Design Glossary
Just to make sure that we are all speaking the same language, let’s define the key design terms used in the design process, and a few others that you may find useful to impress your friends with at cocktail parties.
Additive Color: We perceive color in two ways: Additive Color and Subtractive Color. Additive Color is color emanating from light, created by three light wave hues called RGB (an acronym for Red, Green, Blue). Rainbows are a good example of additive color additive color, as is light emitting from your computer monitor. In Additive Color, black is the absence of color and white is the presence of all colors.
Aesthetic Relationship Controls: Balance, Rhythm, and Harmony/Unity: These controls will make or break your design aesthetically and allow you to control the eye flow directional path throughout your design.
Aliasing: A term commonly applied to pixilation: a blocky or jagged effect commonly occurring in low-resolution images.
Alignment: 1. The act of visually positioning or adjusting type and or elements within a composition to achieve vertical or horizontal harmony.
- Referring to type positioning (Flush left, flush right, justified, centered.)
Alley: The space between columns within a page.
Ampersand: The name for the character “&.”
Analogous Colors: Colors adjacent on the color wheel.
Aqueous Coating: A fast-drying, water-based, protective coating applied to paper on press to achieve a variety of finishes at a lower price than varnish.
Ascender: The part of a lowercase letter that extends above the “x-height” and below the cap line.
Asymmetrical: A form of balance where an uneven distribution of visual weight rides over the central axis within a design.
Bad Break: A typographic term referring to a widow, or undesirable word break occurring within a column of type.
Balance: Equilibrium due to equal opposition or equal attraction.
Basis Weight: The weight of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to a standard size measured in pounds.
Baseline: A horizontal imaginary guideline upon which letters rest. Rounded letters dip slightly below the baseline to provide optical balance.
Beveled Edge: Creating a raised appearance by applying highlight colors and shadow colors to the inside and outside edges of an image.
Binding: The method to which paper is held together in a printed piece: stapling, gluing, stitching, spiral binding, etc.
Bindary: A facility where foil stamping, collating, folding, and binding occur, generally found within a print shop.
Bird’s Eye View: A view of a scene from above.
Black (font): A font that has more weight than the bold version of a typeface.
Bleed: A printing term referring the area beyond which trimming will occur. To print a bleed, the art is printed on oversized paper, which is then trimmed.
Blow Up: An enlargement from the original size.
Body copy: Long passages of text set in a regular or book typeface, generally sized from 8 point to 12 point.
Bold Face: Heavy dark type used for emphasis in headlines.
Brightness: The light-reflecting property of paper. Paper brightness enhances the legibility and contrast in printing.
Brochure: A finished printed sales booklet.
Bullet Points: A dot or dingbat prefacing a short copy point.
C1S: Paper with coating on one side only.
C2S: Paper with coating on both sides.
Cap Height: In typography, the distance from the baseline to the top of a capital letter.
Caps: Abbreviation for type set in capital letters.
Caption: Descriptive text adjacent to an image.
Centered: Referring to type or elements that are set in alignment to the center of a template, element or column.
Caliper: A thickness measurement used to define the bulkiness of a sheet of paper as measured in thousandths of an inch.
Callout: An explanatory label for an image, often drawn with a leader line pointing to the section of the image it references. Also referred to as nomenclature, or caption.
Camera-Ready Art: Pre-digital terminology referring to art that is prepared to go directly on press.
Character: Any letter, dingbat, punctuation, symbol or space.
Chroma: A dimension of color describing the measurement of hue purity, cleanliness, saturation, or intensity of a color.
Clip Art: Pre-built images of various quality, generally used as a low-budget, down-and-dirty solution.
Close-Up: Refers to zooming in on an image from the readers’ point of view, maximizing the visual impact.
Coating: A protective emulsion, varnish or lacquer applied on press over a printed surface.
