NWA-PCUG 12/1999 NewsLetter Article 18861 N. Hwy 112, Springdale, AR 72762-9303 Glossary of Typography, Printing, and Desktop Publishing terms Compiled by Ken Fermoyle for Ken's Korner & User Group Media Workshops (Author's Note: I've tried to make this more than just a listing of terms by including some background and/or explanatory material in the definitions. I hope you find it interesting and useful. - KF) Air: Amount of white space in a layout. Aldus: Company that created PageMaker, now owned by Adobe; named for Aldus Manutius, 16th-century printer who invented italics and paper backs. President was Paul Brainerd who coined the term "desktop publishing" circa 1984. Ascender: Any part of a lowercase letters that extends above the x-height of a font. Ascender Line: A line marking the topmost point of the cap line. Author's corrections: Changes made by author after typesetting, but not including typesetter errors Author pays for such corrections. Back Matter: Material, such as indices or appendices that come after the main text. Also called end matter. Base Line: The line along which the bases of all capital letters (and most lowercase letters) are positioned. Binding: Methods used to secure loose pages or sections in a book, magazine, etc. Examples are saddle-stitch or perfect binding. Binding Margin: Extra margin space on pages to allow for binding. Body Text: Text that makes up the major portion of any periodical or book; sometimes called body type. (See also display type.) Boldface Type: A thick, heavy version of a font, often used for emphasis. Cap Height: The height of the uppercase letters within a font. Cap Line: A line marking the height of uppercase letters within a font. Caption: Text that identifies and explains an accompanying picture or illustration; usually set in a different font than body text. Also called cutlines. Chase: A metal frame into which columns of type were locked for printing or plate making in the days of metal type. Condensed Type: Type narrower in width proportional to its height than a regular font in the same typeface family. (See extended type and expanded type.) Compositor: Skilled printing tradesman who assembled pages in a chase in the days of metal type, before phototype, then computers and desktop publishing, came into being. Cutlines: See Captions. Descender: The part of certain lowercase letters that extends below the base line of the letter. Desktop Publishing (DTP): Generic name for process of preparing documents for print using desktop microcomputers. Resulted from a convergence of three new technologies in mid- 1980s: laser printers, PostScript page description language (PDL) and PageMaker software. Descender Line: A line marking the lowest point of the descenders within a font. Display Type: Type intended to catch the eye, usually of a large size and distinctive typeface. Depending on type style, it might mean fonts of over 18 to 24 points. Em: A unit of measurement equal to the current type size, e.g., an em in 12-point type is equal to 12 points. Originally derived from the width of the upper-case M. En: A unit of measurement equal to half of one em. End Matter: See back matter. Expanded Type: Type with width increased in proportion to its height. Extended Type: See expanded type. Flush: Aligned to the margin, i.e., with no indention. Flush Left, Ragged Right: Unjustified columns flush at the left margin but not at the right margin. Folio: A page number. Font: Traditionally, a complete set of characters for one typeface at one particular type size. Often used more loosely as a synonym for typeface. Footer: Page number and other information (issue date, chapter title, etc.) that appears at the bottom of pages in a document, periodical or book. See header. Front Matter: Material, such as a title page, a copyright page, a table of contents, etc., that comes before the main text. Full Measure: Type that extends across the full width of the page or column, without indention. Gutter: The inner margin of a page, closest to the binding; also, the space between columns. Hanging Indention: Type set with the first line of the paragraph flush left, and the subsequent lines indented. Often abbreviated as hanging indent. Header: Text such as chapter heading, issue date, page number or similar information that runs at the top of every page of a periodical, document or book. See footer. Indention: The amount by which a line of type is set less than a full measure, as when the first line of a paragraph is begun with a blank space of some fixed width. Italic: A slanted variety of typeface, highly recommended as a substitute for underlining. Justification: Slight adjustments made to the space bands within a line of type so that it fully extends to a particular line length. Justified columns are said to be flush right, flush left. Leaders: Strings of a character, usually periods or dashes, to lead the eye across the space between items in adjacent columns. Usually found in tables, such as tables of contents. Leading: (Pronounced "ledding") The amount of vertical space between lines of type. Letterspacing: Extra space inserted between letters in a word. Ligature: A special double character in a font representing two letters as one. In modern typography, the most common ligatures are: fi, fl, ffi, ffl, and sometimes ff. Others include the vowel pairs ae and oe, and more rarely, ct, st, and sp. Margins: The blank areas beyond the edges of the type page. Matrix: The mold used to cast a letter of type in hot-metal composition. pl., Matrices. Negative Space: See white space. Orphan: A short last line of a paragraph that appears at the top of a column; should be eliminated by editing. Overmatter: See overset. Overset: Extra copy or columns of type left over after a page, section or complete document has been completed. Sometimes call Pica: A unit of measurement traditionally equal to about 1/6 inch. (In some modern typesetting systems, a pica is treated as exactly 1/6 inch.) There are 12 points to a pica. Point: A unit of measurement, often used to measure type size, equal to 0.013837 inch. Some modern typesetting systems consider the point to be 1/72 of an inch, or 0.013888 inch. Recto Pages: The odd numbered, right-hand pages of a book. Rule: A line added to a page for emphasis or decoration. Running Footer: Material, such as book title, chapter title, author's name, or folio, printed below the main text of a page. Running Head: Material, such as book title, chapter title, author's name, or folio, printed above the main text of a page. Sans-Serif Type: Text using typefaces that have no serifs, such as Helvetica, Optima, or Futura. Serif: A small cross stroke accentuating the end of the main stroke of a letter in some typefaces. Serif Type: Text using typefaces that have serifs, such as Times, Baskerville, or Courier. Sometimes called roman, although roman is also used to describe type that is neither italic nor bold. Swash Letters: Elaborate italic letters used for decorative initials and headings. Type Page: The area of the page which includes all printed matter, including running heads, running footers, and folios, but not including margins. Type Size: The size of type, measured in points between the bottom of the descender and the top of the ascender. Verso Pages: The even numbered, left-hand pages of a book. White Space: Area on a page not covered by type, photos or clipart. Should be considered an important design element, inadequate white space makes a page look cramped, hard to read. Widow: The last line of a paragraph occurring at the top of a page. X- Height: The height of those lowercase letters such as "x" which have no ascenders or descenders. X Line: A line marking the top of those lowercase letters, such as "x", that have no ascenders. The upper boundary of x-height.