 切り抜き; Apple and Microsoft say トリミング.	Crop trims an image or drawing to a chosen area. The command label names the operation; its context identifies the object being cropped.
cubic		3 次	proposed	Standard mathematical term (3 次ベジェ曲線). キュービック and 立方体 rejected.	A cubic Bézier segment is a curve defined by two endpoints and two control points. Cubic describes the degree of the curve, not its physical dimensions.
current		現在の	proposed	Glyphs 3 (現在のレイヤー, 現在のマスター) and general software usage; カレント is developer jargon.	Current identifies the item or state active at the time of an operation. Name the item, such as the current layer, when the context is ambiguous.
cusp		尖点	proposed	Mathematical term for a cusp; keeps the geometric point apart from the node type (コーナーノード). カスプ is the rejected loan.	A cusp is a sharp point where a curve changes direction abruptly. Keep it distinct from a smooth join.
decompose	break into contours	分解	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses 分解 and コンポーネントを分解.	Decompose replaces components with copies of their contours, so the glyph no longer follows its source glyphs. Use it before edits that a component cannot carry, or before export to a format without composites.
default		デフォルト	proposed	Apple, FontForge and Qt ja use デフォルト; Microsoft's 既定 and Adobe's 初期設定 are the alternatives.	A default is the value or choice used when no explicit alternative has been selected. It need not be the currently selected value.
demo mode		デモモード	proposed	No attestation; both parts are everyday katakana.	Demo mode is how FontLab runs without a license: everything works except saving, exporting and printing.
dialog		ダイアログ	proposed	Apple and Adobe ja use ダイアログ; Microsoft says ダイアログボックス.	A dialog presents information, settings or a question for a particular interaction. A modal dialog restricts interaction with its parent until it is dismissed; a modeless dialog does not. Use the application's established name and reproduce its button labels exactly. If a procedure opens a dialog, explain the relevant choices and how to apply or cancel them.
Dream Up	generate shapes	思い描く	proposed	No attestation; house voice asks for a plain playful verb, as Polish wyczaruj. ドリームアップ and the dry 字形を生成 are the rejected alternatives.	Dream Up is a Fontographer command for generating glyph shapes. Dream Up Font generates a whole font; Mixfont blends existing fonts. Keep these commands distinct and show any confirmed cost before the reader runs an operation. Generated shapes may need further editing.
echo text	repeated text	テキストを反映	proposed	No attestation; fallback adapted. 繰り返す would suggest repetition, so 反映 (mirror the window's text) is used.	Echo text makes a preview repeat the text of the current window, so the Preview panel or the TrueType hinting preview shows the same string you are editing.
Eraser		消しゴム	proposed	Illustrator, Photoshop and Apple ja use 消しゴム for the tool.	The Eraser removes or simplifies points on a contour. In FontLab, its modes remove nodes and handles, select points for removal, or simplify a path. In Vexy Vextra, normal Eraser removes covered points; Soft Eraser removes a node only when a replacement curve is close enough to the original. That does not guarantee an identical outline. In Fontographer, Eraser shares a grouped toolbar button with Trowel. Name the application and mode when describing an operation.
expand filter	bake filter into contours	フィルターをアウトライン化	proposed	Japanese design idiom for baking live artwork into paths is アウトライン化 (Adobe usage, Morisawa glossary entry). Long vowel in フィルター per JTCA and Adobe; Glyphs writes フィルタ.	Expand filter bakes a live element filter, such as Smart Corners, Skin or a boolean Fusion, into plain contours. The filter parameters are no longer editable afterwards.
expand stroke	bake stroke into contours	線をアウトライン化	proposed	Illustrator ja converts a stroke with パスのアウトライン, commonly called 線のアウトライン化. FontForge's 輪郭を太らせる rejected.	Expand stroke converts a stroked centerline, or a brush applied to a contour, into plain filled contours. The live stroke or brush is gone afterwards and the result can be edited node by node.
expand transformation	bake transformation into contours	変形を確定	proposed	No attestation; fallback translated. The transformation is written into coordinates, not outlined, so 確定 is used.	Expand transformation writes an element's live transformation, such as scaling or rotation, into the node coordinates. The element then has an identity transformation and its contours carry the geometry directly.
feature		フィーチャー	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses フィーチャー. FontForge and InDesign say 機能, rejected because 機能 also means any function of the app.	A feature in OpenType editing identifies typographic behavior implemented by substitution or positioning lookups. Feature tags are literal identifiers and remain unchanged in translation.
