glossary
A
Alley: An alley is the negative space between columns, modules or units on a grid.
Analogous color: Analogous colors sit next to each other on the color wheel and work well together in color palettes because they contain some of the colors sitting next to them.
ANNCR: The abbreviation for announcer is ANNCR.
Ascenders: Ascenders are the tall characters or glyphs that ascend above lowercase x-height, such as the lowercase letterforms b, d, f, h, k, l, t.
Aspect ratio: Aspect ratio refers to the ratio of width to height for electronic screens.
Asymmetrical balance: With its visual fulcrum or center of visual gravity moved off-center, asymmetrical balance is visually balanced but not symmetrical.
B
B roll: B roll is file, extra or archival footage used as visual fill or for creating transitions between clips.
Backlight: A backlight is a light source used to highlight the focal point from behind in order to give it contrast and dimension.
Baseline: This sentence sits on the baseline, the line guiding the horizontal alignment of type at the bottoms of words.
Beauty shot: In camera work, a beauty shot frames the focal point, whether person or object, to show off its best visual features.
Beta site: A beta site is a working test version of a Web site that isn’t available to the public.
Bleed: Bleed refers to content that runs beyond the specified live area or safe area into the margins and off the edge of the page or screen.
Breadcrumb trail: As in fairytales about children lost in the forest, a breadcrumb trail in Web design is a system for keeping users apprised of their location in cyberspace.
Brief, creative or design: The document that briefs the creative team on the project, the creative or design brief answers basic job order and research questions about the project.
Built color: Built color uses the CMYK 4-color or full-color printing process to build any color.
Burning & dodging: Burning and dodging refer to techniques that darken or lighten photographs, respectively. Traditionally achieved by increasing/decreasing exposure to prints in the darkroom, these techniques mostly now are accomplished digitally.
Byline: The byline is the name of the writer, artist or photographer given credit.
C
Callout: Also called labels, callouts “call out” or call attention to details of infographics.
Cascading style sheet: A cascading style sheet or CSS helps format text and page structure in Web site development and design.
Chatter: The brief typeset explanatory copy on an infographic is called chatter.
Close-up: In framing video and film shots, a close-up frames the focal point as a detail shot. Variations on the close-up include extreme, medium, full and wide close-up shots, as well as close and medium close shots. These frames move from an extreme close-up framing only an actor’s eyes to a medium close shot that frames an actor from the waist up.
Closure: The Gestalt law of closure predicts the way people mentally fill in gaps to complete a perceived shape.
CMYK: CMYK is the 4-color or full-color printing process of building any color with just four inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Color separation: In commercial printing, each ink color has to be separated out of the design into its own printing plate.
Comp or complimentary image: A comp image, short for complimentary image, is a low-resolution stock image, usually with a watermark, available to sample in a layout before purchasing.
Comp or comprehensive: A comp, short for comprehensive, is a mockup of the final design and is used for getting approvals before spending time and money on final production.
Compass: The compass establishes direction on a map.
Complementary color: Color complements sit opposite each other on the color wheel.
Concept: The concept is the big idea uniting and driving the design’s message.
Condensed font: Condensed fonts are drawn to be narrower (condensed) to take up less space than standard fonts.
Content management system (CMS): A content management system or CMS is a Web-based application that manages page content and generates pages on the fly from information stored in a database. CMSs allow people with no knowledge of coding to build visually consistent Web sites.
Continuity: The Gestalt law of continuity predicts the way the eye will follow the direction of a line.
Crawl: A crawl refers to superimposed moving type crawling across an electronic screen such as TV.
Creative or design brief: The document that briefs the creative team on the project, the creative or design brief answers basic job order and research questions about the project.
Crop: To crop is to trim excess from visuals such as photography.
CSS: CSS stands for cascading style sheet, which helps format text and page structure in We b site development and design.
Curly quotes: Curly quotes or smart quotes are the correct punctuation marks for quotations. Curly quotes are curly, as opposed to prime marks, which are straight. Prime marks indicate feet and inches, not quotations. See also smart quotes and prime marks.
Cut: In film and video, part of continuity is transitioning or segueing between shots and scenes. The most common type of transition is the simple “cut” from one shot to the next.
