Media Publishing Terms

Serif

Small, finishing strokes on the arms, stems, and tails of characters. Serif typefaces are usually used for text since the serifs form a link between letters that leads the eye across a line of type

Font

The complete set of characters for one typeface at one particular type size, excluding attributes such as bold or italic. In modern usage, the term "font" is often confused with "typeface" and "family." Traditionally, the term "font" represents a complete set of characters (including all the letters of the alphabet, punctuation, and symbols), which share the same typeface, style, and size. For example, 12 point Goudy Oldstyle Bold is a font. Fonts can be as small as the basic alphabet or up to hundreds of characters. Some languages, like Japanese, can exceed these numbers, which make them more difficult to access from the standard keyboard. Derived from the word "found" as in type foundry

Headline

The extra large opening statement used in a layout, used to grad the reader's attention and sometimes summarizes what the text is about

Baseline

The imaginary line upon which text rests. Descenders extend below the baseline. Also known as the "reading line." The line along which the bases of all capital letters (and most lowercase letters) are positioned

Uppercase

The large, capital letters of a typeface. Once called "majuscules," these letters were stored in the upper section of the printer's typecase, hence the term "uppercase."

Verso

The left hand page on a spread.

Text

The main body of words or copy in any type of documents (also called body, copy, body copy)

Resolution

The number of dots in an image's screen display or printed output. A monitor's resolution refers to the number of pixels per linear inch. Printed resolution refers to dots per linear inch. (See dpi.)

Tracking

The overall letterspacing in text. Tracking can also be used to tighten or loosen a block of type. Some programs have automatic tracking options which can add or remove small increments of space between the characters. (See letterspacing.)

Break

The place where type is divided; may be the end of a line or paragraph, or as it reads best in display type

Rasterization

The process of converting Outlines into bitmaps. The outlines are scaled to the desired size and filled by turning on pixels inside the outline. (See pixel) (The images in PhotoShop are "raster" images. When you open a .pdf in Photoshop, the image is "rasterized.")

proportional spacing

Spacing for type in which characters are not all the same width (i.e., an i would take less space than an m)

Cutline

Term used predominantly by newspapers to describe a photo (see caption)

Jumplines

Text at the end of an article indicating on what page the article is continued; also, the text at the top of a continued article indicating from where the article is continued

Caption

Text describing an illustration, photo, or other piece of artwork or graphic (see cutline)

Justified

Text that is aligned at both the left and right margins.

Rendering

The actual placement of rasterized pixels on the monitor's display. Refers both to graphic objects and type, particularly for fonts using hints. Also called "rasterization."

Kerning

The adjustment of spacing between letters. The process of improving appearance and legibility by adjusting the white space between certain paired characters, such as 'Ty', 'To', or 'Ye', which are known as "kerning pairs." Manual kerning allows the digital publisher to move letters either closer or farther apart ~o adjust and improve the space between them. Automatic kerning on the computer is done by using a kerning table (an AFM file) that contains pre defined font specific kerning pairs. Sometimes incorrectly referred to as "minus setting." See also letter spacing

Spacing

The amount of unused space that exists between words, letters, and lines in text. Spacing provides a means to avoid overlapping shapes and letters in order to improve readability. Can be either fixed or proportional. In a fixed font, such as Courier, every character occupies the same amount of space. In a proportional font, such as Arial or Times New Roman(R), character width varies

line spacing

The amount of vertical spacing, expressed in points, from the baseline of one line of text, to the baseline of the next line

Margins

The area from the edge of the paper to the boundary of the layout area of the page

back matter

The book information placed after the text copy; includes index, glossary, bibliography, and appendix

Roman

In Macintosh font menus, this is called Plain meaning text that has no style applied to it (i.e., Italic, Bold, Boldltalic). Roman fonts are upright thick-and-thin weighted, and usually serifed type. The classical Roman letter style began in A.D. 114 with letters chiseled in the stone of the Trajan Columns in Rome

word spacing

In a line of text, this is the amount of space between each word. It can be varied to adjust line length without affecting readability, unlike letterspacing

Gothic

In modern usage, Gothic refers to sans serif monoweight letters (for example, Letter Gothic). These have little contrast of thick and thin lines, and no ornamentation, yet still retain the intensive boldness of the traditional Gothic. After the invention of typography by Gutenberg in AD 1450, the traditional Gothic style of lettering fell into the shadow of Venetian Old Style typography

initial cap

Large, capital letters (often ornamental) which are found at the beginning of paragraphs or chapters. These date back to the early days of European manuscripts where they were (and sti11 are) considered works of art Before printing presses replaced hand lettering, a few talented scribes drew the characters into spaces left in the manuscripts for that purpose

monospaced font

Like typewritten characters, these all have the same width and take up the same amount of space. Use of this type allows figures to be set in vertical rows without leaving a ragged appearance (as opposed to proportional type). (Also used for screenplays to control the reading time of specific sections of the script.)

ASCII

(American Standard Code for Information Interchange) A universal format for representing alphanumeric characters, allowing for the exchange of information between opera ting systems. Consists of the text itself, stripped of all special codes for formatting, such as centering, bold, underline, and indents.