Fills		塗り	proposed	Illustrator ja pairs 塗り with 線; Vexy plug-ins live in Illustrator. 塗りつぶし (FontForge, Microsoft) rejected as longer.	In FontLab, the Fill tool sets enclosed regions as filled or unfilled by changing contour direction or applying a live Fill filter. In Vexy Lines, Linestra and Playlines, a fill mode is a method for generating artwork from an image, such as Halftone or Stipple. Name the application and distinguish the tool, the filled region and the generative mode.
FontAudit		フォントオーディット	proposed	User requires phonetic transliteration, explicitly including Chinese. Russian and Ukrainian spellings were recovered from team QPH; other spellings are proposals. Retain the FontAudit identity; do not translate as a generic audit command. Preserve FontAudit in code and identifiers.	FontAudit is the FontLab panel that inspects outlines and reports the problems a proof will show later: unclosed contours, wrong winding directions, missing extreme nodes, near vertical segments, and the like. You run it over a glyph or a selection, read the findings, and fix what matters for the design rather than clearing every warning. In English write the FontAudit panel on first mention. Localized UI may transliterate the name into its writing system; keep the name distinct from a generic audit command. Preserve FontAudit in code and identifiers.
FontLab account		FontLabアカウント	proposed	Translate the common noun account and inflect it in complete sentences; preserve the FontLab brand. German, Spanish and French wording is already used in current FontLab UI. Other language forms are proposals. Do not duplicate account when the surrounding sentence already translates it.	A FontLab account is the identity used to sign in to FontLab services and manage licences. Keep the capital L in FontLab and lowercase account in English. Translate the common noun account while preserving the FontLab name. Distinguish the account from a licence, subscription or payment when more than one appears in the same explanation.
Fusion	Welder	溶接工	proposed	User decision 2026-10-04: translate the fallback Welder, the named live boolean group filter. Polish Spawacz is explicit; other renderings are proposals. Preserve Fusion in code identifiers.	Fusion is FontLab's live boolean filter on an element group: add, subtract, intersect or exclude the overlapping contours while the parts stay editable. Intersect keeps only the overlap; expand the filter to bake the result.
Genius node	self-balancing node	ジーニアスノード	proposed	No attestation; Japanese software keeps such names in katakana, and ジーニアス is a familiar word. 天才ノード was the rejected native option.	A Genius node keeps its curves smooth and balanced automatically when neighbours move; FontLab adjusts its handles for you. A Follower node follows key nodes under Power Nudge. Both are FontLab names, rendered in each language's house voice.
grid		グリッド	proposed	Glyphs 3, Adobe and Apple ja use グリッド.	A grid is a set of regularly spaced reference lines or points used to position drawing objects. Keep it distinct from a mesh used for deformation.
Groups		グループ	proposed	Glyphs 3 (カーニンググループ), FontForge and Adobe use グループ.	A group collects several things and treats them as one, and the things differ by product. In FontLab the word most often means a kerning group, the set of glyphs that kern alike, which the documentation also calls a kerning class. In Vexy Vextra, following Illustrator, a group is selected artwork bound into one object. In Vexy Lines a group bundles layers and carries its own source image, working like a folder. TransType adds a styling group that ties a family's styles into a menu. Say which you mean.
guide		ガイド	proposed	Illustrator, InDesign and FontForge ja use ガイド; Glyphs 3 says ガイドライン.	A guide is a reference line used to position or align drawing objects. Its name describes its role rather than a visible stroke in the exported glyph.
kerning mode		カーニングモード	proposed	Derived from カーニング.	The editing mode for adjusting spacing between pairs of glyphs. It changes pair adjustments rather than the individual glyph sidebearings.