Cutaway: In film and video, “cutting away” from the main action by inserting something else going on in the scene is called a cutaway.
Cut-in or insert: In film and video, “cutting in” or “inserting” a close-up shot of something significant in the scene is called a cut-in or insert.
Cutline: In news contexts, captions for photos and visuals are called cutlines.
D
Decorative fonts: Decorative fonts have no common feature other than they are mostly novelty fonts best used for “decorative” purposes.
Depth of field: In camera work, depth of field refers to what in the shot remains in focus, whether foreground, midground, background or some combination.
Descenders: Descenders are characters or glyphs with tails that descend below the baseline, such as the lowercase letterforms g, j, p, q, y.
Design or creative brief: The document that briefs the creative team on the project, the creative or design brief answers basic job order and research questions about the project.
Detail shot: In camera work, a detail shot is a close-up shot revealing detail about the focal point.
Dingbats: Forms of type that can be styled like type, dingbats are the ornamental characters in a font, or they may comprise an entire font of nothing but picture glyphs.
Display fonts: Drawn specifically to appear proportionate at larger point sizes, display fonts work well in headlines and signs.
Dissolve: In video and film transitions, the dissolve simply dissolves the frame before cutting to the next one.
Dodging & burning: Dodging and burning refer to techniques that lighten or darken photographs, respectively. Traditionally achieved by decreasing/increasing exposure to prints in the darkroom, these techniques mostly now are accomplished digitally.
Dolly shot: In a dolly shot, the camera is positioned on a dolly that moves or pushes toward the focal point.
Dummy: In print news, a dummy is the set of thumbnail sketches that lay out or paginate what goes on every page of the issue, including ads and stories with visuals.
E
Em dash: Historically the width of a lowercase m, the em dash adds emphasis by replacing punctuation such as commas, colons and parentheses.
En dash: Historically the width of a lowercase n, the en dash is the correct glyph for replacing the “to” with punctuation in expressions such as “2–4 weeks.”
EPS: EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) is used for some specific kinds of images. Vector graphics, usually illustrations, are saved in EPS format, as are some photographs that have certain styling applied. EPS format is typically used for logos and, like GIF, supports transparency.
Establishing shot: In camera work, an establishing shot is a full or wide angle shot designed to orient viewers to the overall scene.
F
Fade: In video and film transitions, a fade simply fades the visual frame before cutting to the next one.
File Transfer Protocol: File Transfer Protocol or FTP enables you to upload and share very large files on the Web.
Fill light: Fill light supplements the key light by filling in unwanted shadows for less contrast.
Focal point: Sometimes called the principle of emphasis, the focal point is the visual center of attention in the design or layout because it focuses the eye’s attention.
Folio: Usually appearing in the margins of serials and periodicals such as newspapers, magazines and newsletters, the folio identifies the publication, issue and date, as well as page number if hardcopy.
Font: A font is a complete set of characters in a particular size and style of type.
Font family: A font family or typeface contains a series of related fonts, such as Times New Roman, Times Bold and Times Italic.
Foot space or footer: The bottom margin is the foot space or footer.
Four-color process: CMYK is the 4-color or full-color printing process of building any color with just four inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
FTP: FTP or File Transfer Protocol enables you to upload and share very large files on the Web.
Full-color process: CMYK is the 4-color or full-color printing process of building any color with just four inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Full shot: In framing video and film shots, a full shot reveals an actor head-to-foot. A medium full shot frames the actor from the knees up.
FX: FX is shorthand for special “effects.”
G
Gain: Gain is when paper absorbs more ink than expected resulting in muddy type or visuals.
Gestalt theory: In the early 20th century, a group of German psychologists studied the way the human brain interprets and organizes what the eyes see. The results of this research became the Gestalt laws. See: closure, continuity, proximity, similarity.
GIF (vs. JPG): GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) and JPG ( Joint Photographic Experts Group) are file formats for saving images destined for the Web and electronic screens. Both are low-resolution image formats. A big difference between them is a GIF will support transparency and a JPG will not. Transparency by definition means see-through. In the case of Web graphics, transparency is essentially the ability to make certain color groups invisible. If you’ve ever tried to put a logo in JPG format on top of a colored background and discovered that your logo has a white box around it, you’ve encountered lack of transparency. By creating your Web graphic in the correct software application and saving as a GIF image, you can eliminate the white box.
