A

Acid Paper - Non-permanent papers

Additive Color Theory - White light contains equal parts of red, blue and green. If three lights were to project through the colored filters of red, blue and green to the same intensities on a white screen, where they overlap all 3 colors would be white. Where only 2 colors overlap the subtractive colors of cyan, magenta or yellow would be formed.

Aliasing - Graphics that show jagged edges.

Autoflow - Word Processing software feature that makes text flow from one column to another or one page to another, in a continuous manner onto successive pages. The program will create additional pages as they are needed.

B

Backlit - Any screen that has a light source which shines from the back of the image toward the viewer, making image sharper and easier to see in low ambient lighting conditions. Great for trade show applications.

Backup -Copy of current and/or recent data that is stored for future use in case of data loss or a computer crash.

Binding - The fastening of the assembled sheets along an edge of a publication.

Bleed - A printed image(graphic) that extends beyond the trim edge of the paper. The image is printed and then trimmed to the designer's specifications.

C

Camera Ready Artwork -: Paste up artwork in which all type is set and sized correctly and pasted up in correct position. Does not need to have traps and/or reverses built in.

CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The four colors are used in what is called four-color printed reproduction or four color process. Gives a photographic look.

D

Desktop Publishing - The term applied to the creation of printed documents using a PC. The documents may be printed directly from the desktop publishing application software (usually with a desktop laser printer), or prepared for a commercial printing process.

Differential Spacing - In typography, allowing letters to take up varying horizontal space in relation to their widths. For example, an "i" takes up less space than an upper-case "W". Opposite of fixed spacing, where each letter is assigned the same space, regardless of its shape or width.

Digital File - A art file that resides on disk.

Digital Proof - A proofing system that does not include the use of film. Data is sent to a printer and imaged directly onto a paper-based material. Is not an exact representation of the final output but gives client and designer a good idea of the final product.

Dithering -Simulating gray tones by altering the size, arrangement or shape of background dots.

Download - Transferring data from a computer to another electronic device or storage medium.

DPI - Dots Per Inch. A measurement of output device resolution and quality. Measures the number of dots a printer can print per inch both horizontally and vertically.

Dummy - a preliminary layout showing the position of illustrations and text as they are to appear in the final reproduction.

Duotone - A two color halftone reproduction from a one-color photograph.

E

Encapsulated PostScript - An image description format. EPS translates graphics and text into descriptions to a printer of how to draw them. The font and pictures themselves need not be loaded into the printer; they've been "encapsulated" into the EPS code.

F

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) A standard way to transfer files between computers. It is frequently used as a way of transferring many types of files over the Internet.

Flat Bed - A flat bed optical input or output device (scanner or plotter) transfers images by means of a flat plane rather than a revolving cylinder

Font - A graphical design applied to all numerals, symbols and characters in the alphabet. A font usually comes in different sizes and provides different styles, such as bold, italic, and underlining for emphasizing text.

G

Greeking - When previewing the appearance of text on a page a word processing program uses graphics symbols to approximate the text. These symbols suggest greek letters, hence the term greeking.
Secondary Meaning - Used to describe nonsense text inserted in a document to check a layout. This allows a layout artist to concentrate on the overall appearance of a page without worrying about the actual text that will be inserted later

H

Halftone - The production of continuous-tone artwork, such as a photograph, through a screen that converts the image into dots of various sizes. The dots merge to give an illusion of continuous tone.

I

Illustrator - A computer illustration program developed by Adobe Systems, Inc.

Image: - The computerized representation of a picture or graphic.

Inline Graphic - A graphic that is embedded in a text block or line of text.

J

JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group. A highly compressed graphics format designed to handle computer images of high resolution photographs as efficiently as possible.

Justify - The process by which a line of text is spaced between specified right- and left-hand margins.

K

Kerning - The amount of space between characters, initially determined by the design of the font. You can adjust the spacing between to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

L

lossy compression - A data compression method that sacrifices some information to achieve greater compression. Files will lose some quality but remain understandable. The goal is to decrease file size to increase the speed with which people can view a site.

