Alignment

The positioning of text within the page margins. Alignment can be flush left, flush right, justified or centred. Flush left and flush right are sometimes referred to as left justified and right justified.

Align Left

(ragged right) Pertaining to copy which is aligned on the left margin.
2. (quad left) A code which directs preceding copy to be set flush against the left margin.

Align Right

(ragged left) Pertaining to copy which is aligned on right margin.
2. (quad right) A code which directs preceding copy to be set flush against the right margin.

Alternate Characters

Multiple versions of different characters, usually in display type faces, to apply a greater variety or personality to the copy. This often refers to swash characters, which usually over- or under-hang adjacent characters with curve-like flourishes.

Ampersand

A symbol (&) meaning and. The ampersand was originally a ligature for et (the Latin word for and), expressed as et per se, which gradually evolved to its present form.

ANSI

The acronym for American National Standards Institute. Co-ordinates the process through which formal standards are written.

Ascender

That portion of a lower case letter that rises above the letters x-height.

ASCII

The acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard method for computer coding of text using 8 bits per character.

Base line

The imaginary line on which characters appear to rest in a line of type. Some characters drop somewhat below it for better visual base alignment.

Bit

A binary digit which is either on or off. The basic unit of digital information.

Bit Map

An array of pixels making up an image for screen display or device output. Also referred to as a `paint-type' graphic.

Body

The main section of a book, brochure, article, or other text material.

Body Text

The type style used in the main text of a book, article, or other printed piece. Body type comes in sizes of 14-pts and smaller. Also referred to as Body Type.

Body Size

The depth of the characters being typeset. Can be different to type face size.

Bold Type

A generic description of type that is heavier than the text type with which it is used.

Bullet

A common pi character usually used to draw attention to listed items.

Byte

A unit of digital information consisting of 8 bits. Each ASCII text character is referenced by one byte of data. File sizes are typically measured in bytes, kilobytes (thousand bytes) or megabytes (million bytes).

Cap

A contraction of capital, meaning an upper case character.

Cap Height

The height of a point size from base line to the top of the upper case letter.

Centred

Text placed at an equal distance from the left and right margins. Headlines are often centred. It is generally not good to mix centred text with flush left or flush right text.

Character

Any printable symbol, including letters of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation, and special symbols.

Character code

In the context of modern computer operating systems, it is defined as a code with a meaning attached to it. For example, the decimal character code 97 represents the letter a. In most operating systems today, characters codes are represented by an 8-bit unit of data known as a byte.

Character encoding

A table in a font or a computer operating system which maps characters codes to glyphs in a font.

Character mapping

refer character encoding.

Characters per pica

An exact measurement on the number of characters of a given type face in a given size that will fit in one pica. This is a measurement for the lower case alphabet. Used for all types of copy-fitting calculations.

Colour

Refer Typographic colour.

Composition

The process of assembling characters, words, lines, and paragraphs, or of formatting typeset text, graphics, or other images into blocks or pages for reproduction by printing.

Compositor

A person who sets type and performs any of the duties of Composition.

Condensed Type

A narrow type face having proportionally less character width than a normal face of the same height.

Copy

The original material from which type will be set. May be handwritten, typewritten or on floppy disk.

Copyfitting

The process of adjusting the size and spacing of type to make it fit within a defined area of the page.

DCS

Desktop Colour Separation. A format for storing scanned images in 5 files; Four CMYK separation files and a fifth low-resolution file used for design and layout. The 4 master files are used for output separations. The fifth file, when placed on a program page, displays the contents of the master files .

Depth

The vertical measurement of a page, figure, table, or other block of material.

Descender

That portion of a character that extends below the base line of the character.

Dingbat

Type faces that consist of symbol characters such as decorations, arrows and bullets. Also known as Pi characters.

Display Type

Type faces, used for headlines and other attention-getting elements, as distinguished from body type. Display type starts at 14-pt upwards.

dpi

An abbreviation for dots per inch. Monitors and Laser output devices are described as having a resolution off ?? dpi. A monitor is electronically divided into rows of coloured dots. A page from a Laser Output Device is virtually mapped into rows of laser created dots where the laser is either turned on or off thus producing an image.

Drop Cap

A single capital letter, larger than the standard text size, set into a block of text, with one or more lines indented to accommodate the capital.

