Glossary Of Design Terms

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Alignment

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Keeping the elements on the age connected, or aligned, so the elements, when put together, flow well. Each item placed on a page (or website) should be somehow connected with the others for proper alignment.

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Aspect Ratio

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The look or appearance of a screen or frame regarding the proportional relationship between its width and height.

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Bleed

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Allowing a graphic or some other element to extend beyond the actual margin of the age. The element touches the side of the page, leaving no margin or white space at the edge.

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Body Text

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The main portion of a book or other document, excluding front matter and back matter.

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Caption

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In typography and page layout, any strictly descriptive text accompanying an illustration, located beneath it, alongside it, or above it.

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Character

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Any letter, figure, punctuation, symbol or space.

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CMYK

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This color mode used by printers uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) to create colors during the printing process.

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Color Theory

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The study of how colors make people feel and their effects on a person. In graphic design, color theory is used to explore the best types of colors to work in different situations. For a website that needs to feel soft and relaxing or a magazine ad that should pop out of the page and evoke energy in the reader.

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Complimentary Colors

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The colors that are opposite of each other when viewed on the color wheel.

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DPI

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DPI, or dots per inch, refers to the number of dots per inch on a printed page. Generally, the more dots per inch, the better quality the image- and 300DPI is the standard for printing images.

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Grid

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An important concept in graphic design, grids are often used in layouts for both web and print projects. Grids help graphic designers arrange text and images on the page in a way that will look even, attractive and consistent throughout. Grids can be used on paper or can be set up in graphic design software, such as Photoshop.

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Justification

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In typography, setting lines of text so that they line up on the left and right, as opposed to ragged right, in which the lines do not line up on the right.

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Kerning

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In typography, creating the perfect space between characters (letters) so they work together. For instance, understanding when a letter should be moved slightly because it pushed into another.

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Leading

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In typography, an alternate and more popularly used term for line spacing.

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Mockup

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The original design or idea created and either displayed on the screen (for instance, if you are a graphic designer specializing in web design and you want to show you client your ideas before you begin to code you might create a mockup in Photoshop and then show the client the mockup as a .jpg or PDF) or in a printed format (for example, a printed copy of the layout for a magazine or brochure spread for printer's and clients to view before the actual product is produced). Mockups allow the client to see what the final product should look like.

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Negative Space

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The area on a page that is left without images and words is referred to as negative or white space. This negative or white space is very important in graphic design projects.

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Orphan

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In typography, the last line of a paragraph when it is less than one-third the width of the line- especially when it is the carry-over of a hyphenated word- carried to the top of a new page or column.

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Photoshop

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Program used by many graphic designers and photographers to create or edit photographs and images.

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Pixel

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Shorthand term for picture element, or the smallest point or dot on a computer monitor.

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PPI

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PPI, or pixels per inch, refers to the number of pixels per inch in an image.

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Raster Images

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These images are created using thousands of pixels. They are not easily resized as are Vector images; enlarging a raster image too much will diminish quality. Photographs are an example of a raster image.

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Resolution

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Number of dots per inch, or dpi, in an image. Images for the web are usually around 72 dpi, or a low resolution, while images for print should be around 300 dpi, or a higher resolution.

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RGB

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This color mode is used for web design, digital cameras, scanners and other electronics and combines the colors red, green and blue to create what is seen on the screen.

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Rough

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A sketch or enhanced thumbnail of a page design or layout that depicts a somewhat accurate representation of the final size and position of all page elements. Roughs are usually drawn on tracing paper by hand.

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Serif

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Serif fonts, as shown on the "t", "p", and "e' in the image on the left, have a line crossing the ending of a stroke and are sometimes described as having "wings" and "tips." Serif fonts like Times New Roman are time-honored classics that make printed materials easier to read but can be difficult to read in online body copy.

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Sans Serif

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In typography, characters (or typefaces) without serifs, which are lines crossing the free end of the stroke. "Sans serif" means "without serif".

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Tabloid

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In newspaper publishing, a page size of a newspaper corresponding to 11 1/2 x 17 inches long. As tabloid paper was often used to print so-called "scandal sheets," the term "tabloid" itself has come to refer to splashy, attention-grabbing (and, some would say, somewhat "sleazy") journalism. Not to be confused with an 11x17 inch spread which is made up of two letter-sized pages.

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Typography

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The art of arranging type, which includes letters, numbers and symbols, so that it is pleasing to the eye. This includes not only the font that is used but how it is arranged on the page: letter by letter, size, line spacing, etc. Typography is an important part of creating a pleasing final graphic design product.

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Vector Image

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A vector image, such as a logo, is one that can be easily resized without loss of quality.

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Widow

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In typography, the last line of a paragraph when it is less than one-third the width of the line, especially when it is the carry-over of a hyphenated word. Widow can also refer to one word or word part standing alone in a line of a heading or a caption.