Knife		ナイフ	proposed	Illustrator ja ナイフツール and Glyphs 3 ナイフツール.	The Knife tool works along a line you drag across a shape, and what it leaves behind differs by product and by sub-tool. In FontLab it adds nodes where the line crosses a contour, breaks a closed contour into open paths, or slices one contour into two closed shapes, depending on which of its three sub-tools is active. In Fontographer it cuts through contours along the drawn path. In Vexy Lines it inserts points and splits curves. Say which app, which mode, and what the cut leaves.
layer		レイヤー	proposed	Glyphs 3, Adobe and Apple ja use レイヤー; long vowel kept per JTCA.	A layer holds one drawing or part of a document. In FontLab, the context identifies the glyph layer; name the application when another product uses a different layer model.
Layers		レイヤー	proposed	Same word as layer; Japanese has no plural form.	Layers hold the separate drawings a glyph or a document carries at once. In FontLab a glyph layer holds one master, a mask, or a background, and you manage them in the Layers and Masters panel, where switching layers switches which drawing you edit. In Vexy Lines a layer is a transparent sheet holding one or more fills, and it is the basic unit of a document, since artwork needs at least one. The two meanings sit close enough to be mistaken, so a sentence about layers names the application.
mark		マーク	proposed	FontForge ja and OpenType usage say マーク. Glyphs' 発音記号 rejected because it normally means phonetic notation.	A mark in glyph positioning is a diacritical glyph positioned in relation to another glyph. A color mark or selection mark is a different interface meaning.
Masks		マスク	proposed	Glyphs 3 and Adobe ja use マスク.	A mask holds a second drawing, and what it does with that drawing differs by product. In FontLab a mask is a glyph layer carrying a previous version or a reference shape, so you can compare the live outline against it and copy between them; it hides nothing. In Vexy Lines a mask is a vector stencil that decides where a layer's fills can draw, letting the fill through its transparent areas and holding it back elsewhere. Name the application, and in FontLab prefer the full phrase mask layer.
match		一致させる	proposed	No type-specific attestation; plain verb for making properties correspond. マッチ rejected as vague.	Match makes selected properties correspond. The object and context determine whether this means synchronizing edits, matching geometry or comparing values.
matching		一致	proposed	Derived from 一致させる; Microsoft and Apple use 一致 for matching items.	Matching describes objects or properties that correspond. Name the matched property when the interface context does not identify it.
Matchmaker	master matcher	仲人	proposed	No attestation; house voice asks for the plain word for a matchmaker, as Polish swat. マッチメーカー and the descriptive マスター間の対応付け are the rejected alternatives.	Matchmaker is a FontLab tool for examining and correcting correspondence between glyph masters. It helps align contour order and start points for interpolation. Matching structures does not guarantee that intermediate outlines look right. Inspect the resulting interpolation; changing contour order or a start point can change correspondence without changing the outline's geometry at the master location.
measurement line		計測線	proposed	No attestation; built from 計測, kept apart from メトリクス.	A line that shows a measured distance in the drawing. Distinguish this geometric measurement from a metrics line used to calculate sidebearings.
measurements		計測値	proposed	No attestation; 計測 is the plain word for on-canvas measuring (Glyphs calls its tool ものさしツール).	Values displayed on the canvas to describe geometry, such as coordinates, lengths, angles, tensions and counters. Showing measurements does not modify glyph spacing or font dimensions.
Measurements panel		計測パネル	proposed	No attestation; built from 計測 and パネル.	The Measurements panel lists measured dimensions of the current font: stems, serifs, overshoots, contrast and heights, separately for capitals and lowercase. Its labels are compact; translations must not exceed the English length.
merge		結合	proposed	Most frequent rendering in the corpus (Adobe, FontForge); マージ is developer jargon.	Merge combines items into a result. Name the items and explain what is retained when that distinction matters to the operation.
mesh		メッシュ	proposed	Illustrator and Photoshop ja use メッシュ.	A mesh is a network of connected points or cells used to describe or deform geometry. It is distinct from a drawing grid used for alignment.
metrics mode		メトリクスモード	proposed	Derived from メトリクス.	The editing mode for adjusting glyph advance widths and sidebearings. It changes the spacing of glyphs rather than the vertical dimensions of the font or the visibility of measurements.