Ellipsis

A punctuation character consisting of three dots, or periods, in a row; indicates that a word or phrase has been omitted.

Em

A unit of measurement exactly as wide and as high as the body size of type being set. It is commonly used to measure spaces, indentions, column sizes, and pages, and can be used for copyfitting and costing. A measurement of area, it is often confused with the `Pica'. In 18-pt type the em is 18 points wide and 18 points high; in 12-pt type it is 12 points square.

Em Dash

Also known as Em Rule. A dash centred on the x-height of characters, one em long, used to indicate a pause in the sentence.

Em Space

A fixed amount of white space exactly one em wide, which will not be `stretched' for justification purposes as will a space band.

En

A unit of measurement exactly one-half as wide as the body size of type being set. In 18-pt type the en is 9 points wide and 18 points high; in 12-pt type it is 6 points wide and 12 points high.

En Dash

Also known as En rule. A dash centred on the x-height of characters, one en long, used to indicate a range of values.

En Space

A fixed amount of white space exactly one en wide, which will not be `stretched' for justification purposes as will a space band.

Encoding

Refer Character encoding.

EPS/EPSF

Encapsulated PostScript File. A file format for importing, displaying, printing and exchanging PostScript files which can include object-oriented and bitmapped images. In addition to PostScript data, a low-resolution image (Header Bitmap) is embedded in EPSF files for quick display on a program page. Therefore any manufacturers device or computer program with a PostScript interpreter can send/receive recognisable information to/from any other manufacturers device or computer program (a common Page Description Language).

Expanded

Pertaining to a type face that has characters whose width is greater than their height would generally dictate. Expanded type faces looked `stretched' horizontally.

Expert Set

A font set which can include small capitals, old style figures, ligatures, fractions, subscript and superscript figures.

Face

A unique design of letter, or one of the styles of a family of faces. For example, the italic style of the Times family is a face.

Family

Also known as a Font Family. A collection of faces that were designed and intended to be used together. For example, ITC Garamond family consists of roman and italic styles, as well as regular, semi-bold, bold and ultra bold weights. Each of the styles and weight combinations are call a Face.

Fixed Space

A particular amount of white space, such as an em, en, or thin space, which will not be `stretched' for justification purposes as will a space band.

Flush Left

(ragged right) Pertaining to copy which is aligned on the left margin.
2.(quad left) A code which directs preceding copy to be set flush against the left margin.

Flush Paragraph

A paragraph which has no beginning line indent.

Flush Right

(ragged left) Pertaining to copy which is aligned on the right margin.
2.(quad right) A code which directs preceding copy to be set flush against the right margin.

Folio

A common term for the page numbers of a printed publication.

Font

One complete set of letters, numbers, punctuation marks and special characters, etc., of a given typeface size and design.

Galley

A length of phototypeset or electronically output material used for proofing before positioning the material in final camera-ready form.

Glyph

A shape in a font that is used to represent a character code on screen or paper. 2.A letter, but the symbols and shapes in a font like ITC Zapf Dingbats are also glyphs.

Graphic

A line, oval, rectangle, square, or circle created using a software programs drawing tools, or a bit map, object-oriented, or EPS-format document imported into a publication from another publication.

GUI

Graphical User Interface. A non-text based interface between the user and the system software. Added to the operating system with icons, pull-down menus, and other graphic approaches to make it easier for people to operate their computers. Examples: Macintosh, MS Windows, Presentation Manager for OS/2, OSF/Motif and Open Look.

Gutter

The white space which is between columns on a page.

Hairline Rule

The thinnest possible line or rule (often ¼ point).

Hanging Indent

A document style in which the first line of a paragraph is aligned with the left margin, and the remaining lines are all indented an equal amount.

Hanging Punctuation

A style of typography which allows certain punctuation characters to `hang' or extend beyond the left and/or right margins giving a much sharper line to the margins.

Headline

The short lines of emphasised text that introduce detail information in the body text that follows.

Headline font

A font designed to look good at large point sizes for use in headlines.

Hints

The mathematical instructions added to digital fonts to make them sharp at all sizes and on display devices of different resolutions.

Hyphenation

The practice of dividing words by leaving part of the word at the end of one

line and continuing it on to the next, with a hyphen at the end of the first part of the word. Many words have their own rules for hyphenation that are not consistent with the general rules of the language, and must be hyphenated according to an exception word dictionary.

