- 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.
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