This graphic design glossary contains vocabulary that many designers use on a daily basis and may be confusing to new designers or non-designers who need to communicate with designers. Remember, the following terms are defined as they relate to graphic design and desktop publishing. This is a work in progress and updates are made frequently. If there is a term you think is missing, misrepresented or incorrect, please suggest me.

 

A

AI-
Illustrator Document extension.

 

B

Bleed-
Bleed is the part of a printed document that is out side the bounds of the final size of the piece. It is used to make sure images and other design elements print all the way to the edge of the paper. It is the designer’s responsibility to set up the bleed in a document and an accepted standard is 1p6, or 1/4 of an inch, out side the size of the paper. When placing objects in a document that must go all the way to the edge of the page, make sure they extend to at least this quarter inch mark. Photoshop and Illustrator do not have an automatic way to add bleed, so it must be taken into account when set ting up the page size. In lay out pro grams such as InDesign, the bleed is set up separately from the actual page size; in other words, the bleed is in addition to the defined page size.

Bleedthrough-
Areas with heavy ink cover age can soak through thin paper and show up on the other side. This is not the same as being able to see the printing on the other side just because the paper is thin. With bleedthrough, the ink actually soaks into the paper and appears in dark blotches on the other side.

Body/Copy-
The body of a lay out (also called copy or body copy) is the main text.

 

C

CMYK-
CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, the colors a printer works with, as opposed to the screen color space, RGB. This is also known as process color. CMYK is a subtractive color space; in other words, to make white, you take away all the colors.

Compression-
The process of an algorithm making file sizes smaller by combining similar data. Most of the time this is a good thing, but it can also cause severe loss of quality, especially in regards to images.

Comps-
Also known as comprehensives, these are the step after thambnails in the creative process. This is usually where the designs are taken into the computer and the details such as back­grounds, color schemes and images are more thoroughly worked out. Comps are the “first draft” of design. Many times designers show several different styles in comps to a client and let the client decide on a look and feel that he or she desires. Then the comps go back to the designer with some feed back and changes from the client and usually several rounds of this feed back process occur. Some times the client may ask (or the designer may want to present) mock-ups.

Crossover- Images and/or text running across two or more pages.

 

D

DPI-
Dots per inch is the more exact way to define the resolution for a file that is to be printed. Some use DPI and PPI inter-change ably, though this is technically incorrect.

 

E

Elements of Design-
The Elements of Design are Color, Shape, Size, Space, Line, Value and Texture.

EPS-
EPS stands for Encapsulated Post Script (not to be con fused with ESP: Extra Sensory Perception). A common file for mat for exporting Illustrator files, it contains a bitmap pre view of the image as well as instructions writ ten in the Post Script language that describe how the object is to be printed. An EPS file is usually a vector, but some times people place photos in Illustrator and export them as an EPS, though I’m not sure why. Images for print should ideally be exported as TIFFs.

 

F

Font-
Technically, a font is the complete collection of characters and glyphs, including numbers, symbols, accented characters, punctuation marks, etc. in a given face design. A font also includes the design in various weights, such as bold or italic; it is more comprehensive and com­plicated to design than a typeface.

Free hand-
Free hand is the Macro media equivalent of Adobe Illustrator.

Fire works-
Fire works is the Macromedia equivalent of Adobe Photoshop.

 

G

Ghosting-
Also known as screening back, it is where an image is made transparent so that the back­ground shows through. Some times this can be an undesired effect in the printing process due to too little ink being transferred to the paper. Be sure to check for unwanted ghosting on the press check.

GIF-
A proprietary file for mat from CompuServe. It is used in web graphics and is best for images that are made of solid colors, like logos. GIFs support transparency (how ever, pixels are either transparent or opaque, nothing in between) and they can be animated. GIFs are also considered a loss less format–meaning they do not suffer compression artifacts–as long as they do not exceed 256 colors.

Gradient-
A gradient is a fade from one color to another. There are many shapes a gradient can take, but generally it is either linear (straight) or radial (round, where it fades from the center out wards). Gradients can also be highly customized with many different color pat terns so that it is difficult to tell if an object actually has a gradient. Generally gradients are used to add depth, or some­times a shiny or metallic look, to a design element, but they can also be used simply to color an object.

 

H

Hickey-
Yes, this is a real term in graphic design! Hickeys hap pen when foreign matter like dust, blobs of ink or bits of paper make marks on a print piece. You should look for them at the press check.

