baseline

a term often used amongst drug people. baseline essentially means sober. when you've reached baseline, you may still feel a little weird, but your feet are now firmly on the ground. at this point, it is usually safe to drive or operate heavy machinery. if you did acid, it's about 8-12 hours before you reach baseline. 4-6 for MDMA. and about 6-8 for shrooms. these durations are all averages and one's experience may last significantly longer or shorter. YMMV.

A term used to describe a set of objects at a specific version in rational ClearCase. A baseline is used as a foundation for branches, builds and releases.

Not all the objects in a baseline have to be at the same version. For example, the UI code in a project may be at version 1.1.2, while the database code is at 1.1.7 because it has had many bugfixes applied to it. If the UI and database code has been tested together and found to be stable, they may both be used together in a baseline for future work or release.

In typography, the invisible floor on which (most) letters in a line of type sit is called the baseline. The leading between lines of text is the vertical distance between baselines.

Some letters fall below the baseline. Of course those with descenders (most often gjpqyQ) fall below the line. What may not be so obvious is that font designers take care to try and preserve the baseline optically rather than mathematically. To that end, the bottoms of letters with bowls (abcdegopqsBCGJOQSU, sometimes D) actually dip slightly below the baseline.

An optically even baseline is the foundation for clear boumae and thereby part of easy reading. The baseline of bouma is reinforced by serifs, and bracketed serifs even moreso.

Baseline font fun fact: the font Hobo is the only mainstream font with a virgin baseline. It has no descenders and even its bowled letters square up perfectly.

See also capline, x-height