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All
you ever wanted to know about graphic design and printing - but
were too afraid to ask!
Still under construction
...
Please feel free to
email us with any new suggestions!
A B
C D E
F G H
I J K
L M N
O P Q
R S T
U V W
X Y Z
A
Artwork - In the graphic design sense,
this means anything that is ready for printing. Today this is usually
captured on disk, but you can still give your printer a physical
piece of artwork on a board, prints, photographs or transparencies.
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Airbrush - This is a tool used to
spray colour for retouching pictures or creating original illustrations.
At one time an airbrush was literally a fine spray gun with a reservoir
for paint or ink. Today this is done electronically in an image
manipulation program like Adobe Photoshop©.
B
Bleed - this is an extra allowance
on the page dimension (usually about 3mm) which is trimmed off after
printing. This is to allow for any small discrepancies in the printing
and guillotining process.
Block
- a printing 'plate' used in letterpress printing
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C
Caps - Capital Letters
Casting off - an obsolete term meaning: "The calculation and allocation of typewritten copy to be set
in Type". (this is no longer necessary with electronic publishing)
Camera ready - An out-moded term used
to mean artwork ready for copying on to film. Now superseded by
everything ready on disk or even sent by ISDN direct to print shop.
Clipping path - an outline in a file
which masks off an area (to give a cut-out appearance)
Coated paper - paper which has been
coated to allow for better quality printing (this is necessary for
fine halftones) Can be matt or glossy coating.
Colour coded - using colours to identify
various items eg. sections in a catalogue. (Often mis-used as colour
coordinated - when colours match)
Copy - Basically any 'words' suppled
by the client or copy writer - eg. for brochures, ads. Can also
mean photos or drawings ready for printing
Cut-out - a picture with no background
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D
Design concept - literally an 'idea'
created specially to fulfil a client's design brief. This is usually
presented in the form of a 'visual presentation' and/or supported
by written draft 'copy'
Descender - The part of a type character
which extends below the main body eg "p"
DTP (Desk top publishing) creating
and producing books, brochures etc on a pc or Apple Mac. In 20 years
the computer revolution has made it possible to do tasks on a pc
which previously took a team of experts - like typesetters and repro
men.
Duotone - A two-colour picture usually
converted fro a single colour original, but can be created from
a full colour picture
Dummy - Not a stupid graphic designer,
but a paste-up pattern of a proposed piece of design or printing.
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E
em - The width of the body on which
the lower case 'm' is 'cast' in a font of type. If not prefixed
by a type size (eg 10pt em) it is taken to be a pica em (12pt).
en - Half the width of an em. The
basic unit for casting off copy for typesetting.
emulsion - the coating on photographic
material "emulsion side down"
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F
Fee proposal - a written quote and
explanation of how a designer would tackle a design problem, broken
down into stages, together with terms and conditions of contract.
Folio - In printing, a page number
Font - a set of type characters eg.
'Helvetica Bold' or family of fonts 'Helvetica'.
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G
Grip - the amount of space required
at the feed edge of a sheet to accommodate the grippers on the press
Gutter - no, not where graphic designers
usually end up, but the margin between the sides of two (pairs of)
pages
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H
Half-tone (halftone) - a print giving
the optical illusion of continuous tone by small dots of varying
size.
Highlight - the lightest tonal value
of a halftone
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I
Imposition - The placing of pages
(in the reproduction process) so that on folding the pages appear
in the correct order.
Illustration - an original drawing
or painting
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J
Justification - no, not the graphic
designer defending his fee invoice, but the arrangement of type
and words and spaces o give lines of equal length (flush left and
right)
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K
Kerning - reducing or increasing the
space between type characters (to improve visual appearance - this
was a more important tool before most pairs of characters were automatically
visually kerned).
Keylines - lines on artwork to indicate
areas for 'tint-laying'
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L
Landscape - a sheet or book where
the long edge is at the top (see also portrait)
Leaders - dashes or dots used to guide
the eye across a page...
Leaf - a single sheet of paper comprising
two pages
Letraset - dry transfer lettering
used to create artwork (nearly obsolete)
Linotype - a now obsolete mechanical
typesetter which casts characters in one line as a 'slug'.
Lithoprinting - (Offset Lithography)
the most common method of printing where the image is printed to
a rubber blanket and transferred (offset) to paper.
