Design Glossary

Aperture

In typography terms, aperture is the opening edge of a partial counter, found in some letters, such as 'n', 'a', 'c' and 's'.

Ascender

In typography terms, an ascender is an upward stroke, which is part of a lower-case letter, that extends above the x-height.

Baseline

In typography terms, baseline is an invisible line on to which the letters of a typeface sit.

Bleed

A printing term that refers to items going beyond the edge of a page. It is the area of a page that it trimmed off and allows for slight paper movement when printing. This is needed where, for example, pictures go right up to the edge of a page.

Blend

An area of an image that transitions from one colour into another. Also known as graduated tints or graduations.

Body Copy

Refers to the main part of text in a design or publication, such as written website or book content.

Bowl

In typography terms, a bowl is a curved stroke that surrounds all or part of the counter in a letter, such as with, 'a', 'b', 'd' and 'o'.

Bracket

In typography terms, a bracket is a curve or wedge-like object that connects a serif to a particular part of a letter. Brackets are not used with all serif typefaces.

CMYK

CMYK, Cyan Magenta Yellow Black, or simply CMY, is a Subtractive Colour Model used for printed material, such as brochures and books. Cyan, magenta and yellow are the primary colours in this colour model.

Counter

In typography terms, a counter is the area found in some letters, such as 'n', 'o' and 'g', that is either fully or partially enclosed.

Crossbar

In typography terms, a crossbar is a horizontal stroke that joins parts of a letter, as with 'A' and 'H'.

Descender

In typography terms, a descender is the part of a letter that goes below the baseline, as with 'p', 'g' and 'y'.

DPI

DPI, or Dots Per Inch, is the number of dots per inch on a printed page. The more dots there are per inch, the better the quality. 300 DPI is the standard for images used in printed material.

Ear

In typography terms, an ear is a small stroke, sometimes found on a 'g', that projects outwards from the right-hand side of the bowl.

Gutter

The space between columns of printed text.

Hue

Hue refers to the colour of an object, so when you talk about something being red, green, or blue, for example, we are talking about its hue.

Kerning

In typography terms, kerning is the horizontal space found between two letters.

Leading

In typography terms, leading is the vertical spacing between the baseline of one line of text and the baseline of another. This is sometimes referred to as line spacing.

Link

In typography terms, a link, or neck as it is also known, is a stroke that joins two distinct parts of a letter, for example, with a 'g', where the link joins the upper a lower bowls.

Lobe

In typography terms, a lobe, or loop as it is also known, is the enclosed or partially enclosed bowl of a letter that resides below the baseline, such as with a 'g'.

Loop

In typography terms, a loop, or lobe as it is also known, is the enclosed or partially enclosed bowl of a letter that resides below the baseline, such as with a 'g'.

Neck

In typography terms, a neck, or link as it is also known, is a stroke that joins two distinct parts of a letter, for example, with the 'g', where the link joins the upper a lower bowls.

Pantone

A set of standard colours for printing, each of which is identified by a unique number, followed by a letter, C (Coated), U (Uncoated) or M (Matte), in the case of the solid colours. The pantone solid palette consists of 1114 colours.

PPI

PPI, or Pixels Per Inch, is the number of pixels per inch in an image. Increasing the size of an image will increase the number of pixels per inch, which reduces the quality of an image, because software such as Adobe Photoshop makes up the missing data. Note that this only applies to raster images because vector images aren't based on pixels.

Raster image

Raster images, or bitmap images as they are sometimes known, such as photographs, are made up of thousands of dots or pixels that determine the colour and shape of the image. The quality of these images can be degraded, particularly when being enlarged, because the same number of dots are covering a bigger area, making the image appear less sharp and as though it is made up of blocks. Software that is used to edit these types of images includes Adobe Photoshop and GIMP.

RGB

RGB, or Red Green Blue, is a colour model, which is also known as the Additive Colour Model, that is used when producing graphics for use on a computer screen, such as those used on websites. Red, green and blue are the primary colours of this colour model.

Rule of Odds

An odd number of objects is more pleasing to the eye than an even number.

Rule of Space

Creating movement in a composition, for example, with a still image that has a man running, negative space can be left in front of them. Here the eye is immediately drawn to the foreground and moves to the main object, which in this case is the person. Once the eye precedes to the negative space, it doesn't know where to go except back to the person, thus creating the illusion of movement.

Rule of Thirds

A way to cut the composition up into nine different sections and use the opposing sections to balance one another or to highlight a specific element.

RYB

RYB, or Red Yellow Blue, is a colour model, which is also known as the Artists' Colour Model, that forms the basis of a lot of the colour theory taught in art and design schools. It is also said to be a Subtractive Colour Model. Red, yellow and blue are primary colours of this colour model.

Sans Serif

In typography terms, sans serif is a typeface that does not have small projecting strokes from parts of the letters. Examples of sans serif typefaces include Arial, Calibri, Geneva, Helvetica, and Tahoma.

Saturation

Saturation refers to the intensity, strength or purity of a hue, or, to put it another way, the absence of black, white or grey. The higher the level of black, white or grey, the lower the saturation.

Scamp

A sketch of a design showing a basic concept.

Serif

In typography terms, serif is a typeface that has small projecting strokes from parts of the letters. Examples of serif typefaces include Baskerville, Cambria, Garamond, Georgia and Times New Roman.

Shade

A shade is a pure hue that has been mixed with black to produce a darker colour. These are often used as an alternative to black.

Shoulder

In typography terms, a shoulder is a curved stroke, found in letters such as 'h', that project outwards from the stem.

Stem

In typography terms, a stem is a vertical stroke that runs the full height of a letter.

Terminal

In typography terms, a terminal is the end of a stroke, be it straight or curved, that does not have a serif.

Tint

A tint is produced when a pure hue is combined with white to produce a lighter colour. Tints can be used to create pastel colours, which are often used to make the design more feminine or vintage looking and are also used on websites aimed at parents of young children.

Tone

A tone is created when grey is added to a pure hue. The tone appears duller or softer looking than the pure hue and can be used to create a vintage feel, or, depending on the hue, provide sophistication or elegance.

Type Size

In typography terms, type size is the height of a typeface, from the top of capital letters and ascenders to the bottom of descenders.

Value

Value, or brightness, as it is also known, refers to how light or dark a colour is. The lighter the colour, the higher the value.

Vector image

Vector images are made up of points, which have both an X and Y coordinate to define its position. The points are joined by paths to make up an image. These types of images are scalable with no loss of quality and can be created and edited in software such as Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape.

X-Height

In typography terms, x-height is the height of lower case letters excluding ascenders and descenders.