Glyph: A glyph is an individual character of a font, whether a letter, numeral, punctuation mark, dingbat or special symbol. Most fonts have 265 glyphs. Open type fonts have up to 65,000 glyphs.
Golden proportion: The golden proportion, sometimes called the golden ratio or divine proportion, refers to a ratio—1:1.618—that results in a universally appealing aesthetic when applied to shapes such as rectangles.
Graphics package: In the newsroom, a graphics package reports a story by using multiple types of graphics together.
Grayscale: A graduated range of tones from black to gray to white is called grayscale.
Greek text: Greek text or greeking is dummy copy or type used as a temporary substitute for the actual copy or type.
Grid: A grid is a series of horizontal and vertical lines composing the skeletal template of a design.
Grid module or grid unit: Instead of columns, a grid structure may include squares or rectangles called modules or units.
Gutter: A gutter is the oversized margin between two facing pages. The gutter is designed to accommodate the fold or binding. Some design software applications refer to alleys between grid columns as gutters, too.
H
Hairline rule: A hairline rule is a very thin rule or border—as thin as a strand of hair.
Hairline strokes: The thin lines in characters or glyphs are hairline strokes. The thick lines are stem strokes.
Handheld: Handheld refers to the cameraperson holding the camera as she or he moves through the scene shooting video or film.
Hanging indent: Hanging indents refer to indicators that hang out to the left in the margin, instead of indenting to the right into the paragraph or text. Hanging indents are required for bulleted and numbered lists, as well as for quotation marks on pull quotes.
Hard light or low key: Hard light or low key emphasizes shadows, thus contrast, including shadows on people’s faces.
Headspace or header: The top margin is the headspace or header.
Hexadecimal code: A Web-based color specification system, hexadecimal color uses sets of numbers and letters to designate RGB light formulae.
High key or soft light: High key or soft light evens out the shadows to decrease harsh contrasts. It makes people and products look more attractive.
Horizon line: The line separating land and sky is the horizon line, which communicates a sense of distance or perspective.
Horsey: Not a compliment in design, horsey means awkwardly large and lacking grace.
HTML: HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, the basic code that makes up most Web pages.
Hue: In color, hue answers the “what color?” question.
Hypertext Markup Language: Hypertext Markup Language or HTML is the basic code that makes up most Web pages.
I
Impositioning: Impositioning is the prepress process of getting multiple pages that are designed to print front and back to align properly for correct printing and binding or folding.
Infographic: An infographic delivers information graphically, such as in graphs, charts, maps, figures and diagrams.
Insert or cut-in: In film and video, “cutting in” or “inserting” a close-up shot of something significant in the scene is called a cut-in or insert.
Inset, map: On a map, an inset enlarges a section of the map to reveal more detail.
Inset & offset: Inset refers to the content of a box sitting in away from the box’s edges, rule, border or frame. Off set refers to items outside the box sitting off away from the box’s edges.
JPG (vs. GIF): JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) are file formats for saving images destined for the Web and electronic screens. Both are low-resolution image formats. A big difference between them is a GIF will support transparency and a JPG will not. Transparency by definition means see-through. In the case of Web graphics, transparency is essentially the ability to make certain color groups invisible. If you’ve ever tried to put a logo in JPG format on top of a colored background and discovered that your logo has a white box around it, you’ve encountered lack of transparency. By creating your Web graphic in the correct software application and saving as a GIF image, you can eliminate the white box.
K
Kerning: Kerning refers to the negative space between two characters or glyphs.
Key: On infographics, such as maps, the key identifies and defines symbols and other reference markers or icons used.
Key light: A key light is the main or key light source in the shot, whether natural or artificial.
L
Lead: The first paragraph of the body copy is called the lead.
Leading: Leading refers to the negative space between lines of type.
Leg: A leg is a column of typeset copy.