Coated Paper: Paper stock with a clay surface coating imparting a smooth finish. Coated paper finishes have a higher opacity and are preferable for 4-color process printing versus uncoated stock.
Collate: To place pages of forms in the proper sequence.
Colorfastness: The property of paper in which color won’t run when wet and won’t fade in bright light.
Color Separation: Pre-digital terminology referring to the process of creating separate negatives and plates for each color of ink (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) used in the printing process.
Column: A vertical division of space on a grid used to align visual elements.
Comp: (Comprehensive layout) Also called a layout. A rough design presented to a client for approval indicating an approximation of the final artwork.
Complementary Colors: Opposing colors on the color wheel.
Composition: The arrangement of type and images forming a design.
Condensed Font: A font where the character width is narrower than in the standard typeface.
Communication Elements: Fonts, Images, Lines, Shapes and Textures are Design Tools that allow you to convey your message to your customer.
Continuous Tone: Referring to art containing gradations of gray or color value, as opposed to black-and-white line art. Photographs and illustrations with gradating values are continuous tone art.
Copy: Generally refers to words or text: see Body Copy.
Copyfitting: Flowing or fitting copy within a specific and fixed amount of space.
Counter: In typography, an enclosed area within a letter or numeral.
Close-Up: refers to zooming in n the readers point of view to maximize the visual impact of the image.
CMYK: Acronym for the colors: Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black. In printing, the hue, value and chroma of a color is defined as a percentage of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. For example: PMS Red 185 is made from 0% Cyan, 91% Magenta, 76% Yellow and 0% Black. In contrast, computer monitors define colors using RGB.
Color: The visual perception of light energy that travels in waves. Color has three dimensions, hue, chroma and value. Color is perceived in two ways: Additive Color: color emanating from light, and Subtractive Color: color reflected by objects. Designers and printers specify color using a specific PMS number (color.) Color monitors use percentages of RGB (Red, Green, Blue) to specify color. Printers use percentages of CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Blue) to define color.
Contrast: The value difference between elements.
Cover: The exterior page of a multi-page publication.
Cover Stock: Strong, heavy paper suitable for publication covers such as booklets or catalogs. Also used for brochures, business cards and postcards.
Cropping: The removal of extraneous parts of an image.
Cap Height: in typography, the distance from the baseline to the top of the capital letters.
Crop Marks: The horizontal and vertical lines used in preparing mechanical artwork indicating the edge of the finishing cut on the printed piece. Also called trim marks.
Custom Color: A custom color may be specified when no close PMS color match is found. Custom colors are custom mixed inks that match a specific targeted color. Brands often demand a unique and specific custom color in the reproduction of their logo.
Deadline: The time set for the delivery of work.
Density: 1. The specific weight of paper determined by its absorbency, stiffness, opacity and resiliency. 2. The amount of ink coverage laid down on press (on paper.)
Descender: In typography, the part of the letterform that dips below the baseline.
Design Controls: Controls that categorize the Design Tools by their function. The four design controls are: Communication Elements, Aesthetic Relationship Controls, Impact Controls and Stylistic Tools.
Design Tools: Tools that enable designers to execute a message visually. Each tool holds certain capabilities and features that when used properly provide the power to maximize the designers ability to communicate a message visually. Fonts, Images, Lines, Shapes and Textures are Design Tools.
Die Cutting: The mechanical process of cutting planned shapes into paper.
Digital Dylux: A low resolution print proofing system used to check position, folding and stitching. Dylux proofs are not appropriate for determaning color accuracy.
Dingbat: A non-alphabetic typeface symbol, such as arrows, asterisks or related symbols.
Direct to Plate: Digital printing technology allowing for color printing directly from an electronic file, without the need for film or color separations.
Display Type: Large or decorative type commonly used for headlines set in 14 point and above.
Double Truck: Two pages that appear as a spread when a publication is opened.