metrics table		メトリクス表	proposed	Derived from メトリクス; 表 for an interface table, so テーブル stays reserved for font tables.	The table of glyph spacing values, including advance widths and sidebearings. It lets the user inspect or edit spacing values together.
metrics tool		メトリクスツール	proposed	Derived from メトリクス; tools are ツール in Adobe and Glyphs ja.	The tool that edits glyph advance widths and sidebearings. Use it to adjust glyph spacing; canvas measurement overlays display values without changing those spacing values.
monospaced		等幅	proposed	Font Book, CoreText and FontForge ja use 等幅.	Monospaced describes text or a typeface whose ordinary spacing glyphs have equal advance widths. Marks and special glyphs can have different spacing behavior.
multi-line		複数行	proposed	InDesign and Microsoft ja use 複数行.	Multi-line describes text or a control that contains more than one line. It does not imply more than one paragraph.
nonspacing	zero-width	非スペーシング	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja uses 非スペーシング.	A nonspacing element or component is excluded from metrics: it stays visible and is exported, but FontLab ignores it when it computes the advance width and sidebearings. Detect nonspacing marks accents and other marks in composites automatically.
Nudge	push move	ナッジ	proposed	Blender ja uses ナッジ and the word is known in Japanese. 微調整 rejected because it hides that this is a named mode; ひと押し was the native option.	Nudge moves the selected nodes and adjusts the nearby handles so the curve keeps its shape. Power Nudge extends the move to more of the contour. Both are FontLab names.
Oblique		オブリーク	proposed	Apple CoreText ja style name; a fixed operation name, so one fixed rendering.	Oblique is FontLab's action that slants a layer and applies a fixed set of optical corrections, so the result is closer to a designed oblique than a plain skew. Keep the name in every language; a plain slant is something else.
panel		パネル	proposed	Adobe and Apple ja use パネル.	A panel groups related controls or information within an application's interface. It may be docked or floating, depending on the application. Use its displayed name followed by panel in lowercase, as in the Kerning panel. Distinguish panels, windows, dialogs and panes by their role and established product terminology, not solely by whether they float, dock or contain tabs.
Pencil		鉛筆	proposed	Illustrator and Glyphs 3 ja call the tool 鉛筆ツール; the bare name is 鉛筆.	The Pencil tool draws freehand, and what it draws on differs by product. In FontLab it converts a freehand gesture into curves and line segments without asking you to think about node types. In Fontographer it is one of three outline drawing tools, beside Pen and Rapid. In Vexy Lines it creates and edits Handmade fills as vector lines. In Vexy Vextra it is the Correcting Pencil, which redraws part of an existing path as readily as it starts a new one.
Power Brush	power calligraphic brush	パワーブラシ	proposed	Power names keep katakana パワー, which in Japanese has the energy drink and superhero ring the house voice wants.	A Power Brush is a brush whose width can vary along the contour through thickness points. It stays live until you expand it. The name is FontLab's, rendered in each language's house voice.
Power Guide	power guideline	パワーガイド	proposed	Katakana パワー plus ガイド; same pattern as the other Power names.	A Power Guide is a guide that nodes can link to, so moving the guide moves the linked nodes with it. FontLab uses it to keep a stem or a height consistent across a glyph. Each language renders the name with the same playful power.
Power Nudge	power push move	パワーナッジ	proposed	Katakana パワー plus ナッジ; same pattern as the other Power names.	Power Nudge distributes a move through a larger part of a contour by adjusting other nodes as well as the selected ones. FontLab and Vextra provide this editing mode. It differs from Nudge, which adjusts nearby handles. Power Nudge changes the geometry; inspect the result rather than promising an exactly preserved outline or a finished curve.