HSB-
Hue, Saturation, Brightness is a color space that you can use when dealing with images in graphics pro grams. It sep a rates the hue—what you think of as color—from the saturation—how much white is mixed with the hue—and the brightness—how much black is mixed with the hue.

 

I

Illustrator-
A vector program often used by designers to create logos and work with or manipulate type.

Imposition-
The process of setting up pages in their correct order for print. This order is some times referred to as a Printer Spread.

INDD- InDesign Document extension. InDesign is used for page layout—assembling images and text—and is the Adobe version of Quark. It is capable of much more in tricate and precise control over text.

InDesign-
A page layout or desktop publishing program used by designers to combine text and images. There was a series of InDesign articles published on Creative Curio: You Still Use Quark?!, Making Changes Easier with Master Pages, Avoiding Disaster with Paragraph Styles, Under standing InDesign Layers and reference guide for InDesign Short-cuts.

 

J

JPG-
An abbreviation for Joint Photo graphic Experts Group, the committee that created this file type. It is best used for photographs or images that have gradients. Jpgs do not sup port trans­parency and cannot be animated.

 

L

Lab-
Stands for Luminance, a, b, where a is the amount of green/red in an image and b is the amount of blue/yellow. An L of 0 (zero) would be seen as black, 100 would be white. a and bare measured on positive/negative scales, with negative a being green and positive being red (or magenta) and negative b representing blue while a positive value indicates yellow. Lab is sup­posed to simulate more scientifically and accurately how people view colors and which colors humans can actually inter pret. It was developed by Commission International ed’Eclairage (translation: International Commission on Illumination), or CIE and is some times referred to as CIELAB.

Loupe-
A little magnifying glass just like jewelers use to exam ine gems (pronounced loop). Pressmen use this to check the registration on a print job and make sure all the little ink dots are lining up on top of each other like they should. Designers can use this tool at the press check.

Loss less-
The opposite of lossy, loss less describes file types where there is no image data deleted or erased when that data is stored. Image for mats like GIF, PNG and TIFF (with out compression) are considered lossless.

Lossy-
Describes file types where compression is applied and image data is deleted or erased in order to decrease the files size. If done properly, this loss is not critical and it makes the image much smaller, which helps to speed up down load time and saves hard drive space? JPG is a file for mat that is lossy.

 

M

Mock (or Mock-up)
A close-to-reality rendition of a project. This is often used in packaging design to show how a pro posed design would look on a box or other type of package. It is used to give the client/stakeholders a better idea of the final product. It can also be used in web design to show a rough approximation of what the final web site would look like in a screen shot of a browser.

 

P

PDF-
Portable Document Format. This file type is often used to send print materials to a print shop. It is also very useful for web, when there are multi-paged documents, reports, forms, etc. that have been designed in a specific format, which cannot be easily translated into HTML. Note: PDF is an Acrobat file, not an “Adobe” file. Adobe is a company and the manufacturer of Acro­bat, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and many other pro grams related to media design and production.

Picking-
When ink is too sticky; it can take bits of the paper with it as the paper travels through the press. This is the opposite of slurring and both should be looked for at a press check.

Pixel-
Picture element. It is the basic digital component that makes up a raster/bitmap image.

PNG- (PNG-24)
Portable Network Graphics are the ideal web graphic file types. They are completely loss less and they sup port alpha transparency. PNG-8 is essentially a GIF.

Press Check-
A press check is where the designer goes to the print shop while the job is being set up to print. The printer will give you a press sheet to look at and this is the final time to check color and print quality, not the time to check for typos; that should be done with the proofs! When you go to a press check, in addition to accurate color, look for crossovers, slurring, picking, ink smearing, hickeys, bleed through and registration (ask to use a loupe). Circle any problems you see and ask for another press sheet. It’s ok to ask for the pressman’s advice on fixing color (sincere flattery will do wonders for get ting what you want!) and don’t be afraid to go back sev­eral times and ask for adjustments and a new press sheet.

Principles of Design-
The Principles of Design are Unity, Balance, Contrast, Economy, Direction, Emphasis, Proportion and Rhythm

PPI-
Pixels per inch is part of how you would define the resolution of an object that is screen-based. Some use DPI and PPI inter change ably, though this is technically incorrect.

Print-
Print encompasses all design that is not on a screen in its finished state. Print can include brochures, reports, post cards, menus, bill boards or identity systems (letter heads, envelopes, busi­ness cards).