Lift-out: Also called a pull quote, a lift-out is a pithy quotation pulled from the body copy and then enlarged and embellished to become both a visual and a teaser.
Ligature: Ligatures are specially designed letter pairs—a single glyph meant to take the place of two traditional letters that may look awkward if typeset side-by-side, such as “fi.”
Live area: Live area refers to the area of the page within which material should safely print. Anything outside of the live area may be cropped off. For the electronic media equivalent, see safe area.
Long shot: In framing video and film shots, long shots and extreme long shots get long angles on the scene.
Loop: In video and animation, a loop endlessly repeats by circling the ending back to the beginning to start all over again.
Low key or hard light: Low key or hard light emphasizes shadows, thus contrast, including shadows on people’s faces.
M
Matched color: Matched color is a premixed spot color of ink matched to a color swatch.
Medium shot: In framing video and film shots, a medium shot frames the actor from the hips up. A medium full shot frames the actor from the knees up, and a medium close shot frames the actor from the belt up.
Modern fonts: Modern fonts have extremely thin serifs, and their stress lies on the vertical, unlike old style’s diagonal stress. Choose modern fonts carefully for long copy situations, and avoid them for screen applications.
Modular page design: In modular page design, each story is arranged into a rectangle, and the rectangles are arranged onto rectangular units of the grid of the page. Modular design is popular with print and Web news design.
Montage: The video/film version of the collage, a montage cuts together many images.
Motion Pictures Expert Group or MPEG-4: Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG-4) is a popular video file format for the Web that works well across platforms and is supported by most Web browsers.
Mousetype: Mousetype means very small type often used in the tags of advertising.
Mug shot: A mug shot is a photographic close-up or headshot.
Music bed or track: A music bed or track is a background soundtrack over which the main video and/or audio are laid.
N
Navigation: In Web design, navigation refers to the system that allows users to move through and among Web pages, including hypertext links and buttons, etc.
O
Offset & inset: Off set refers to items outside of a box sitting off away from the box’s edges. Inset refers to the content of the box sitting in away from the box’s edges, rule, border or frame.
Old style figures: Old style figures treat numerals as old style glyphs with ascenders and descenders.
Old style fonts: Old style fonts have serifs, thick stem strokes, thin hairline strokes and a diagonal stress on o-shaped characters. Old style fonts have good readability.
Opentype® : Designed to be functional across both Mac and PC platforms, Opentype fonts may have as many as 65,000 characters each, including ligatures, swash alternates and old style figures.
Optimization: Optimization refers to balancing the resolution, thus appearance, of graphics with their generally large file sizes so that they load quickly but still look good.
Orphan: A typographic orphan refers to a few lonely words stranded at the top of a leg of type.
Over lighting: A key light shining directly from above is over lighting.
P
Pan: A pan or panning indicates a stationary camera that sweeps across the scene. The effect is that of turning your head to look around.
Plug-in: A plug-in is a typically free add-on to software.
Pointer box: On a map or diagram, a pointer box literally is a box that points to some detail while off ering additional information inside the box.
POV: POV is the abbreviation for point of view referring to the perspective of the camera lens, thus the audience.
Primary colors: The primary colors on the subtractive color wheel are red, blue and yellow, which when variously combined produce every other color on the color wheel. The primary colors in additive color are RGB: red, green, blue.
Prime marks: Prime marks are the correct straight glyphs used to indicate feet and inches, as opposed to curly or smart quote glyphs used to punctuate quotations. See also curly quotes and smart quotes.
Proximity: The Gestalt law of proximity predicts that the eye will perceive items physically grouped together as belonging to the same group.
Pull-down menu: In electronic environments such as Web pages, a pull-down menu provides a form of navigation that remains hidden unless a user accesses it with the cursor/mouse.
Pull quote: Also called a lift-out quote, a pull quote is a pithy quotation pulled from the body copy and then enlarged and embellished to become both a visual and a teaser.
Push: In video and film, push shots push into the scene. In a zoom, a stationary camera pushes into the scene by using the lens to zoom in on the focal point. In a dolly shot, the camera itself, positioned on a dolly, moves or pushes toward the focal point.
Radial balance: Radial balance refers to circular designs in which the fulcrum lies at the center.