DPI: Acronym for dots per inch. A measurement used to define the quality of an image’s resolution. DPI is used to describe the resolution of a printed output, specifically indicating the number of dots or pixels appearing within a square inch. Low-resolution images such as web images are commonly 72 dpi at 100%. High-resolution print quality images are 300 dpi at 100%.
Drop Shadow: Drop shadows are shadows dropping below text or images which provide the illusion of a shadow from light above, generating the visual effect of the object rising above the paper.
Duotone: A halftone image printed with two colors, one dark and the other light. The same photograph is printed twice, using the same screen at two different angles. Combining the two images improves the visual detail and contrast.
Dithering: To display a full-color image on a monitor, computers dither or combine many tiny solid color pixels into patterns that approximate other colors. At a distance, the human eye merges the pixels into a single color. Up close, the graphic image will appear pixelated.
Egyptian Type: Fonts generated from 1815 on, in bold face with heavy slabs or square serifs.
Em space: A space as wide as the point size of the type. In 12-point type an em space is 12 points wide. Originally named after width of a fonts’ letter M.
Embossing: An impression of an image in relief using dies and pressure to achieve a raised surface on paper. The opposite of embossing is Debossing, where paper is pressed downward.
Engraving: A specialty printing technique commonly used in wedding invitations and high end business cards where the raised ink is felt rising above the printed paper. Thermography is a cheap knockoff of true engraving.
En Space: A space half as wide as the type is high (half an em space).
EPS: (Acronym for Encapsulated PostScript) A vector graphic file format.
Expanded Type: A font in which the set widths of the characters are wider than in the standard typeface.
Extended Type: Typefaces that are wide in character and horizontal in design. (Hellenic, Latin Wide, Egyptian Expanded, Microgramma Extended).
Eye Direction: The imaginary path the eye naturally follows across, into or away from a design, due to the placement of elements with in the design. Also called Eye Flow.
Finish: The surface contour and characteristics of paper measurable by smoothness, gloss, absorbency and print quality.
Flush Left (or Flush Right): A term referring to the alignment of type, or design elements on the left (or right) side of an object, column or guideline.
Folding: The process by which a press sheet is folded. There are a wide variety of folding options.
Fold Marks: A short series of one half point rule dashes used in mechanical artwork to indicate to the printer where folds should occur on the final printed piece.
Folio: A page number often set within a header or footer. Right hand pages are always odd numbered, left hand pages are always even.
Foil Stamping: A specialty printing technique where the combination of a plate, heat and pressure over a thin metallic foil film results in the foil image indented into the paper.
Font: A set of characters in a specific typeface, point size and style.
Foreshortening: The optical illusion that an object is shorter than it actually is because it is angled toward the viewer.
Four Color Process: The printing process that reproduces what we know as full-color. The term four-color denotes the combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black printing plates at specific screen angles, which yield the illusion of a full color photograph within a printed piece.
FTP: Acronym for File Transfer Protocol. FTP allows you to copy or send files (HTML-documents, graphic images, spreadsheets) from one computer to another via the Internet.
Gatefold: Folding brochure format with parallel paper folds and the end flaps folding in.
Ghosting: An undesired printing effect. Mechanical Ghosting where phantom images appear on a printed sheet, or Chemical Ghosting where a “phantom” image appears on the back of a sheet originating from the sheet below may appear in offset printing.
Gloss: 1. A shine or luster in paper. 2. A shiny protective printed ink varnish.
GIF: (Graphic Interchange format) GIF images display up to 256 colors. GIF images generally have very small file sizes and are the most widely used graphic format on the web. The low quality resulting from compression makes them unsuitable for professional printing.
Gradient: A smooth transition of color or value. Also called a blend.
Graphic Design: The art of using images, typography and design elements to visually communicate.
Gray: A value designated as a percentage of black. A cool or warm gray is created by adding a warm or cool color to a neutral gray. A neutral grey is a value made only of black.