Printer Spreads-
The order in which the printing company will layout pages, generally for a multiple page composition. The pages are not printed in the order that they appear in the final book. For example, in a 16 page book–assuming the front cover is page 1 and the back cover is page 16–page 2 and page 15 would be printed on the same sheet of paper next to each other. Pages 3 and 14 would be on the next sheet, on the other side of that same sheet goes pages 4 and 13, etc, so that when the pages are nested in the final book, they appear in the correct order. The process of set ting pages up in this order is called imposition. Compare this with Reader Spreads.

Process Color-
Also known as CMYK

PSD- Photoshop Document extension.

Photoshop-
A design program used to manipulate raster (bitmap) images.

 

R

Raster-
A raster or bitmap image is made out of pixels. Raster images are typically photos, but they can also be illustrations that have been turned from vectors into pixels.

Reader Spreads-
The pages of a com position set up in the order a reader would see them, page 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Compare this to Printer Spreads.

Render-
A render is a rendition or draft of a project. When some one talks about render, it can mean the project’s appearance: “It’s a pencil render” means it’s a sketch. A render can also be a draft: “I’m waiting for the 3D model to render” means the computer is calculating the appearance of the model, which can include textures, lighting, transparency, etc. A “final render” is the fin­ished project, ready to be presented, printed or shipped.

Resolution-
There are so many different meanings for “resolution” depending on who you are and what you do. The best definition I’ve read is from Real World Photoshop. The authors define resolution as “the number of pixels in each unit of mea sure.” There are two main ways to discuss resolution: you can talk about resolution in terms of image size: “The document is 5x7 inches at 300 ppi,” or you can talk about resolution as dimensions: “The document is 1500x2100 pixels.” Some people talk about resolution and want to know the file size, but then you have to start becoming familiar with a new way to measure things. Remember the image size dialog box in Photoshop? There is an input field for Resolution (the pixels per unit), and also a drop down box for the unit of mea sure, which is separate from the fields for the width and height of the image. In reality, these are all just different ways of talking about the same thing: the amount of image information. So if some one asks you the resolution of an image and you merely reply, “300 ppi,” you’re not telling the whole story.

RGB-
Red, Green and Blue are a monitor’s color space. RGB is considered an additive color space, meaning to make white you add all the colors together. You view the world in RBG, not CMYK.

 

S

Slurring-
If ink has a low “stickiness,” it can create a soft or blurry look. Look for slur ring, which is the opposite of picking, on press checks.

Spot Color-
Inks that are not mixed from the four process colors. They are used for items, like logos, that need to be a consistent color no matter how or where they are printed. Any time you add an extra ink to a print job, it increases the price. Metallic inks are also spot colors.

Stock-
You often hear terms like “stock photography” in a graphic design environment. Stock refers to some thing that is pre-made–photos that have already been taken in a variety of general scenar­ios with a general selection of smiling people, illustrations or icons with a general or abstract theme. Notice the term general here; you probably won’t ever find that perfect artwork you need, but it’ll be close enough and cheaper than, say, staging your own photo shoot. (Stock can also refer to the paper a project is printed on)

 

T

TIFF-
The raster version of EPS. TIFF can be a loss less for mat if you choose the No Compression option, which is the default in Photoshop. TIFF supports percent ages of opacity like PNG and is ideal for the final file type of pixel-based images for print. You can also have layers in the TIFF format, but this will increase the file size.

Thumbnails-
Small scale rough sketches of a design concept. They are among the first stages of the cre­ative process. Before thumb nails, designers often collect a design or creative brief, do research and/or word associations and some times wire frames as a sep a rate step. Thumb nailing is a process that designers use to quickly illustrate ideas for a design. The longer a designer spends in the thumb nail stage, the more detail that is put into these sketches, the faster the next stage, comps, goes. Thumbnails are to design what an out line is to writing a paper.

Type face-
A type face is simply a design or look of letters and maybe numbers. It does not include glyph and character variations or weights like bold (think display or ornamental faces such as Grave Ornamental or Willow), and may not even include numbers or upper or lower case letters (obviously it would have to include either upper or lower case letters, but not necessarily both). A type face also does not mean that a design is complete; many movie title treatments are merely type faces (only the letters in the title have been created), though some have been developed fur­ther into fonts.

 

V

Vector-
Vectors can most readily be recognized as illustrations, particularly from programs like Illustrator or Free hand. But not all illustrations are necessarily vector-based. Vectors work by defining points and what fills the space between those points in a document and they are stored as mathematical formulas. Vector files (like Illustrator files) are fractions the size of raster files because there is less data needed to create the images.

 

W

Wire frame-
A wire frame is a basic lay out with out design elements. It is generally used in web design as a means to plan where navigation and con tent will sit on the page.