Desktop Publishing Terminology

Basic Layout Terms

Alignment Alignment of text and or graphics on a document. Illustrating the Principles of Design http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprin ciples/l/aa_pod2.htm

Asymmetrical Design Contemporary design in which contrasing elements of unequal weight and proportion are positioned on a page to achieve balance. http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprin ciples/g/asymmetrical.htm

Balance Attain balance by equally distributing the weight of various elements, such as blocks of text, graphics, images, headings, ruled lines, white space on a page. Balance is usually symmetrical or asymmetrical. Look up the following site: Illustrating the Principles of Design http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprin ciples/l/aa_pod2.htm

Consistency Uniformity among specific design elements establishes a pattern of consistency in your document. Inconsistency can confuse and frustrate the reader and can lead to a reduction in readership. http://desktoppub.about.com/od/consistency/C onsistency.htm

Contrast The difference between varying degrees of lightness and darkness on the page. Illustrating the Principles of Design http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprin ciples/l/aa_pod2.htm

Directional Flow Positioning elements to draw the reader’s eyes through the document. http://pcworld.about.com/news/Oct162002i d105141.htm

Focus An elements used to attract the reader’s eyes.

Legibility The ease with which individual characters are recognized.

Proportion Sizing elements in relation to their relative importance and to each other. http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprin ciples/l/aa_pod2.htm

Symmetrical Design Balancing similar elements equally on a page(centered alignment).

White Space Background space with no text or graphics. Illustrating the Principles of Design http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprin ciples/l/aa_pod2.htm

Z-Pattern When scanning a paper the eyes have a tendency to move in a Z pattern.

Typography Terms

Ascenders Ascender: Parts of fonts that extend above the x-height. http://climbing.about.com/od/climbingequi pmentwords/a/AscendersDef.htm

Baseline Imaginary horizontal line on which characters rest.

Cap Height Distance between the baseline and top of the capital letters. http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/typogra phyfonts/tp/letter_anatomy.htm

Descenders Parts of fonts that extend below the baseline. http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typeanato my/g/descender.htm

Kerning Decreasing or increasing the horizontal space between specific character pairs. On the font dialog box under Character Spacing in Word. http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/k erningtracking.htm http://desktoppub.about.com/od/typelayout/g/ke rning.htm

Pitch The number of characters that can be printed in one horizontal inch.

Point Size Point Size: l/72 of an inch. 72 points are equal to one inch

Sans Serif Without small strokes at the end of characters. Examples of Sans Serif Fonts: Arial Tahoma Antique Olive

Serif Fonts A small stroke at the end of a character. Examples of Serif Fonts Times New Roman Garamond

Typeface Font Styles A set of characters with a common design and shape. Such as Impact, Times New Roman, Arial

Typestyle 4 categories of styles Normal (regular, roman) Bold Italic

X-Height Height of the font’s lowercase x.

Drop Cap Decorative first letter of paragraph or sentence used to draw the reader’s eye. http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2402p0 22id124015.htm

Tracking Which refers to the horizontal spacing between letters or characters. http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacin g/a/kerningtracking.htm

Leading Refers to the amount of added vertical spacing between lines of type. In consumer-oriented word processing software, this concept is usually referred to as "line spacing". http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a /leading.htm

Weight The thickness or heaviness of the strokes of a font style. Font weights generally range from 'light', on to 'medium' and then through to 'heavy'. With the advent of digital fonts technology, there are now more choices of font weights than ever.