Lower case - small letters (a b c
as distinct from Caps A B C etc) U/lc Upper and lower case = caps
and small letters
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M
Make-ready - the preparatory work
on a printing press (running the machine up to speed, colour and
register before wasting good paper stock)
Matt art - coated paper with a matt
finish
Measure - width or depth of type area
Moiré - the undesirable patterned
formed by conflict of angles of a process screen and lines or pattern
in the original (artwork).
Monochrome - An original (piece of
artwork or photo) one colour only
Monotype - A mechanical system for
casting single type characters (obsolete)
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N
Negative - A photographic image in
reverse tonal value to the original copy
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O
Original - a term applied to a photograph,
transparency or drawing used for reproduction (repro)
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P
Paste-up - the old method of creating
artwork by sticking all the elements on a paste board - ready for
reproduction. Now all done in dtp programs like Quark Xpress.
Perfecting - printing the second side
of a sheet.
Pica - A standard unit of typographic
measurement in the 'point system' (1 pica =12pt)
Picking - the removal of small areas
of paper surface during printing. (tack of ink too strong)
Point - smallest unit of measurement
in the point system
Portrait - an upright page
Positive - A photographic image which
corresponds to the original copy (ie. the reverse of a negative)
Process colours - (CMYK) Cyan, Magenta,
Yellow and Black
Production - general production covers:
layout, artwork, typesetting, specialist activities like photography,
retouching, reproduction and printing processes.
Proofs - sheets submitted to client
for approval before printing
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Q
Quark Xpress - a more-or-less industry
standard page composition (dtp) suite of software. Used by most
professional designers - has infinite typographic and page manipulation
control.
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R
Register - The correct relative position
of two or more colours (printings) on the same sheet (in register
or out of register)
Retouching - (sometimes referred to
as 'touching up'!) making good a photograph by airbrushing etc.
Can also refer to repro stage balancing separations etc.
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S
Saddle stitched - to fasten a booklet
or brochure by 'stitching' mechanically with a wire staples through
the middle folds of sheets.
Scanning - an electronic device used
for colour separation. This can vary from a desk top scanner for
low resolution 'positionals' to high end, high resolution drum scanners
used for high quality reproduction.
Score - (or crease) to impress a mark
with a rule to simplify paper or board folding
Screen process printing - A method
of printing using a squeegee to force ink through a stencil by a
fine mesh (silk) fabric or metal screen.
Set-off - a faulty condition, where
ink is transferred from one sheet to the back of another
Sheetwork - printing each side of
the sheet in a separate pass
Self-cover - a cover of the same weight
as the inside sheets
Separations - set of (4) films output
to subsequently make plates (becoming more common is filmless repro
- direct from disk to plate)
Serif - The short cross lines at the
ends of the main strokes of a certain typeface.
San serif - typeface (font) having
no serifs
Signature - a folded section of a
book
Swatch - a colour specimen
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T
Tint - an area of a design or print
job printed in a lighter tone usually measured in percentages eg.
10% tint of black is a light grey.
Transparency - A full colour photographic
positive for viewing by transmitted light (like slides). Professional
'trannies' range from 35mm, 2.25" square, 5' x 4" to 10'
x 8". (Soon digital cameras will replace the need for transparencies).
Transpose - To exchange the position
of a letter, word, group of words or an object with another
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U
Under colour removal - A colour correction
method in scanning
UV - a highly glossy varnish applied
after printing
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V
Varnish - A lacquer finish applied
after printing to prevent scuffing (seal, machine varnish) or enhance
paper appearance (UV)
Vignette - A half-tone with the background
gradually fading away and blending into the paper surface.
Visual - a drawing to give an idea
how a design will look when printed.
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W
Watermark - a design impressed into
the paper
Web - no, not the internet! In printing
- a continuous length of paper fed through a machine eg web-offset.
(Also term used in paper making)
Work and tumble - Printing on the
second side of the sheet by turning over from gripper to back.
Work and turn - Printing the second
side of the sheet by turning it from left to right, using the same
gripper edge.
Wove - a smooth writing paper showing
a woven wiremark as opposed to the with parallel wire marks of a
laid paper
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X
x height - the height of a lower case
letter without ascenders or descenders. NB different typefaces have
different x heights eg. 9pt Baskerville or 9pt Bodoni
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Y
X-Y coordinates - used to position
objects in an image manipulation package
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Z
Zip disk - data storage disk
Zapf dingbats - special ornament font
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