Hyphenation & Justification (H&J)

The practice of adjusting blocks of type so that they are both left and right aligned, with hyphenation occurring as appropriate, word spaces adjusted for good fit, and overall appearance satisfactory. Although each are in fact separate processes, they are often used together so that the hyphenation may enhance the results of justification.

Image area

The area of a page inside the margins in which you put the text and graphics. (Objects can extend outside this area.)

Image Compression

File size reduction. Lossless compression enables images to be decompressed without degradation in image quality. Lossy compression sacrifices varying degrees of image detail for greater compression ratios – usually used in Multimedia applications.

Imagesetter

A machine that produces line images, half tone images, and typographic composition on paper or on film.

Indent

The positioning of text so that a margin of the line or lines appears a fixed distance from the left and/or right margin.

Nested Indent

An indent whose indentation is measured from the margin of the last indent, rather than the absolute margin.

Paragraph Indent

An indent at the beginning of the first line of a paragraph.

Runaround Indent

An indent which takes place for a specified number of lines, usually to leave room for an illustration.

Skewed Indent

An indent whose value is changed for each line, giving the margin a `slanted' appearance.

Italic

Pertaining to type that is a `slanted' version of a type face. It is used primarily for emphasis within text. Most typesetters can produce pseudo-italic (oblique) versions of fonts electronically by skewing the digitised characters.

Justification

The process of composing and adjusting line of type by adding space between the words and characters so that the lines are aligned on left and right margins.

Justification Range

The space at the end of a line of type within which the computer will determine the acceptable line breaks before actual justification.

Unjustified

Text which has not yet had line endings determined.

Vertical Justification

The process of adding space between line or paragraphs to achieve alignment of the columns top and bottom.

Kern

The process of subtracting space between two characters so that they appear closer together. This is usually done to improve the aesthetic appearance of most words that are set in all capitals especially in large display and headline text lines.
2.The part of a letter which actually overhangs the body of the letter itself, such as the curl at the top of the lower case f in a serif face.

Kerning Pairs

In a computerised typesetting system, certain pairs of characters may be defined with specific kerning values. When type is set, kerning is automatically done between those specified pairs.

Leading

Pronounced ledding. The distance of the base line of a line of type from the base line of the line below it, measured in points.

Extra Leading

A fixed amount of white space added between lines or blocks of type for visual purposes. Also known as Paragraph space.

Primary Leading

The leading that is used in the general body of text, or in a particular set of lines, as opposed to secondary leading.

Reverse Leading

The action of a phototypesetter in reversing the imaging film to cause the next line of type to print higher on the page than the previous line.

Secondary Leading

A separate leading parameter than may be specified by a typesetting operator, to generate a particular amount of leading between paragraphs different from the general leading.

Letterspacing

The addition of thin spaces between the letters in order to achieve the desired appearance of text, and increase legibility.

Ligature

Two or more letters tied together into a single letter. They are designed to improve the appearance of certain character combinations. The standard ligatures are: ff, fi, fl, ffi, and ffl.

Line Length

The width of a line of type, or column, or page (usually in picas and points) as set by typographic commands. The actual type on the line may not fill the entire line length. Also known as measure.

Logo

An emblem, short for logotype. Can be either a unique arrangement of letters, a symbol, or a combination of both.

LZW

A patented lossless data compression scheme that reduces image file size if the data can be compressed without degradation. (common option for .TIF bitmaps)

Manuscript

The original material from which type will be set. May be handwritten, typewritten or on a floppy disk.

Margin

The unprinted space on either side of a block of text. Usually refers to the space between text and the edge of the page, as opposed to space between columns.
2.The position of the leftmost edge of the type image on the page.

Mark up

The written specifications indicating the particulars of typography and measurement, used as guidelines or instructions for implementation of the work.

MB

Megabyte. One million bytes (1,048,576 bytes).

Monospaced font

A font in which all characters have uniform widths.

Oblique

The characteristic of a type face which has been skewed from a digitised character, thus looking like an italic typeface. The angle of skew is either 12° or 15°.

Old Style Figures

A set of numerals which do not line up along the base line of type. Also known as non-aligning figures.