Greek Text: Pre-digital terminology referring to the use of Latin characters to indicate the position of text in a comp before the approved copy has been written.
Gray Scale: A series of minute grey value steps between black and white.
Grid: Pre-established vertical and horizontal guides that allow the designers(s) to maintain consistency and alignment of elements across multiple spreads.
Gravure: A printing method that uses etched intaglio plates.
Gripper: Grippers hold the paper in place as it travels through a sheet-fed press.
Gutter: The center of two pages in a book or magazine. In a larger perfect bound publication, this area may be visually hard to see due to the binding. The experienced designer avoids placing important elements near or in the gutter.
Halftone: The conversion of a continuous tone image through a halftone screen resulting in a pattern of small dots of varying sizes that can be reproduced on a printing press is called a halftone. Halftones are digitally simulated by assigning dots to continuous tone values.
Harmony: An agreement or quality of oneness.
Headline: The title of a page generally displayed in a larger size and or a bolder typeface, setting it apart from the body copy. Headlines are generally set larger than 14 points.
Heavy Coverage: Refers to large areas of solid ink coverage.
Horizon Line: In perspective, referring to a horizontally imaginary line at viewer eye level, visually establishing the line where the sky appears to meet the ground.
Hue: A dimension of color referred to as the actual color of an object. Hue is measured as an exact location on the color wheel, expressed in degrees. Hue is also understood as the general name of a specific color family, like blue, red, yellow, etc.
Indent: A special interval added to the beginning of type.
Indicia (pronounced (in-dee-shah), refers to all the small print legal copy on the back of a package including the manufacturer and corporate ownership.
Insert: A page or signature printed separately, inserted later into the final piece.
Image: A design element: usually a photograph or illustration.
Image Area: The area on a page within which copy is positioned as determined by the template margins.
Impact Controls: Size, Color (Value/Contrast, Saturation) and Dimension are design tools that allow the designer to adjust the strength and impact of each element within the design.
Image Resolution: Describes the amount of detail an image holds. The term applies equally to digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail.
Italic: Any slanted or leaning letter designed to complement or be compatible with a companion Roman typeface. Note that a mechanical slant is a deviation on a Roman font, as opposed to a font specifically designed as an Italic font to complement a Roman font. Also referred to as Oblique.
JPEG: An Acronym for Joint Photographic Electronic Group. JPEG is a common compression method that reduces file size by discarding non-critical image detail. Excessive jpeg compression may cause poor image quality.
Justification: A method of typesetting in which all copy lines are set to a common width. Type justification often results in unflattering white space between words within copy.
Kern: To visually adjust a large characters horizontal spacing on the baseline to improve aesthetics and legibility.
Kicker: A brief sentence acting as a visual teaser or lead-in to a story, usually set in smaller type than the headline.
Laid Finish: A paper finish with a translucent line pattern running up and down across the grain.
Landscape: A term referring to a page orientation that is wider than it is tall.
Layout: The term for a composition of elements on a page used to pitch conceptual ideas to a client for approval prior to the creation of final art. Also called a comp.
Leading: (pronounced “led-ding”) The vertical space between lines of type, traditionally measured from baseline-to-baseline in points. Text type is generally set with one or two points of leading. For example: 10-point type with 2 points of leading. This is described as 10/12 (Read: Ten on twelve.)
Legibility: The ease of readability due to factors such as color, font, design, and paper variables.
Letterforms: In typography, a letterform is the shape of a character.
Letter Spacing: The allowance of more space between letters than usual in typesetting.
Ligature: In typography, two or three characters that are designed to appear as one visual unit, such as “oe” and “ae,” “fi” and “fl” are called a ligature.
Light (font): A font that is lighter than the Roman (normal, plain, or book) version of the typeface.
Line Art: Black-and-white artwork with no gradations or gray areas. Also called vector art.
Line Length: The length of a line of type measured in picas.
Linen Finish: A paper finish simulating the texture of linen fabric.
