In typography, the portion of some lowercase letters that extends below the character's x-height. The descending characters are g, j, p, q, and '. They may not always align at the bottom of the descender, although most do. One must be careful that line spacing, or leading, is sufficient so that the descenders of one line do not touch the ascenders of the next line. Typefaces are designed to meet the designer's creative feeling; thus, some descenders may be shorter (or longer) than others. See also Ascender and x-Height.
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