Reference points: On a map, reference points are landmarks, either natural or built, that orient the viewer.
Registration: Registration refers to aligning material across color plates in commercial printing.
Rendered type: Rendered type is a character, a word or a string of words filled with an image or otherwise transformed using photo-editing software.
Resolution: Image resolution refers to the detail or crispness of an image. Digital image resolution may be measured in pixels per inch (ppi), which is referred to as dots per inch (dpi). For Web applications use 72 dpi. For high-quality print applications, use 300 dpi. For newsprint, use 200 dpi.
Reversing: A reverse literally reverses figure color with fill/field/background color. Reversed type refers to light type on a dark background, such as white type on a black field.
RGB: Standing for red, green, blue, RGB is the additive color system building color in electronic environments by mixing red, green and blue light.
Rights-managed image: For a rights-managed image, you pay more to make sure other folks in your market don’t use the same image, too. For a cheaper alternative, see royalty-free image.
Rough: A rough is a rough layout only slightly more detailed than a thumbnail sketch.
Royalty-free image: Royalty-free images are inexpensive stock images with no guarantees your competitor won’t use them, too. For guarantees, see rights-managed image.
Rule: A rule is a graphic line, such as a border or a frame.
Rule of thirds: The rule of thirds says that dividing a layout or composition into thirds makes for a more interesting visual composition. The rule of thirds suggests that the four gridline intersections on a 3 × 3 grid offer the best locations to position a focal point in an asymmetrical layout.
S
Safe area: Safe area refers to the area of the electronic screen within which material is visible. Anything outside of the safe area just disappears. For the hardcopy print equivalent, see live area.
Sans serif fonts: Sans serif (French for “without serif ”) fonts have no serifs, and their strokes have uniform thickness. They are the most readable fonts for screen applications.
Saturation: Saturation refers to the amount or intensity of a hue.
Scale: Scale refers to relative size and proportion.
Scale, map: The scale on a map establishes the reduced proportions of distance, i.e. an inch equals a mile, etc.
Script fonts: Script fonts resemble cursive handwriting. They can be quite elegant in decorative situations, but they are not a good choice for readability.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Search engine optimization or SEO to refers to making your Web site search-engine friendly to rank well in user Web searches.
Secondary colors: Mixing any two primary colors produces the secondary complement of the third primary color.
SEO, or search engine optimization: SEO or search engine optimization refers to making your Web site search-engine friendly to rank well in user Web searches.
Serif: Serifs are those little feet or flags at the tips of glyphs.
SFX: SFX is shorthand for “sound effects.”
Sidebar: Simply a separate block of type with a solid background, a stroked outline or an ample border of negative space, a sidebar provides content related to its adjacent copy.
Side lighting: Side lighting casts long shadows and increases the sense of three-dimensional space, as opposed to the flattening effect of soft light.
Similarity: The Gestalt law of similarity predicts that people will group items with similar properties such as shape, size or color.
Site map: In Web design, a site map literally maps out the site to show the links between and flow among pages in the form of something that resembles either a family tree or a flowchart.
Slab serif fonts: Slab serif fonts are similar to old style fonts, but the serifs on slab serif fonts start thick and stay thick. Invented for display advertising, slab serif fonts are excellent for headlines and signage.
Small caps: Small caps capitalize the entire word, although the initial cap is slightly larger than the rest of the letters, which are slightly smaller than a regular capitalized glyph.
Smart quotes: Smart quotes are the correct “curly” punctuation marks for quotations. See also curly quotes and prime marks.
Soft light or high key: Soft light or high key evens out the shadows to decrease harsh contrasts. It makes people and products look more attractive.
Source line: The source line identifies the origin or source of data. In an infographic, the source line usually appears on the lower left under the infographic.
Split screen: A split screen divides the screen into two different images.
Spot color in design: Not to be confused with spot color ink in printing, spot color in design refers to designing with a few well-chosen spots or splashes of color to highlight items such as a focal point or to draw the eye around the layout.
Spot color printing: Instead of building color using the 4-color CMYK printing process, spot color printing uses premixed ink colors chosen from a swatch book. See also matched color.
