Visual Alignment
http://www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/2821/VisualAlignment.htm

Strizver, Ilene
Upper and lowercase Magazine
2002

Abstract:

Designers are used to being detail-oriented and mathematically precise, nudging things a point this way and a pixel that way until technical perfection is achieved. However, when it comes to typographic alignment, the mathematical approach to design doesn’t apply: it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Visual alignment (also called optical alignment) means exactly that: using that high-tech tool, the human eye, to line up your text until it looks right.