Logotype: A symbol, mark, or identifying name usually referred to as a logo.
Low-Resolution Image: A low-resolution image contains usually only 72 dpi (very little image detail information) @ 100% size, and is fine for web use but considered unsuitable for print quality.
Majuscule: A capital letter.
Makeready: Press preparation for a print run including: registration alignment, color balance and plate adjustment.
Masthead: 1. The area within a publication that provides the publication title, details of ownership, advertising and subscription rates and credits sponsors, editors, writers, designers, illustrators, photographers, and other credits, along with the publication office address, etc. 2. The name of a publication displayed on the top of the first page or cover.
Matte Finish: Coated papers with little or no gloss. Matte coated sheet improves legibility in text heavy printed pieces.
Matchprint: A high-resolution color printing proofing system made from the negatives that will be used in printing. The designer approves a proof or Matchprint for color accuracy before a job goes on press.
Margin: The normally inactive parameter surrounding the active area of a page.
Measure: (noun) In typography, the length of a line of copy defined in picas.
Mechanical Art: Terminology describing the process of making a comp or layout ready to print.
Mezzotint: A special variation on the standard round dot halftone screen that offers a different line screen effect.
Miniscule: A lowercase letter.
Moiré Patterns: (pronounced “more-ray”) An undesirable pattern resulting from the overlapping of screens at improper angles.
Negative: A photographic film image that is the reverse of a positive image.
Negative Space: Design space not occupied by type or graphics. Also called White Space.
Neutral Colors. Black, White, Gray, Gold, Bronze, Silver, Beige and other colors that are considered to be neutral that work well passively with any dominant primary or secondary color.
Offset Lithography: A common printing method where an inked image is transferred (offset) from a photographically etched plate to a rubber blanket, then onto paper. The lithographic process is based on the repulsion of oil and water, where the image to be printed obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area attracts a film of water, keeping the non-printing areas ink-free.
Excellent for high-volume print reproduction, Offset printing utilizes three rotating drums: a plate cylinder, a blanket cylinder, and an impression cylinder. The printing plate is wrapped around the plate cylinder, inked and dampened. The plate image is transferred, or offset, onto the blanket cylinder. Paper passes between the blanket cylinder and the impression cylinder, transferring the image onto the paper.
Opacity: A property of paper that minimizes the show-through of printing from the printed sheet below. Opacity is influenced by the paper’s weight, brightness and fiber type.
Orthogonal lines are implied “visual guide lines” that assist the viewer’s eye in connecting an object shown in perspective to a vanishing point.
Outline: Adding an outer edge to text or a graphic image.
Panoramic– An extreme horizontal wide-angle view of a scene.
Pantone Matching System: (acronym: PMS) The PMS system is a color matching system allowing both designers and printers to accurately specify and reproduce exact color matches. Pantone Inc. is headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, and publishes and creates Pantone guides regarded as the industry standard in color matching.
An exact color is referred to by its specific PMS number. For example: PMS 320C designates a specific turquoise hue when printed on coated paper. A PMS color is defined by its percentage mixture of CMYK.
Paper: A thin, flat material produced by the compression of fibers usually made of natural and composed of cellulose. Commonly wood pulp is used, but vegetable fiber including cotton, hemp, linen, and rice are available. A4 is the standard size in the world but is not easily available in the United States. Papers are specified as to coated or uncoated stock and come in various weights.
Pastel Colors: Light hues that contain white.
Pasteup: Pre-digital terminology referring to the mechanical art stage where the positioning and pasting of type and graphics on a board with overlays was the common method of preparing artwork to print. Today, electronic pasteup is achieved with page-assembly software.
PDF: (Portable Document File) A low-resolution file format proprietary to Adobe Systems used for representing two-dimensional documents.
Perfect Binding: A binding technique where single sheets are stacked and the edges are roughed to accept adhesive before the cover is wrapped around the pages and trimmed.