Spread: Two facing pages part of the same design are called a spread, such as one magazine story spreading across the gutter in two facing pages or a two-page advertisement spanning the gutter.
Steadicam: A steadicam is a kind of harness the cameraperson wears to hold the camera steady as she or he shoots hand-held video or film.
Stem strokes: The thick lines in characters or glyphs are stem strokes. The thin lines are hairline strokes.
Storyboard: A storyboard lays out the moving-picture or animated stories of planned film, video and electronic media in the form of scenes or shots arranged on a grid.
Stroked type: Stroked type or stroking is when the type characters or glyphs are outlined.
Super: A super is any on-screen type or graphic superimposed over another image.
Swash alternates: Swash alternates are decorative alternatives to traditional italic letterforms.
Symmetrical balance: With symmetrical balance, if you bisect the design, each side will be a mirror image of the other in terms of visual weight.
T
Tags: Tags refer to all the information typically found at the bottom of an advertisement, such as the logo, themeline or slogan, URL, physical address and map, phone number and sometimes, unfortunately, disclaimer and legalese.
Tertiary colors: Tertiary colors result from combining a primary and a secondary color.
Thumbnail sketch: Thumbnail sketches or thumbnails are tiny thumbnail-sized layout sketches that you can draw—and reject—quickly.
Thumb space: Sometimes margins are called thumb space because, if you were holding a hardcopy, margins leave enough negative space at the edges of the layout to accommodate your thumb without covering any visual material.
TIF: Choose TIF (Tagged Image Format) file formats to save images for print purposes (as opposed to GIF or JPG for Web purposes). TIF images are larger in file size, but the TIF format does not lose data.
Track or music bed: A track or music bed is the background soundtrack over which the main video and/or audio are laid.
Tracking shot: In a tracking shot for film or video, a stationary camera tracks along with a moving focal point.
Tracking, type: Tracking refers to the negative space across a string of characters, such as a word, sentence or paragraph.
Transitional fonts: Transitional fonts evolved from old style fonts and have serifs, thick stem strokes and thin hairline strokes. But transitional fonts may have a less pronounced diagonal stress or no diagonal stress at all. Transitional fonts have good readability.
Truck: In video and film, a truck refers to the camera trucking sideways across the scene. This is usually accomplished with a camera on a dolly. The effect is like rubbernecking from a moving car.
Trapped space: A puddle of landlocked negative space with no apparent layout function in the design is called trapped space.
Trim size: In commercial printing, trim size refers to the finished size of the page after the printer has trimmed away the excess paper.
Tweened animation: In tweened animation, the artist illustrates only key changes in motion or shape. Then the software application automatically generates animation to fill “between” the artist’s illustrated frames.
Typeface: A typeface or font family contains a series of related fonts, such as Times New Roman, Times Bold and Times Italic.
U
Under lighting: A key light shining directly from below.
V
Value: Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a hue.
Vanishing point: In linear perspective, the vanishing point is where two lines converge in the distance.
Vector image: Vector images use geometry and math to produce and preserve the proportions and quality of line-art illustrations as digital files.
VO, voiceover: A VO or voiceover is a disembodied voice speaking over video or audio.
W
Web safe palette: The Web safe color palette was designed to provide designers a way of getting consistent color. As a project, it mostly has failed because of constant advances in hardware and monitors, not to mention the garish color choices of the palette.
What you see is what you get: “What you see is what you get” or WYSIWYG is a type of Web page design software that doesn’t require users to know how to write code.
White space: See negative space.
Widow: A typographic widow refers to a few lonely words stranded at the bottom of a leg of type. A hyphenated word ending the last line of a leg counts as a widow, too.
Wipe: In video and film, a wipe transitions between screens with the effect of wiping the picture from the screen.
Wireframe: In Web design, a wireframe is the editable template showing the grid and design.
WYSIWYG: WYSIWYG stands for “what you see is what you get,” a type of Web page design software that doesn’t require users to know how to write code.
X
X-height: In a given typeface, x-height refers to the height of a lowercase “x” relative to the length of ascenders and descenders.
Z
Zoom: In a zoom, a stationary camera pushes into the scene by using the lens to zoom in on the focal point.