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by Kaibeezy 2703 days ago
What you’re noticing is the variation in “x-height”, that is, the height of the middle part of the lowercase letterforms, not counting ascenders/descenders.

Width can always vary. Combinations of greater width and x-height make the letters look bigger.

At least, that’s the way I’ve always understood it.

This image shows it clearly:

http://kapundahigh.weebly.com/uploads/6/1/5/4/61545621/xheig...