Orphan

An element of type (such as a word or a line) which leads into a larger block of type, but which has been left by itself at the end of a page or column. For instance, the first line of a paragraph, or a section head. Sometimes erroneously called a widow.

Paint-type Graphic

See Bit map.

Page Makeup

The process of arranging type and other elements so that they will be output in page format.

Pagination

The process of performing page makeup automatically through a computer program according to page parameters designated by the operator or by a database (where multiple pages fit on to one Printing-Press sheet of paper).
2.The numbering of the pages of a book.

Paragraph rules

Graphic lines associated with a paragraph that separate blocks of text. Rules are commonly used to separate columns and isolate graphics on a page.

Paste-up

Manual or electronic placement of text, illustration and artwork on a piece of art board or by a computerised page layout program.

PDF

Portable Document Format. Developed by Adobe Systems for `paperless publishing' with Adobe Acrobat software. PDF compresses PostScript type page files for fast display and printing of electronic documents on computer systems running Acrobat software. (Recent innovations allow the accurate output of complex CMYK objects.)

PDL

Page Description Language. A method of encoding page elements (text, graphics, images) for printing. see EPS.

Phototypesetter

A machine that produces typographic composition photographically on paper or film rather than in relief metal.

Pi Characters

Special characters not normally included in a normal font such as scientific and mathematical characters, foreign accents, Greek letters, etc.

Pica

A unit of measurement used in printing and typesetting equal to 4.21mm and divided into 12 points. Used as a linear measurement.

Point

A unit of measurement used in printing and typesetting equal to ¹/₁₂ of a pica.

Point Size

The measurement of type, generally from the top of the highest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender. Due to variances in type design, the designated point size of a particular font might be somewhat different from the actual measurement

PostScript

A Page Description Language developed by Adobe Systems in the mid-1980's which has become an industry standard. An Adobe trademark. see EPS.

PostScript Level 2 and Level 3

Enhanced versions of PostScript with device-independent colour functions, improved screening and font rendering, built-in compression options, and other improvements.

ppi

pixels per inch. A measure of Bitmap or Monitor resolution.

Printer Driver

A software program that supplies information such as printing interface, description of fonts, and features of the installed printer to the system software. Computer programs access this information when printing.

Printer Font

A font stored in the printer's memory, or soft font that is sent (down loaded) to a printer before a document is printed.

Proof

A copy of typeset material used for proofreading, corrections, and alterations.

Proportional Font

A font in which different characters have varying widths. See also Screen Font, Soft Font, TrueType Fonts.

Proportional Spacing

The characteristic of a type face wherein each letter has its own width value. Most typewriters and line printers use only mono-spaced fonts.

Raised Initial

A design style in which the first capital letter of a paragraph is set in a large point size and aligned with the base line of the first line of text. Compare with Drop Cap.

Ragged

The characteristic of a body of type whose lines are not equal length, producing an uneven margin on the left, right, or both sides.

Ragged Centre

Pertaining to type which is centred between the left and right margins.

Ragged Left

Pertaining to type which is justified on the right margin and ragged on the left.

Ragged Right

Pertaining to type which is justified on the left margin and ragged on the right.

Reverse

The technique of printing white or light-coloured text on a black or dark background for emphasis.

RIP

Raster Image Processor. Converts Post-Script files to a Raster Image of virtual laser dots  used by a specific printer or imagesetter. Image-setter RIPs include a computer chip and hard disk to store screening algorithms, type faces, and other data. The rasterised information is used to turn the Laser light on or off.

River of white

The optical path of white space that sometimes occurs when word space in successive lines of type happen to end up below each other for some distance.

Roman

A classical type style that is upright with serifs and is neither bold nor italic.

Rule

A line of unvarying thickness. Used for forms, charts, graphs and other graphic material.

Run-around

To set type to fit around a picture or another element of the design.

Run-in

Referring to a heading or caption which does not stand apart from the text it heads, but acts as the first part of the text.

Running Head and Foot

A headline or chapter title or other identifying caption at the top of a page. Generally running heads and feet appear on a series of pages and may include folios.

Sans Serif

Describing a type face whose characters do not have serifs.

Set Solid

Type that has been set without the use of leading.

Set Width

The width of a character, including minimal letterspacing on each side, measured in units.