Power Stroke	power stroke outline	パワーストローク	proposed	Inkscape ja attests パワーストローク. Kept as a feature name although the plain stroke is 線.	A Power Stroke is a stroke whose thickness varies along the path, controlled by thickness points you place with the Thickness tool. The related Power Brush does the same for a brush. Both are FontLab names, rendered in each language's house voice.
project		プロジェクト	approved	Team agreement recovered from Proteus QPH on 2026-10-04. Project names the editable document; do not replace it with package.	A FontLab project is the editable font document, including the active document in save/close prompts and the document saved to a VFJ/VFC file or project folder or connected to GitHub. Use the project term consistently in this UI. Do not call it a package. Python packages, UFO Packages, Glyphs Packages, and web-font distribution packages are different concepts and retain their format/software terminology. Internal package identifiers and file extensions are not translated.
property bar		プロパティバー	proposed	No attestation for FontLab's bar; standard katakana compound.	The property bar is FontLab's context-sensitive strip of controls for the current tool or selection. Name the required selection or tool before referring to a control that appears only in that context. Use property bar for this product element; do not invent a universal rule that all toolbars have fixed contents.
quick measurement		クイック計測	proposed	No attestation; built from 計測 with the familiar クイック.	The function that displays measurements near the pointer while editing outlines. It reports geometry on the canvas without changing the glyph spacing values.
redo		やり直す	proposed	Apple ja platform command; Adobe and FontForge use the noun やり直し.	Redo reapplies an operation that was undone. Repeat invokes an operation again and is a separate command.
reference		参照	proposed	FontForge ja and InDesign use 参照; リファレンス is the rejected loan.	A reference points to another object rather than being an independent copy of it. Name the referenced object when the context does not identify it.
Remove Overlap	merge overlapping contours	重なったパスを合体	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja command name, and it matches パス for contour. FontForge says 重なり合う図形を結合.	Remove Overlap combines overlapping filled contour regions and removes their internal boundaries. It changes contour structure, so keep an editable source when the construction matters. Variable fonts can contain overlaps; removing them independently from masters can break point correspondence and interpolation. Apply the command or export option for the intended format and workflow, rather than treating it as mandatory for every font.
repeat		繰り返す	proposed	Adobe and Apple ja use 繰り返し / 繰り返す; kept apart from やり直す (redo).	Repeat invokes an operation again. Keep it distinct from Redo, which restores an operation after Undo.
reverse contour	flip drawing direction	パス方向を逆転	proposed	Glyphs 3 ja command name.	Reverse contour flips the winding direction of a contour. PostScript and TrueType outlines use opposite conventions, and a contour that runs the wrong way fills or unfills the wrong region.
Scissors		はさみ	proposed	Illustrator ja calls the tool はさみツール.	The Scissors tool works on the joins in a path, and what it does with them differs by product. In FontLab it disconnects nodes into overlapping contours, creates overlaps, adds simple ink traps, and builds looped corners, with a toolbox of sub-tools under the Q shortcut. In Fontographer it breaks contours at selected points or segments, the targeted counterpart to Knife. In Vexy Vextra it extends and rebuilds path parts, building loop corners and joining open ends.
Servant node	Follower node	追従ノード	proposed	No attestation; translates Follower node as a node that physically follows movement. フォロワー rejected for its social media sense, 従属 for implying dependency.	For localization, read the legacy English source label Servant node as Follower node: a follower physically following a leader. This node follows the movement of neighboring key nodes when you move them with Power Nudge, so a whole feature moves together. Translate the motion-following role; the servant and social fan/supporter metaphors are obsolete. The English term and servant-node identifier remain compatibility lookup keys.
Sigma		Sigma	do-not-translate		Sigma is the Fontographer tool for variable font interpolation paths, sitting in the toolbar beside Transform and Meter. You use it to work with how a design moves through its variation space rather than to edit a single outline. The name is a single capitalized word and it does not take the word tool inside its name: write the Sigma tool. It is a Fontographer term with no counterpart in the other products.
Sketchboard	scratch canvas	スケッチボード	proposed	No attestation; plain katakana compound, parallel to アートボード in Illustrator ja.	The Sketchboard is FontLab's unlimited canvas, a working surface where you can place glyphs, drawings, and reference images side by side outside the fixed frame of a glyph window. You use it to compare shapes, to sketch before committing, and to lay out material that has no single glyph to live in. The name is one word, capital S, and it is a FontLab term: no other product in the family has the surface or the word.