Dpi

(Dots per inch) The measure of resolution for a video monitor or printer high-resolution printers are usually at least 1000 dpi. Laser printers typically have a resolution of 600 dpi; monitors are usually 72 dpi

EPS

(Encapsulated PostScript) A graphic file format jointly developed by Altsys, Aldus, Adobe, and Quark which expedites the exchange of PostScript graphics files between applications. Also known as "EPSF." Used for draw-type images, created with PostScript code

Leading

(Pronounced 'ledding') The amount of vertical space between lines of type. The distance from the baseline of one line of type and the baseline of another line of type immediately above or below it; also known as line spacing and usually measured in points

Pixel

(Stands for PICture ELement) Pixels are-square dots that represent the smallest units displayed on a computer screen

Tab

(see tab stop) (We do not use the Tab key when working in InDesign. Paragraph indentions are set with a uniform setting under [Type] in the Options bar

Logo

A combination of characters and/or graphics to create a single design that is used to identify a company or organization. it is often trademarked and is always included on all company printed materials and ads

boldface

A dark typeface used for emphasis, usually heavier in weight

serif type

A font that has accents at the end of character strokes. For example, Times or Roman

outline font

A font that is defined by drawing the black contour of the white space that makes up each character. It is made up typically of Bezier curves for PostScnpt fonts and quadratic splines for TrueType fonts. Both these fonts can be scaled to any size, therefore, one set of outlines can be used for any size in a typeface

tab stop

A location that you set along the horizontal ruler where you want text to align

Autoflow

A method of placing text in an InDesign document in which text flows continuously into successive columns and pages. Additional pages will be created as needed.

Bitmap

A pattern used in forming paint-type graphic images or type characters with a series of dots, with a certain number of dots per inch

Callout

A selection of type (word or phrase) that is set in larger or bolder type from the body-copy font for emphasis

Typeface

A set of characters that share common characteristics such as stroke width and the presence or absence of serifs. Type of a uniform design, often named after a designer, a typeface or "face" (e.g., Goudy Oldstyle) is an interpretation of a character set that shares a similar appearance and design. The character set includes letters, numbers, punctuation, and symbols. On computers. "typeface" is often used interchangeably with the term "font," though they are not synonymous

Glyph

A shape in a font that is used to represent a character code on screen or paper, e.g. the shapes of A, B, C characters in a Roman font. The symbols and shapes in a font like ITC Zapf Dingbats are also glyphs

character set

A single font's characters, symbols, and numbers

widow line

A single line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page or column

orphan line

A single line of a paragraph at the top of a page or column

Character

A symbol in writing. A letter, punctuation mark or figure

Italics

A type style with slightly slanted characters, used for emphasis. Best used to set off quotes, special phrases, and foreign words, italic letters have a redesigned structure that allows them to slant to the right. The first italic type was designed by Aldus Manutius in AD 1501 and was based on the handwriting style of that time. Furthermore, lowercase letters were in italics while capital letters were Roman (or vertical stance)

sans serif

A typeface without serifs. For example, Helvetica or Modern. Sans serif type is more legible in headings than in a long passage of text. Helvetica is an example of a sans serif typeface. First designed by William Caslon IV in 1816, it was originally referred to as "English Egyptian." Also known as "Gothic" in the United States and "Grotesque" in Europe

Bullet

A typeset character (a large dot or symbol) used to itemize lists or direct attention to the beginning of a line. (See dingbat.)

bold italics

A typestyle in which the image face is both italicized (slanted from left to right) and bolded (darkened); used to create visual interest and emphasis

bold type

A typestyle in which the image face is darkened; used to call attention to the text on which it is used

Pica

A unit of measurement equal to one-sixth of an inch. There are 12 points to a pica. A typographic measurement that has survived the digital revolution. 12 points = 1 pica; 6 picas = 1 inch; 72 points = 1 inch

Point

A unit of measurement, often used to measure type size, equal to 0.013837 inch (approximately equal to 1/72"). The traditional point measurement was slightly more or less than 72 points to the inch (depending on the typesetting measurement system)

insertion point

A vertical bar in the text that indicates the location that any newly typed text will appear, or any deletions will be made. Also called the text cursor

track kerning

Adjusting the letterspacing for a block of text

Family

All the type sizes and styles of one typeface. A complete character set of a font. The group shares a common design but can differ in attributes such as character width, weight and posture (i.e., Roman vs. Italic). A typical computer family unit frequently contains four fonts: Roman, Italic, Bold, and Boldltalic in all sizes

Copy

All typeset words and/or text incorporated into the publication (as in art and copy)

Bleed

An area of text or graphics that extends beyond the edge of the page. Commercial printers usually trim the paper after printing to create bleeds

character count

An estimation of the number of characters in a selection of type

Colophon

An inscription at the end of a manuscript or book that contains facts about its production; identifies artists, designers, or printers, and specifies the typefaces and papers used

drop cap

An oversized capital letter used at the start of a paragraph. Drop caps occupy two or more lines of body copy, usually introduced for design emphasis

fixed pitch

Any typestyle, such as Courier that has the same amount of space allotted for each character (as opposed to proportional spacing)

small caps

Capital letters that are the same (or nearly the same) height as the tvpeface's x-height. Some software programs automatically create their own small caps, but true small caps (with correct proportions and weight) are usually only found in expert typefaces

kerning pairs

Certain paired characters, such as 'Ty', 'To', or 'Ye', defined in a font and used for improving appearance and legibility. Kerning pairs are usually defined in well designed fonts. See also kerning .

