Glossary of Graphic and Media Terms
Click on the first letter for the word you are looking for below:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #
If the term you are looking for is not here suggest a word to be added to glossary. We welcome your suggestions.
- A -
Ad Copy - The ad or layout of an ad.
ADDY - The award name for the American Advertising Federation (like: Grammy or Emmy but for advertising)
Angle - Approach the writer takes in writing the story.
Artwork - Sharp and clear images such as drawings, photos, etc.
Audiovisuals (AV) - Graphic presentations that use sight and sound to enhance the understanding of a topic.
- B -
Bleed - Extra image area printed around any cut edges of printing, allows for trimming after printing, without this a white edge line might show around all cut edges. (Fit to specific requirement of printer, normally 1/8")
B&W - An acronym for "Black and White". (For printing this means black ink in white paper)
Byline - Name of the reporter placed at the top or bottom of the article
- C -
CMYK - an abbreviation for the Four Color Process: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black.
Color Separations - A printer's term, pertaining to the individual images use to produce a final picture that is processed by stacking varying amount of one color of ink on top of another. Each different color or the process would need a "Separation". Like yellow plus blue equals green. In this case if yellow and blue were printed individually, one on top of the other they would produce green, Photographic images are achieved this same way by representing them with a matrix of varying size dots. Where a color is stronger it is represented with larger dots. Most every magazine you have ever read used four color separation process and an off-set printing process (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black). Varying the dot sizes in the color separation can create a wide range of colors.
Collateral Advertising - Product or promotional publications meant to be used with a particular product or service
Consumer Publication - Printed matter intended for the general reader
- D -
DPI (Dots Per Inch) - The accuracy or amount of information used to represent an image detail or size in Dots Per Inch.
- E -
EPS - a type of computer format used for graphics especially Vector.
- F -
Film Negatives - An image reversed on film or on a press plate. This is done with off-set printing because the image gets reversed back to a positive when the film is exposed to a printing plate, this reverses the image back to a positive. (Ex. Inkjet or Laser Printout).
Film Positives - An image produced on film used as part of a production process to transfer an image from one source to another. This is most commonly used in silk screening
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - One of the most common computer codes used to upload multiple files or large files to an internet server, usually to provide access to other computers.
Full Color Printing - A term often referring to Four Color Process Printing which produces a "full" range of colors using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black but not all colors can be created exactly using this process. (See Gamut Colors)
- G -
Gamut Colors - Colors that can not be accurately generated using four color process printing methods. Many bright oranges appear rusty or dark blues appear purple.
GIF - a type of computer format used for graphics. The least preferred format.
- H -
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- I -
Initial Proof - usually a computer generated image used to closely match the colors and look of the design for customer's approval/changes. (Ex. Inkjet or Laser Printout or low resolution E-mail files)
ISP - Internet Service Provider - a company that sells you access to the internet. This usually includes an E-mail Box.
- J -
JPEG - a type of computer format used for graphics especially photographics.
- K -
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- L -
Layout - a drawing showing how an ad or folder is to be set up.
Legal Size Folder - a 9" wide x 14.5 " tall pocket folder that can hold 8.5" wide x 14" tall legal size papers.
Letter Size Folder - a 9" wide x 12" tall pocket folder that can hold 8.5" wide x 11" tall letter size papers.
Lithograph Printing - a process by which an image represented by a matrix of small dots on a metal plate is used to collect and transfer ink to a blanket, this image is then transferred to paper (also called Offset Printing).
- M -
Moire' - a "ghostly" or "checkered" distortion pattern which occurs in all or part of a digital image when it is digitally recaptured. This is caused when the original dot pattern is not recaptured in the same direction or in the same size, thus giving the affect of two overlapping checker boards. Distortion in the image may appear almost as if it were being viewed through a window screen grid.
- N -
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- O -
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- P -
PDF (Portable Document Format) - one of the most widely accepted and poplar types of computer formats used for graphics.
Photo-Ready - a clean, sharp version of an image which can be accurately and cleanly reproduced, either from a crisp high resolution hard copy or high resolution electronic file.
Photo-Merging - digital combining of two or more images into one.
Pixel - a small square individual speck of a digitized image.
Pixilation - this undesired effect occurs in a digital image when it does not have enough information to render it accurately (resolution too low). This normally results in "blocky" of "zigzag" looking edges along contrasting parts and a general lack of detail in an image.
Printer's Proof - a color image produced to almost exactly match the colors and look of the final Lithograph printed materials; used for customer approval and for press operator to match colors while printing. (Ex. Pictro Proof, Matchprint, Chromolin)
Point Size - the standard measurement increment used to specify font size.
Process Color Printing - a Lithograph printing process which uses varying percentages of four different colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black or CMYK) to produce an image on paper. (Most all color magazines, postcards, brochures… you get in the mail each day use this process.)
Platform Incompatibility - a software conflict which occurs when a file generated on a computer using a particular operating system can not be opened by a different operating system. (Ex. A Macintosh file that can not be opened on a Microsoft System)
Program incompatibility - a software conflict when a digital file generated in one computer program is not operable in a different computer program. (Ex. A Mircosoft Publisher file that can not be opened with Adobe Photoshop)
Project - the term used to describe the entire production of a product.
- Q -
(empty)
- R -
Resolution - a measurement for the amount of information used to represent a digital image (usually Dots Per Inch or DPI). This is actually a 3 dimensional measurement (the width and height of an image times the amount of dots per unit of measurement)
- S -
Scan - a digital image captured by a scanner.
Scanner - an image capturing devise that passes across a photograph. As it does it captures and stores reflected light and saves it to a digital file line by line.
- T -
TIF - a type of computer format used in graphics.
Trap - The ability of one color to over print another by adding additional image to the underlay color. This allows for some flexibility when aligning color separations
- U -
Under-printing - In reference to silk screening the printing of a white base printed first, then all other colors printed on top of and cover it so the printed colors show up not the dark shirt beneath; this is due to the slightly translucent properties of the ink.
- V -
Vector Graphics - a geometry based form of digital art that reresents and displays hard edged graphics, fonts and art. These files are not comprised of small dots (pixels) like digital photographs. They are preferred over all other logo and artwork formats because they always print crisp and clear no matter what size they are produced at. If you have one of these files, please send it, even if you cannot open it on your computer. Vector logos should be sent as an .eps, .ai or .pdf files.
- W -
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- X -
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- Y -
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- Z -
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- # -
300 DPI - an abbreviation for 300 Dots Per Square Inch. Most graphics are made up of dots similar to newspaper photos. The more dots per square inch, the better the resolution (sharpness) of the graphics. We can not use anything under 300 dpi.. We can not use most graphics from the internet because they are usually only 72 dpi.
