 Glyph bearing

A glyph bearing is a signed offset locating a glyph's ink relative to the reference used for layout. In a simple horizontal metric, the left side bearing measures the offset from the pen position to the left ink edge, and the right side bearing measures the remaining distance from the right ink edge to the advance endpoint.^[ref]

Put the origin at $x=0$, the glyph advance at $a$, and the ink edges at $x_L,x_R$. ThenFor $x_L=-2$, $x_R=9$ and $a=12$, the bearings are $-2$ and 3, while the ink width is 11. The negative left bearing records an overhang across the origin. The next nominal pen position remains at $x=12$.

These are measurements of a default horizontal arrangement. Subsequent glyph positioning and kerning can change the rendered relationship between neighbouring glyphs. The reference point and axes must also be checked when applying bearing conventions to vertical layout.