Old Style

Characterized by variations in stroke width, bracketed serifs, high contrast, and a diagonal stroke. Some popular Old Styles include Bembo, Garamond, Janson, and Caslon. Originally developed during the Renaissance and adopted by Venetian printers in the 15th century, these were based on pen drawn forms

Condensed

Characters which are narrower to fit into a compact space. A properly condensed character should fit into a smaller space without making it too thin or reducing the character's height

Spread

Facing pages; made up of an even-numbered page on the left (verso) and an odd-numbered page on the right (recto)

Cursive

First used in the 16th century, these typefaces imitate handwriting. Script letters and cursive typefaces appear to be drawn with pen and ink. Unlike script, however, cursive letters are not joined

font family

Group of typefaces with similar characteristics. For example, the sans serif typefaces Arial, Arial Bold, Arial Bold Italic, Arial Italic, Small Fonts, and MS Sans Serif are all part of the Swiss font family

Normal

Most used version of Roman font, also called "Regular"

Dingbats

Once known as "printer's flowers," these are the small decorative marks, bullets, or symbols that usually make up a specialty face. Zapf Dingbats is one well-known example of a dingbat font

en dash

One en wide, the en dash, or hyphen, indicates duration, "to" or "through" such as, "refer to pages 4-9." It may also be used in compound adjectives (as in post-World War 1~). A space can be added to both sides of the en dash

Element

One of the distinguishable components of a layout: headline, subhead, body copy, illustration, logo, border, etc

Footer

One or more lines of text appearing at the bottom of every page

Header

One or more lines of text appearing at the top of every page

Embedding

Process of importing into a file all of the data used to describe a graphic or font, as opposed to linking to the file or font

text block

Refers to the body text of a book or other multipage document

font style

Refers to the specific characteristics of the font. The four characteristics that can be defined for fonts are italic, bold, bold italic, and roman

Width

Refers to whether the standard typeface has been extended or compressed horizontally. The common variations are Condensed, Normal, or Extended

bad break

Refers to widows or orphans in text copy, or a break that does not make sense of the phrasing of a line of copy, causing awkward reading

Script

Script letters are joined and should not be confused with cursive, which are not connected. Since script is difficult to read, its use should be limited to a few lines at a time. Early script typefaces were developed in the sixteenth century, and were based upon formal cursive handwriting

reverse type

White characters on a dark background. A good way to grab the reader's attention

stretched text

Widening text characters, not the spacing between the characters

Codex

a book of paper or parchment leaves bound with boards; distinct from the ancient volume in scroll form

text wrap

in keyboarding text: automatic placement of a word on the following line when the entire word will not fit on the current line. In graphics: the InDesign command for flowing text around a graphic, jumping over it, flowing through it, or jumping to the next column

threaded text blocks

of text that are connected across the columns of a page and across pages from the beginning to the end of a story. Allows insertions or deletions without losing information

font size

The size of type, measured in points between the bottom of the descender and the top of the ascender (the vertical point size of a font). Sometimes referred to as the Type or Point Size. (like 12pt, 14pt)

Gutter

The space between two facing pages (inside margins). The term is sometimes used to refer to the space between two columns (see alley)

body type

The specific typeface that is used in the main text

Brackets

The symbols used in algebraic formulas, (,)

body copy

The textual matter set in one face and point size, with a common leading and column width

Banner

The type design of the name of a repetitive publication, such as a newspaper, newsletter, or magazine

body size

The type's point size which is determined by measuring from the highest ascend-er to the lowest descender (plus any additional white space to the descender line)

caps and small caps

The typesetting option in which the lowercase letters are set as small capital letters; usually 75% the height of the size of the innercase

Ragged

The uneven alignment of text lines. Ragged is the opposite of flush. A text block may be formatted to be evenly aligned (flush) on one side and unevenly aligned (ragged) on the other

Lowercase

These are the small letters of a typeface. Originally, small letters were stored in the lower section of the printer's typecase, hence the term "lowercase." Once known as " minuscules."

right justified

Type aligned with its right margin. Also known as "flush right."

left justified

Type that is aligned with its left margin. Also called "flush left"

Proportionally spaced type

Type whose character widths vary according to the features of the letters (as opposed to monospaced type). (Most of our type faces are proportional.)

Typography

Typography is the study and process of typefaces; how to select, size, arrange, and use them in general. In modern terms. typography includes computer display and output. Traditionally, typography was the use of metal types with raised letterforms that were inked and then pressed onto paper

Logotype

Usually refers to the type or font used in a logo (see logo)

word wrap

When a word in a line of text automatically moves to the next line as it approaches the right-hand margin of the text block