Scalable Type Face

A font that can be enlarged or reduced to any size.

Screen Font

The font that is displayed on your screen, designed to match the printer font so that documents look the same on screen as they do when printed. See also WYSIWYG.

Script

Type faces designed with connecting characters in imitation of fine handwriting.

Serif

The tiny strokes at the end of a larger character stroke, used to provide visual balance to the character shape.
2.Describing a type face whose characters have serifs.

Small Caps

Alphabet sets in which a smaller version of a type faces upper case letters are used in place of lower case letters. Traditionally used for letterhead, after drop caps, and for display type purposes.

Soft Font

A font, usually provided by a font vendor, that must be installed on your computer and sent to the printer before text formatted in that font can be printed. Also known as downloadable font.

Space Band

The variable width space between words in justified settings.

Style

One of the variations in appearance, such as italic and bold, that make up the faces in a type family.

Symbol

A category of type in which the characters are special symbols rather than alpha numeric characters.

Tabular figures

Numerals which all have the same width. Used for aligning figures in tabular matter.

Thin Space

A small fixed space equal in width to the period or comma (usually about half of an en space).

TIFF

Tagged Image File Format. Probably the worlds most common bitmap image file storage  format. Unlike EPSF, TIFF does not support object-oriented data files.

Tracking

The average space between characters in a block of text. Sometimes also referred to a letter spacing.

TrueType

Fonts that are scalable and sometimes generated as bitmaps or soft fonts, depending on the capabilities of the printer. Built into Windows 3.x/Windows95 and Apple's System 7. See also screen font, printer font.

Type 1

The international type standard for digital outlined type, available on almost every computer platform. Originally invented by Adobe Systems.

Type Classification

Grouping type designs related by common characteristics. There are essentially seven type styles: Roman, Italic, Lineale (Sans Serif), Slab Serif, Text, Script and Decorative.

Type Face

A unique design of a set of characters, based on some overall design or desired appearance.

Type Family

A collection of typefaces related in design but differing in character weights and styles.

Type Manager

A software utility which controls display and printing of flexible outline fonts. Examples: Adobe Type Manager, TrueType, and Bitstream Facelift.

Type Series

A number of fonts of the same name and design in a range of sizes.

Type Specification

The formatting applied to type such as: size, leading, font, etc.

Type Style

A collection of type families related by common characteristics. There are essentially seven type styles: Roman, Italic, Sans Serif, Slab Serif, Text, Script and Decorative. See Type Face.

Typographic colour

The apparent blackness of a block of text.

Typography

The art and practice of arranging type and other elements in pleasing ways by using combinations of fonts and layout, and adjusting the type in such a way as to produce the most aesthetic result.

Unit

A subdivision of the em. Its size varies from one type size to another, as does the em. It is a measurement of the width of the character, including a small amount of space on either side. The most common unit is 54 but it is not standard. The more units that a system allocates to measure a character's width, the greater the flexibility in word and letter spacing.

Vector Graphics

A method of creating graphics using points and lines, as opposed to bitmapped (raster) images. Synonymous with object-oriented graphics. (Illustrator, Freehand, CoreDraw etc.)

Weight

The relative darkness of the characters in the various type faces with a type family. Weight is indicated by relative terms such as thin, light, bold, extra bold and black.

White space

The blank area on a page where text and illustrations are not printed.
2.In bookwork, the gap between the body text and the running head and folio.

Widow

A single short line at the top of the page or column which is the end of a sentence or a paragraph.
2.A single word or syllable standing as the last line of a paragraph. Widows of either definition are typographically undesirable.

Width

One of the possible variations of a type face within a type family, such as condensed or extended.

Windows Character Set

The character set used in Windows and Windows applications. Most TrueType fonts have a set of about 220 characters.

Word Space

The space between words, which may be expanded for purposes of justification.
2.To adjust the spaces between words, making them larger than the minimum allowable size.

WYSIWYG

An acronym for what you see is what you get. What you see on the screen is what you will get on the printed output, as accurately as the screen can render it.

x-height

The height of the lower case letter excluding any ascenders and descenders. Type faces may be designed with small or large x-heights.

Glossary compiled with assistance from: National Composition Association Glossary of Typography, Computerised Typesetting, Electronic Publishing Terms, and Adobe Systems Incorporated.