aTypography

Roman

The classical style of type that is upright, as opposed to oblique, is of normal weight as

opposed to light or bold, and has graduated thick and thin strokes as opposed to being

cursive.

Italic

A type design that is both slanted and script like cursive. It was originally designed to

replicate handwriting.

X-Height

The height of a lowercase letter with a flat top in a particular font.

ScriptA form of typeface based on writ-ing, having generally continuous strokes that connect letters.

Serif A small stroke at the end of the main strokes of letter forms. Type-faces with serifs are called serif typefaces and those without, sans serif typefaces.

Sans serifA typeface without serifs

Font

A set of characters. In the world of metal type, this means

a given alphabet, with all its accessory characters, in a

given size. In the world of digital type, it is the character

set itself or the digital information encoding it.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890?!*&

i

aaAlignment

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.

Optimum words per line The most words that can be fitted into a standard line of text without overhang or overlay.

Drop capA design style in which the first capital letter of a paragraph is set in a larger point size and aligned with the top of the first line. This method is used to indicate the start of a new section of text, such as a chapter.

Raised capA 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 to a drop cap.

Body textThe paragraphs in a document that make up the bulk of its content. The body text should be set in an appropriate and easy-to-read face, typically at 10- or 12-point size.

Grid A graphical layout for the design of pages of a book or other document. Variations on pages must match divisions in the grid.

Ligature Two or more letters tied into a single character to perfectly design their spatial interaction.

Point size

The he

ight of a

font, e

xpresse

d in p

oints.

Ascender That part of a lowercase letter that rises above the x-height, as in letters ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘f ’, ‘h’, ‘k’, ‘t’ and ‘l’.

IndentationInsetting a line of text in from the mar-gin, as at the beginning of a paragraph or within an outline, or to set off a quotation.

DescenderThat portion of a letter that falls below the baseline, as in ‘j’, ‘g’, ‘q’, ‘p’ and ‘y’.

Baseline The line on which letter forms rest. (Round letters like “e” and “o” normally dent it, pointed letters like “v” and “w” normally pierce it, and letters with foot serifs like “h” and “l” usually rest pre-cisely upon it.)

&Ampersand A punctuation mark (&) used to represent conjunction

Leading

Originally a horizontal strip of soft metal used for vertical spacing between lines of type.

Now it’s referred to the vertical distance from the baseline of one line to the baseline of

the next.

Kerning

Part of a letter that extends into the space of another.

WeightHeaviness or blackness of letters. Numerically, the

ratio of the widths of vertical strokes to the x-height.

Printing

BleedPrinting that extends to the edge of a sheet or page after trimming.

ImpositionArrangement of pages on mechanicals or flats so they will appear in proper se-quence after press sheets are folded and bound.

PantoneMatching System and PMS + are Pantone Inc’s

Digital Printing

Page proofs produced through electronic memory transferred

onto paper via laser or ink-jet.

Lithography

Method of printing using plates whose image areas attract

ink and whose non image areas repel ink. Non image areas

may be coated with water to repel the oily ink or may have

a surface, such as silicon, that repels ink.

Letterpress

Method of printing from raised surfaces, either metal type or

plates whose surfaces have been etched away from image

areas. Also called block printing.

Spot Color or Varnish

One ink or varnish applied to portions of a sheet, as com-

pared to flood or painted sheet.

DigitalPrinting

DPI

Considered as “dots per square inch,” a measure of output

resolution in relationship to printers, image setters and monitors.

PDF Shortened from Portable Document Format.

JPEG Shortened from the Joint Photographic Experts Group

EPS Shortened from Encapsulated postscript. A text edit able file. A standard file format for importing and exporting PostScript files.

RGB Abbreviation for: red, green, blue, the additive colour primaries.CMYK Abbreviation for: cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black), the four process colours.

Spot Color or VarnishOne ink or varnish applied to portions of a sheet, as compared to flood or painted sheet.

Perfect Bind To bind sheets that have been ground at the spine and are held to the cover by glue. Also called adhe-sive bind, cut-back bind, glue bind, paper bind, patent bind, perfecting bind, soft bind and soft cover. See also Burst Perfect Bind.

Saddle StitchTo bind by stapling sheets together where they fold at the spine, as com-pared to side stitch. Also called pam-phlet stitch, saddle wire and stitch bind.