Understanding complex design terminology can be challenging. The following glossary was created to equip you with an understanding and reference for creative briefs or conversations with freelancers, printers or web developers.
Colour Modes CMYK
- Use this mode when working on projects that will be printed
- The acronym represents the four colours used in a printing press (cyan, magenta, yellow and black)
Greyscale
- Use this mode when working on black-and- white print projects
- Any colours in your file should be converted to a shade of grey
HEX Code
- Used for web projects
- HEX codes are six-digit codes that represent a certain colour
PMS (Pantone® Matching System)
- Used for print projects where colours must be matched exactly
- The acronym represents the Pantone® Matching System, which is a system of specially mixed inks that must match a certain, standardized colour (ex. York Red is PMS 186)
- Specialty colours, such as metallic or fluorescent colours, are also available
- Pantone Coated: PMS “C” used for printing spot colors on glossy paper or novelty items (such as firm pocket folders, or pens, water bottles etc.)
- Pantone Uncoated: PMS “U” used for printing spot colors on uncoated paper (such as business cards and stationery)
RGB
- Used for anything viewed on monitors, such as web, video or other on-screen projects (LCD screens)
- The acronym represents the three colours of light displayed on screens (red, green and blue)
Digital Animated Artwork Formats
- Animated with: HTML, MPG, GIF
AI (Adobe Illustrator)
- Used for graphics in print projects
- Can have a transparent background
- Can be resized without losing image quality
EPS (Encapsulated Postscript)
- Used for graphics in print projects
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
- Used for graphics in web and screen projects
- Can have a transparent background
- Loses image quality if resized to a larger size
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
- Used to build and create content web pages or any electronic documents viewed in a web browser
- Includes text, links, images, audio and video, as well as hidden meta data
INDD (Adobe Indesign)
- Used for document layout and design projects
- Versatile for all print and digital projects
JPEG/JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
- Used for photographs in print, screen and web projects
- Does not have a transparent background
- Loses image quality if resized to a larger size
MPEG (Digital Multimedia Container Format)
- Standard format for encoding, compressing and transmitting video and audio files
PDF (Portable Document Format)
- Used for print projects
- Can be universally downloaded and viewed on any computer that has the Adobe Acrobat plug-in (which is available for free)
- Preferred file type for printing
PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
- Used for graphics in web and screen projects
- Can have a transparent background
- Loses image quality if resized to a larger size
PSD (Photoshop Document)
- Used for photographs in print projects
- Can only be opened with Adobe Photoshop, but can be imported into other programs
- Loses image quality if resized to a larger size
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic)
- Used for logos and graphics
- Can have a transparent background
- Can be resized without losing image quality
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)
- Used for high-resolution photographs in print projects
- Loses image quality if resized to a larger size
- Does not have a transparent background
Bleed
- Allowing a visual element to extend beyond the actual margin of the layout or trim size
- Bleed and crop marks typically required when providing final files to printers
Grid
- Used in layouts for both web and print projects
- Grids guide designers on how to align text and images on the page to look even and consistent throughout a document or website
Mockup
- A close-to-reality rendition of a project that allows a client to see what the final product will look like
Perfect Bound
- A type of booklet binding where the pages are glued together at the spine of the book
- Used for documents with more than 36–48 pages (depending on the type of paper)
Saddle Stitch
- A type of booklet binding where the pages are bound together by staples in the fold of the booklet
- Used for shorter documents with fewer than 36–48 pages (depending on the type of paper being used)
Wire Frame
- A basic layout without design elements
- Used in web design to plan where navigation, content and media will sit on the page
Baseline
- An invisible line upon which letters or lines of type sit/rest
Font
- A specifically designed collection of letters, numbers, punctuation, and other symbols used to set text (i.e. York’s font is IBM Plex).
Kerning
- Increasing or decreasing the space between two consecutive characters in a word by very fine increments
Leading (or Linespacing)
- Amount of vertical space between lines of text in a paragraph
RAG
- The shape created by the ends of each line of text
- Recommended line lengths are short- long-short-long, with no hyphens
Tracking (or Letterspacing)
- The uniform amount of spacing between all characters in a complete sentence, paragraph or page
Widow
- When the last line of a paragraph only contains one word, that word is considered a ‘widow’
- These are undesirable and should be avoided
CRA (Camera Ready Artwork)
- A term for files specially prepared for printing
Export
- Saving a file in another format supported by other programs
Fpo (For Position Only)
- Indicates that the image or graphic in the layout will be changed before the final output
Gradient
- A smooth transition from one colour to another – black to white, red to yellow and all the colours in between
Raster Images / Bitmap Images
- Images created using thousands of pixels (ex. photographs)
- Enlarging a raster image will diminish the quality
Resolution
- Refers to the number of dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi) in an image
- Images for the web are usually low resolution (e.g. 72 ppi)
- Images for print should be saved at a higher resolution (e.g. 300 dpi)
Vector Images
- Images created by paths based on mathematical expressions (e.g. York logos)
- Can be resized without a loss in quality