Perspective: Linear perspective is a technique allowing one to capture the illusion of space and distance on a flat surface. Perspectives are commonly illustrated using one-point, two-point or three-point perspective.
Pica: A unit of measure in typography to indicate the length of type, column widths and other space specifications within a page layout. There are 12 points in a pica, and approximately 6 picas to an inch.
Pixel: (picture element): A tiny spot of phosphor on a display monitor. Pixel elements are neither a dot, nor a square, but an abstract sample. Pixels may be visibly distinct when enlarged. Each pixel typically has several dimensions of variability defined by its RGB values.
Point: 1. A unit of measurement used in typography to define type size, leading, and other space specifications within a page layout. There are 12 points in a pica, and approximately 70 points to an inch. Commonly expressed as (pt.)
- A design element that exists within a specific location in space, without direction or extension.
Posterization: The reduction of the number of gray scales to (usually 3 to 6) produce a high-contrast image from a halftone.
Portrait: A term referring to a page orientation that is taller than it is wide.
Primary Colors (Red, Yellow and Blue) Colors not created by the blending of other colors.
Printing Plate: A thin sheet of metal that carries the printed image.
Proof: 1. The act of checking and approving the elements and details of a job before it goes to press. 2. A representation of the final printed piece made from the actual printing film submitted to the designer for approval by the printer.
Process Color: (CMYK) Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, the colors used in offset (4 Color Process) printing.
Ream: The weight of 500 sheets of copy paper.
Recycled Paper: A paper product consisting of 100% recovered fiber (Includes pre and or post-consumer fiber). Recycled content paper contains some, but less than 100% recovered fiber.
Register: A printing term referring to the alignment of all four-color plates. Work “In Register,” refers to the perfect alignment of all four-color plates on a printed press sheet.
Resolution: The crispness of detail or fineness of grain in an image. Screen resolution is measured in dots by lines such as: 640 x 350. Printer resolution is measured in dots-per-inch (dpi) such as: 300 dpi. A high resolution graphic has more dpi (usually 300dpi @ 100%) and a low resolution graphic has a lower dpi (usually 72dpi @ 100%).
Reverse: Referring to white or light-colored type or images on a dark background.
Revision: An alteration or change usually requested by the client.
Rights Managed: A term referring to intellectual property where the designer must first obtain a license for the use of a specific image or footage. Usage fees are negotiated based on specific usage and terms of use.
RGB: (Acronym for Red, Green, Blue) The three primary light wave (Additive) colors. By mixing these three colors, a large percentage of the visible color spectrum can be represented on your computer monitor.
Roman Type: Referring to a font that is book weight, regular, plain or a normal typeface, generally used for body copy text because of its high legibility.
Rough: A refined thumbnail sketch for a publication design, many times created at actual size, with some detail. Roughs are often used for the first client review.
Royalty-Free: Referring to images or other intellectual property that are sold for a single standard fee and may be used repeatedly by the purchaser, as opposed to a Rights Managed Property. Also called Stock (Photos or Footage.)
Rule: The term used to describe a geometric line of varying weight used as a graphic element in a design. Rules are specified and measured in terms of points. For example: A 10-point rule.
Run-around: Type that is set to follow the contour of an illustration, image or design element.
Rhythm: Movement in regular measures.
Saddle Stitching: A form of staple binding commonly used in comic books and thin brochures. Folded sheets, or signatures of paper are gathered together and placed inside each other, over a “saddle,” and stitched (stapled) along the spine with wire. Saddle-stitched books lie flat when open but may contain only a limited number of pages.
Sans Serif: A typeface that has no serifs, such as Helvetica or Universal. The stroke weight of a Sans Serif font is usually uniform.
Saturation: The color intensity of an image. An image high in saturation will appear very bright. An image low in saturation will appear dull and more neutral. An image without saturation appears as a grayscale image.