Skin	wrapping outline	スキン	proposed	Everyday katakana word; no established Japanese term for this FontLab filter.	Skin is a FontLab live filter that wraps a contour with a stroke of variable thickness, or cuts it into dashes. Expand the filter to get plain contours. Each language renders the name in the house voice.
smart	clever	スマート	proposed	Glyphs 3 (スマートフィルタ) and Adobe ja use スマート. In Japanese it means neat or sharp, not AI-powered, so it fits the house voice; かしこい was considered.	Smart prefixes FontLab features that decide details for you: Smart Corner, Smart Filter, Smart Pencil, Smart Link, smart fill. Usually translate the word as clever with a hint of cunning. Follow separately approved feature names: the Russian and Ukrainian Smart Filter terms are explicit exceptions.
Smart Corner	clever corner	スマートコーナー	proposed	スマート plus コーナー (Glyphs 3 コーナーコンポーネント).	A Smart Corner is a live treatment applied at a node, so a corner can be rounded, cut, or turned into an ink trap without the outline being redrawn. The treatment stays editable: change the value and the corner updates, and the underlying contour keeps its nodes. You apply it at the node rather than to the whole contour. FontLab groups it with Ink Traps among its live filters, and Vextra carries the same name.
Smart Filter		スマートフィルター	proposed	Named glyph-selection filter; not a graphical live effect. Match this term in the Font window, Aidus settings, dialogs and help.	A Smart Filter selects glyphs in the Font window using a saved condition. It filters the glyph list rather than changing outlines or applying graphical effects. Follow the language core for its name: Russian and Ukrainian have explicit feature-specific translations that differ from other Smart names.
spacing controls	side space handles	スペーシングコントロール	proposed	No attestation; built from Glyphs 3 スペーシング.	Spacing controls are the on canvas handles in the Metrics tool that let you drag sidebearings and advance widths directly in the text.
sticker		ステッカー	proposed	Apple and Microsoft ja use ステッカー; 付箋 would mean a sticky note only.	A sticker is a visual note you place on a glyph in FontLab, such as a checkmark or a comment, to mark work in progress. Stickers are annotations, not font data, and are not exported.
tab		タブ	proposed	Universal in Japanese interfaces.	A tab selects one page or document within a set. A tab character in text is a different meaning and must retain its literal representation in code.
text element	text block	テキストエレメント	proposed	Derived from エレメント.	A text element is a live element that renders a string of text from another font inside a glyph. Expanding it converts the letters into contours; FontLab uses it for placeholders and quick layout tests.
thickness		太さ	proposed	Plain Japanese word for stroke thickness (Illustrator 太さ slider); kept apart from ウエイト.	Thickness is the geometric distance across a stroke or shape. It is distinct from a typeface weight classification or weight axis.
Transform		変形	proposed	Illustrator ja (変形パネル) and Glyphs 3 use 変形; トランスフォーム rejected.	Transform moves, scales, rotates, slants, or flips a selection. In FontLab the Transform panel applies a numeric transformation to glyphs, elements, or a selection, and it can run across a whole font. In Fontographer the Transform tool sits in the toolbar beside Meter and Sigma. In Vexy Lines the Transform tool manipulates artwork on the canvas. A panel, a tool, and a tool again: name the app and name the surface.
transformation		変形	proposed	Same word as transform; Japanese uses 変形 for both the operation and its result.	A transformation changes geometry, for example by moving, scaling, rotating or skewing it. Transform names the operation; transformation names the change.
True Fill	final black rendering	本塗り	proposed	No attestation; house voice asks for a snappy idiom. 本塗り is the painter's final coat and builds on 塗り; 出力時の塗り is the descriptive alternative.	True Fill is a Glyph window view that renders the glyph as it will fill when exported, honoring contour direction and overlaps, instead of the editing preview. Each language renders the name in the house voice.
uncheck		チェックを外す	proposed	Common Japanese interface phrase; Apple says チェックマークを外す.	Uncheck clears a selected checkbox. The resulting behavior depends on the option controlled by that checkbox.
