Branding and graphic design can be intimidating, especially if the terminology is alien to you! Here is a glossary of useful key terms to do a bit of jargon busting and help you better understand the work we do here at Bob.
Adobe Photoshop:
This is the most widely-used a program used for graphics-editing.
B Sizes:
‘B size’ is a term that refers to paper sizes used for larger projects such as wall charts and posters.
Bitmap:
Bitmap graphics are made up of tiny individual parts called pixels.
Digital Printing:
Printing form where images are sent directly to a printer using only digital files such as PDFs and those from graphic software (InDesign and Illustrator). The advantage of digital printing is that is removes the need for a printing plate (used in offset printing), saving money and time.
Digital Proofing:
Proofing work directly from a digital file as opposed to using film.
Desktop Publishing:
The process of using your computer in conjunction with the relevant software to combine artwork and text, allowing you to create documents correctly formatted for print.
Fonts:
Contrary to what many believe, fonts aren’t just the style that the letters are designed in, like Times New Roman, Cambria, Arial, etc. Font is the specific style of typeface, as well as the typeface’s width and height.
Four-Colour-Process:
A printing method that creates colours combing cyan, magenta, yellow and black. This is the standard colour mode for sending documents to printers.
Graphic Design:
Visually communicating using images and/or text to translate concepts and ideas. The term ‘graphic design’ also pertains to design-related activities such as web and logo design and branding.
Grids:
Grids are very helpful in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. A grid is made up of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines used to structure content, enabling you to perfect your composition and balance your imagery and copy.
High-resolution images:
Images that have a high level of clarity and sharpness/a high pixel count.
JPEG:
This stands for Joint Photographic Electronic Group. JPEG is one of the most common processes for compressing digital images.
Pixel: (Short for Picture Element).
Pixels are the small dots that form a picture on your television or computer screen. Each one of these dots are single points in graphic images each making up the larger images that you see on screen.
Resolution (an image):
The level of detail that an image can hold.
Sharpen (an image):
Tool used to enhance textures of an image, making it appear clearer to the eye.
Text Wrap:
Allows text to surround embedded features such as images.
Typefaces:
Typefaces refer to the name of text style that is used such as Georgia or Calibri, as well as more creative and fun ones, like Ravie or Noteworthy.
Tracking:
Tracking refers to the space between characters in a text (synonymous with letter spacing).
Typography:
The style and arrangement of printed type. This includes the font and how the copy is presented on the page.