Separation: A plate of one of the colors used to print artwork.
Scaling: The reduction or enlargement of artwork, which is generally done proportionally.
Scoring: A mechanical die cutting process where a channel is pressed into paper to facilitate folding while guarding against cracking the paper.
Screen: The number of dots per square inch in a halftone. For example: A 30% screen.
Screen Font: Low-resolution bitmaps of type characters that show the positioning and size of characters on the screen. As opposed to a Printer Font, which may be high-resolution bitmaps or font outline masters.
Screen Tint: A uniform dotted fill pattern, described by a
percentage, such as 50% screen.
Script: A font consisting of connected, flowing letters resembling handwriting with a pen or quill.
Secondary Colors: (Orange, Green and Purple) Colors that must be created by blending two primary colors.
Self-Cover: A printed piece using the same weight paper for its cover and text pages.
Set Solid: Lines of type set with no vertical space between the lines (No leading).
Serif: Referring to typefaces that contain a counterstroke projecting from the ends of the main strokes of the letterform. Times Roman, Goudy and Garamond are serif typefaces. Typefaces without serifs are called sans serif.
Shading: Provides objects with a sense of depth, dimension and mass.
Shape: A design element that may be an icon, a graphic, an image, illustration or photograph possessing a particular form.
Show-Through: The amount of paper transparency that allows you to see through a sheet of paper that is not opaque.
Signature: A section of pages in a book (8,12,16 or more) folded from a single sheet.
Silhouette- A view of a scene portrayed in extreme monochromatic contrast and details are obscured.
Silkscreen: A printing reproduction method where ink is transferred on to the printed surface through stretched silk.
Size: The area or space possessed by a design element.
Small Caps: Capital letters set at the x-height of a font.
Solarization: An image where both black and white appears black, and mid-range tones appear white.
Split Fountain: A method of obtaining several colors on one pass of the press by adding two or more separated ink colors to an ink tray (splitting the ink fountain). A technique commonly used for low-budget band posters during the 1950’s through 1970’s.
Spot Color: In offset printing, a specific solid color commonly added to 4-Color process printing to achieve an exact color match on a background or logo.
Spread: The two facing pages of a document which are designed as a unit.
Standing Elements: In a multiple page layout, the repeating elements from page to page in terms of style, position and content are called standing elements. This generally refers to page headers, footers and page numbers.
Stroke Weight: Refers to the amount of contrast between the thick and thin strokes of a typeface. Different typefaces have distinguishing stroke-weight characteristics.
Style: 1. The distinctive visual expression of different cultural, societal and political influences. 2. Possessing a harmony of grace, beauty and fashion.
Stylistic Tools: Special effects tools used to impart a certain style or design treatment on a design element. Photoshop offers many stylistic effects such as texture, blurring, distortion, noise, various brush and paint styles, posterization, cross hatching and other effects.
Subhead: Display copy of lesser size and importance than the main headline utilized to lead the viewers eye into the body copy.
Subscript: A character slightly smaller than the rest of the font, set below the baseline, commonly used in chemical and mathematic notations.
Substrate: Term used in printing to describe the base material that images will be printed on: Paper, film, foil, textile, fabric, plastic, etc.
Subtractive Color: We perceive color in two ways: Additive Color and Subtractive Color. Color reflected from an object is Subtractive Color. A red apple subtracts all the light energy waves but the red waves you see. Printing on paper is an example of Subtractive Color. Subtractive colors are measured by their various percentages of CMYK, an acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
Superscript: A character slightly smaller than the rest of the font, set above the baseline, used as a footnote marker or the numerator of a fraction.
Symmetry: A form of balance occurring when an even distribution of weight occurs within the composition around a central vertical or horizontal axis.
Tabloid: A page size measuring 11″ x 17,” most often used in portrait orientation for newspapers. Not to be confused with an 11″ x 17″ spread, which is made up of two letter-sized pages.