Vexy coins		Vexy coins	do-not-translate		Vexy coins are credits used to pay for applicable Fontographer operations. Keep Vexy capitalized and coins lowercase in English. The common noun may translate around the protected Vexy name. State a confirmed charge before the reader performs the operation, and distinguish the credit balance from money, a licence or an account.
waterfall	size ladder preview	ウォーターフォール	proposed	Apple Font Book ja uses ウォーターフォール.	A waterfall shows the same glyph or text at a series of sizes, one line per size, to judge spacing and rendering across sizes. The Preview panel and the TrueType hinting tool provide one.
weight		ウエイト	proposed	Morisawa, other Japanese foundries, Glyphs 3 and Apple CoreText write ウエイト. Adobe and FontForge write ウェイト; 太さ is kept for thickness.	Weight describes the relative heaviness of a typeface or a value on its weight axis. It is distinct from a measured stroke thickness.
whitespace		空白	proposed	InDesign ja uses 空白 and 空白文字.	Whitespace is text made up of spacing characters rather than visible letterforms. Preserve literal characters when they form part of code, keys or file content.

Vector drawing

English	Fallback	Japanese	Status	Note	Definition
Appearance panel		アピアランスパネル	proposed	Illustrator ja names the panel アピアランス.	The Appearance panel is Illustrator's list of what is applied to the selected object: its fills, its strokes, and its live effects, in the order they stack. You send a reader there to confirm that a Vexy effect is present, to reorder it against a stroke, or to remove it. It belongs to Illustrator rather than to our products, so its name keeps Illustrator's capitalization and never takes a short form of our making.
autotrace	bitmap to outline conversion	オートトレース	proposed	Inkscape and FontForge ja use トレース / オートトレース; Illustrator's 画像トレース names its own feature.	Autotrace converts a bitmap into vector paths by finding the edges in the image and fitting curves to them. The result depends on what you feed it: a clean, high contrast source traces well, and a soft or noisy one produces nodes nobody wants to edit. You prepare the image first, trace, then simplify. Tracing to outlines gives closed shapes with two edges, and tracing to centerlines gives single paths with a stroke.
centerline		中心線	proposed	Standard Japanese drafting word; センターライン is the rarer loan.	A centerline runs down the middle of a stroke rather than around its edge, so the result is a single path with a stroke weight instead of a closed outline. Tracing to centerlines suits line art, engravings, and anything that was drawn as strokes in the first place. You choose it over outline tracing when the artwork will be scaled or restroked later, since a centerline keeps one editable path where an outline gives you two edges to maintain.
clipping mask		クリッピングマスク	proposed	Illustrator and Photoshop ja term; written without a space per the Japanese compound rule.	A clipping mask is a shape that limits what is visible of the elements below it. Name the application: in FontLab it is an element property; a FontLab Mask layer is something else.
control point	control handle point	コントロールポイント	proposed	Common katakana term in Japanese vector software; Blender's 制御点 is the native alternative.	A control point is an off-curve point that pulls a Bézier segment toward itself without lying on the outline. You drag it to change the curvature between two nodes. FontLab shows control points as handles attached to their nodes, so in interface text the handle is what you drag and the control point is what the file stores.
Fill Grid	grid of fill lines	塗りグリッド	proposed	No attestation; built from 塗り (Adobe) and グリッド.	The Fill Grid is the area of the Linestra panel where you choose a fill mode from a grid of previews. Below it sit the parameter rows, which hold Thickness, Spacing, Angle, Organic, Brightness, Contrast, and Source Levels. You pick in the grid first, because the parameter rows change with the mode you choose. Both words are capitalized: it is a named part of the interface rather than a description of a grid.
fill mode	line fill style	塗りモード	proposed	Built from 塗り; Krita's 塗りつぶしモード is the longer alternative.	A fill mode is one of the named techniques that turn a source image into line work: Linear, Wave, Circular, Spiral, Halftone, Stipple, Hex, Contour, Low-Poly, Dither, Wireframe, Fractal, String Art, and ASCII among them. Each reads the brightness of the source and lays down geometry accordingly. You pick a mode, then tune its parameters. Write the mode name with its own capitalization and the words fill mode in lowercase after it.