M

Matte Finish - In printing paper - a dull finish without any gloss or luster. In photography - a color or black and white paper with low gloss or luster which is most ideal for retouching.

Montage - In artwork, several photographs ("C" prints) or several transparencies (all the same reproduction size) are pasted or taped to an art board or acetate in order to create a pleasing layout which is capable of being separated in one piece. Originals should contain similar highlight, middletone and shadow characteristics

O

Overprinting (Double Printing) - Printing over an area that has already been printed. Often used in color printing in order to enhance a particular color, or contrast and distinguish a particular color from other similar colors. It is used when the normal process color system is unable to discern close color differences, but are required by the customer.

P

Pagination - The assignment of page numbers, either manually or electronically, in a document.

PANTONE Colors - A color system of over 1200 standard colors developed by Pantone, Inc

Photoshop - An image editing software program created by Adobe Systems, Inc. for the manipulation of digital images.

Pixel - An image is defined by many tiny dots, those dots are pixels. A pixel represents the smallest graphic unit of measurement on a screen. The actual size of a pixel is screen-dependent, and varies according to the size of the screen and the resolution being used.

Plotter - A printer that prints vector graphics, i.e., images created by a series of many straight lines.

PMS - Pantone Matching System. A means of describing colors by assigning them numbers.

Point - Unit of measurement in typography, approximately 1/72 inch. There are 12 points in a pica.

Portrait - A page whose width is shorter than its height.

PostScript - A page definition language (PDL) developed by Adobe Systems. When a page of text and/or graphics is saved as a PostScript file, the page is stored as a set of instructions specifying the measurements, typefaces, and graphic shapes that make up the page.

Prepress - The preparation work required to turn "camera-ready" artwork into the printing plates needed for mass production, i.e., making negatives, "stripping" or placing the negatives in place, and etching the plates.

Primary Colors - Additive primaries are red, blue and green.

Process Colors - In printing, the subtractive primary process ink colors are cyan, magenta, yellow plus black in four color process printing.

Process Color Printing - The recreation of color by combing two or more of the subtractive colors - cyan, magenta, and yellow, plus black.

Process Printing - The printing from a series of two or more plates containing halftones representing process colors in order to produce intermediate colors, shades and tones.

R

Register - In printing and image assembly, the fitting of two or more images on the same exact spot either on paper or mylar thereby insuring exact alignment with each other

RGB - Red, Green, Blue. The primary colors, called "additive" colors, used by color monitor displays and TVs. The combination and intensities of these three colors can represent the whole spectrum.

S

Sans Serif - Describes typefaces that have the same weight and thickness throughout. Lacks the flourish at the ends of the letters.

Scan - To convert human-readable images into bit-mapped or ASCII machine-readable code.

Scanner - An electronic device used in making color separations. Originals are placed on drums, which are rotated, reproduce the original via digital and electronic signals transferred to the finished film size through fiber optics. Scanners utilize electronic circuits to correct color, compress the tones and enhance the detail.

T

TIFF - Tag Image File Format. A document format developed by Aldus, Microsoft and leading scanner vendors as a standard for bitmapped graphics, including scanned images.

Tracking - Adjusting the letter spacing uniformly throughout a selected portion of text. See kerning.

Trapping - The ability to print wet ink film over previously printed ink. Wet trapping is dependent upon several press and paper conditions including hardness and holdout of the paper, tack of the inks, and general condition of the rollers, cylinders and blankets on the press. Dry trapping is printing wet ink over dry ink. Improper trapping will cause color changes.

Typography Terms

V

Vector - Images defined by sets of straight lines, defined by the locations of the end points. At larger magnifications, curves may appear jagged. This condition is call aliasing.

W

Word Wrap - A feature that moves text from the end of a line to the beginning of a new line as you type. With word wrap, you do not have to press ENTER at the end of each line in a paragraph.