An ascender is the part of a lowercase letter that rises above the main body of the letter. In provided options, the upper part of a lowercase b (option 3) is an example of an ascender. Ascenders are important in typography as they define the profile of the typeface and influence its readability.
Typography involves understanding the anatomy of letterforms, which includes different parts of letters such as ascenders and descenders. An ascender is the part of a lowercase letter that extends above the mean line of a font. Therefore, out of the options provided, the example of an ascender is (3) the upper part of a lowercase b. Ascenders contribute to the legibility and aesthetics of a typeface and can affect the overall readability of a text.
Typefaces come in many styles, with serif and sans-serif being the primary categories. Every small detail in a typeface, including the presence or absence of serifs, the thickness of the strokes, and the height of the ascenders and descenders, contribute to the typeface's character and how it is perceived, whether modern or classical. For instance, a serif typeface would have small tails or decorative lines at the end of the strokes, whereas sans-serif typefaces like Helvetica do not.