Cursive S

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Each of the two letters sticks up a little past a line. The capital S goes over the cap height, and the small s goes over the x-height. Neither one goes under the baseline. The small s rises 0.53 as far as the capital and is 0.61 as wide.

Capital S, a loop on top

A long line slants up across the whole capital S. Its low end is a blunt tip that lies on the baseline, at the far left of the letter. High up, the long line bends back on itself into a small closed loop, and the capital has no other enclosed space. The rounded top of that loop pokes up past the cap height.

Under the loop its two sides swap over at a crossing, about halfway up from the x-height to the cap height. Below the crossing a wide curve swells out to the right. It bulges most under the x-height and rounds along the baseline toward the left.

The wide curve stops in a blunt tip that points up and to the left. The tip stays nearer the baseline than the x-height, and a clear gap separates it from the long line.

Small s, a knob, no loop

The small s reaches furthest left at a blunt tip that touches the baseline. A line slopes up to the right from the tip and finishes at the top in a solid rounded knob. The knob rises a little above the x-height. At the knob the outline doubles back without making a loop, so the small s has no enclosed space.

Down from the knob a curve leans out to the right. Its furthest-right point is low, between the baseline and the x-height. The curve sweeps back to the left on the baseline and stops in a blunt tip, partway back to the sloping line. The space between the two is left open at the lower left.

Built alike, but for a loop and a knob

The capital S and the small s are built the same way. Each has a line that rises from a tip at the lower left, and a curve that swells to the right and comes back along the baseline to a free tip. They differ at the top, where the capital S has its closed loop and the small s its solid knob. So one of them encloses a space and the other does not.

A c after the s in scorer, before it in tactics

Scorer opens with the small s and a c, and italics and tactics close with it after a c.