Template: 1. Exact dimensions of the printable area including bleed, fold, crop marks and other designations required by the designer to produce final print ready artwork. The designer builds the design within this template.
- A grid system utilized to organize placement of design elements and type across multiple spreads.
Texture: Two-dimensional patterns that add a three-dimensional feeling to a design are called texture.
Thermography: A cheap knockoff of engraving, where wet ink is sprinkled with powder after it leaves the press. The sheet travels through a heat tunnel where the powder melts, fusing to the ink leaving behind a raised image usually found on business cards, or envelopes.
Thumbnails: Small, rough sketches quickly executed used in the idea generation stage of design to bring initial concepts to fruition.
TIFF: (Acronym for Tagged Image File Format) A popular and flexible public domain raster file format.
Tiling: Printing a page layout in sections with overlapping edges so that the pieces when pasted together form a whole image.
Tip-in: A printed piece that is not bound into a magazine or book, but inserted separately.
Tracking: A typography term used in adjusting the amount of space uniformity between all characters within a line of body copy. As opposed to kerning, which is the variable reduction of space between specific characters within a headline.
Trapping: A thin line created where two adjacent colors that will print side-by-side are slightly overlapped to help keep the press in register and avoid to a white gap between the colors.
Tritone: Similar to a duotone but using three colors.
Trim: The place at which a printed piece is cut.
Type Alignment: Type maybe aligned left, right, centered, or justified.
Typeface: A set of characters created by a type designer, including uppercase and lowercase alphabetical characters, numbers, punctuation, and special characters that may include dingbats. A single typeface contains a family of many fonts all sharing the same intrinsic design, at different sizes and styles.
Type Families: A group of typefaces sharing the same basic design but with different weights and proportions. Example: Helvetica Light, Regular, Oblique, Compressed, Demi-Bold, Bold, Black.
Trapping: A printing term referring to the deliberate slight overlapping of one color over an immediately adjacent color. This is done to avoid the possible arise of an accidental white hairline occurring between colors in the final printed art.
U&lc: A typographic acronym for upper and lowercase (letters) indicating that the specified line of copy is to be set using upper and lower case letters.
Unity: Visual consistency offering a unified whole as opposed to a disjointed grouping of elements.
Uppercase: The large letters of a typeface as opposed to the lowercase smaller letters.
UV Coating: A slick, glossy coating applied to printed-paper surfaces and dried with ultraviolet light. UV coating has wonderful depth and sheen, but does hold fingerprints.
Value: A dimension of color defined as the lightness or darkness of any object measuring a specific color against a gray scale running from white to black and assigning a grayscale value to that color as a percentage of black.
Vanishing Point: Where all orthogonal lines extend upon an established point of origin.
Varnish: A thin protective coating applied like ink on printed material. It is used on glossy papers to protect against dirt and damage.
Vector Graphic: Vector graphics are drawn in paths assigning either black or white to every aspect of the design, allowing the designer to resize images freely, avoiding the pixilated edges found in bitmapped images. The vector format is generally used in professional printing while the bitmap format is used for onscreen display.
Vignette: A feathered softened edge in an image.
Watermark: A design or mark made into the paper during manufacturing.
Weight: A typographic term denoting the thickness of a letter stroke. For example: Light, extra-light, Roman, medium, demi-bold, bold, extra bold and ultra bold.
White Space: The area within a design that is free of text, or design elements. Also called negative space.
Widow: A typographic term referring to an undesirable word or words left hanging at the end of a column or paragraph of text. Writers will often edit the text to eliminate a widow. Also called a “bad break.”
Word Wrap: The automatic dropping of characters into the next line when the right margin is reached.
Worm’s Eye View- A view of a scene from ground level.
WYSIWYG: Acronym for “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get” WYSIWYG is never entirely accurate, due to the resolution difference between display screens and output printers.
X-height: The height of the lowercase letters of a font.