G2 continuity		G2 連続	proposed	Standard CAD and mathematics term (G2 連続).	G2 continuity means two segments meet with matching curvature, not merely with matching direction. G1 keeps the tangent continuous and can still show a break in the reflection where the curvature jumps. G2 removes that break. Vextra marks G2 nodes and can enforce the condition as you edit. You reach for it on long, shallow curves and on shapes that will be seen large, where the eye finds a curvature break that it would miss at text size.
Live Effect	editable effect	ライブエフェクト	proposed	Adobe Japan uses ライブエフェクト for Illustrator plug-in effects that stay editable.	A Live Effect is an Illustrator effect that stays editable on the object it is applied to, listed in the Appearance panel and recalculated whenever the artwork beneath it changes. Vexy Linestra runs as one, so its fills follow the source artwork rather than freezing into it. You apply it from the Effect menu, under Vexy, and you expand it only when you need the result as plain paths. Expanding ends the link.
off-curve point	point off the curve	オフカーブポイント	proposed	Standard loan in Japanese font engineering, parallel to FontForge オンカーブポイント.	An off-curve point sits beside the outline and shapes a curve without touching it. A cubic segment has two, a quadratic segment one or more. FontLab shows them as handles. Use the term when the file structure is the subject; use handle when the reader drags something.
on-curve point	point on the curve	オンカーブポイント	proposed	FontForge ja uses オンカーブポイント.	An on-curve point lies on the outline itself and is where two segments meet. In FontLab it is a node; the term is used when the contrast with off-curve points matters, for example when a TrueType outline stores both kinds in one list. You place on-curve points at extremes so hinting and interpolation have stable anchors.
outline		アウトライン	proposed	Glyphs 3, FontForge, Adobe and Morisawa use アウトライン for the whole glyph drawing.	An outline is the set of contours that describes a glyph's shape. Say outline for the whole drawing of a glyph and contour for one closed path inside it. Some languages have one word for both; French uses contour for each.
stroke		線	proposed	Illustrator ja pairs 塗り and 線, and Glyphs 3 says 線色 and 線幅. ストローク rejected for the plain term; it survives in パワーストローク.	A stroke is the line drawn along a path, with a weight, a colour, and an alignment that puts it inside, outside, or centred on the path. It is not the fill, which covers the area the path encloses. In type design the same word means a main part of a letter. The localized vector term does not automatically apply to letter anatomy: PANOSE contrast and stem thickness describe letter strokes, not an outline effect. Use the established anatomical term in those contexts (for example Polish kreska or Ukrainian штрих).
stroke cap	stroke end cap	線端	proposed	Illustrator ja Stroke panel term. Not キャップ, which Glyphs uses for cap components.	A stroke cap is the shape at the open end of a stroked path: flat, square or round. Start and end caps can differ, and a cap can be linked so both ends match.
stroke join	stroke corner shape	角の形状	proposed	Illustrator ja Stroke panel term for the join.	A stroke join is the shape where two stroked segments meet at a corner: miter, round or bevel. It decides whether an outside corner is sharp, rounded or cut.
tangent node	straight-to-curve node	接線ノード	proposed	No attestation; 接線 is the Japanese word for tangent. FontForge describes it as 曲線と直線の接点; タンジェントノード rejected.	A tangent node joins a straight segment to a curve so the curve leaves along the line. Its one handle stays on the line's extension.
tonal map	darkness map	濃淡マップ	proposed	No attestation; fallback 'darkness map' translated with 濃淡.	A tonal map is the reading of brightness across a source image that a fill uses to decide where to put geometry. Dark areas widen a strip or crowd a pattern; light areas narrow or thin it. You control the mapping with the Brightness, Contrast, and Source Levels rows, which change what counts as dark before any geometry is drawn. Adjust the map rather than the fill when the result is uniformly too heavy or too sparse.
Tunni line		Tunni 線	proposed	Eponym kept in Latin script, with 線 as in 中心線 and 計測線.	A Tunni line joins the two handles of a curve segment, with a control on it that Vextra draws as a pill. Drag the control and both handles move in proportion, so the depth of the curve changes without its balance changing. You use it when a curve is the right shape but the wrong fullness, which is the correction that is slowest to make one handle at a time. Named after Eduardo Tunni, so keep the capital T.