3.1 Meaning of terms

Designing typography and graphics for a multimedia project requires a shared vocabulary. Editors, reporters and designers use these terms when they brief, review and correct work, for example "increase the leading in the caption", "the logo is pixelated, send the vector file" or "tighten the kerning in the headline". The terms below are grouped into typography terms and graphics terms.

Typography terms

• Typography: the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. It covers the choice of typefaces, sizes, spacing, line length and layout.
• Type: the letters, numbers and symbols used to display text.
• Typeface: a design of letters with a shared style, such as Roboto or Georgia. It is the design itself.
• Font: a particular file or set of a typeface in one weight, style and (in print) size, for example Roboto Bold. In everyday use, "font" is often used to mean typeface.
• Font family: all the related weights and styles of a typeface, such as light, regular, medium, bold, italic and condensed.
• Glyph: any single character or symbol in a font, including letters, numerals, punctuation and special signs.
• Serif: a small stroke at the end of the main strokes of a letter. Typefaces with these strokes are serif typefaces; those without are sans serif.
• Baseline: the invisible line on which letters sit.
• x-height: the height of lowercase letters such as x, measured from the baseline. Typefaces with a large x-height are easier to read at small sizes on screens.
• Cap height: the height of capital letters above the baseline.
• Ascender and descender: the parts of lowercase letters that rise above the x-height (as in b, d, h) or drop below the baseline (as in g, p, y).
• Point size: the size of type. In print it is measured in points (72 points to an inch); on screens it is usually set in pixels or relative units.
• Weight: the thickness of the strokes of a typeface, such as light, regular, bold or black.
• Leading (line spacing): the vertical distance from one line of text to the next.
• Kerning: adjusting the space between two particular letters, such as the gap between A and V in a headline.
• Tracking (letter spacing): adjusting the space evenly across a whole word, line or block of text.
• Alignment: how lines of text line up: left, right, centred or justified.
• Hierarchy: the order of importance of text, shown by size, weight, colour and position.
• Legibility: how easily individual letters can be told apart.
• Readability: how easily a whole block of text can be read and understood.
• Widow and orphan: a single word or short line left alone at the end of a paragraph or column, or a first line separated from the rest of its paragraph. Both look untidy and are avoided.
• Kinetic typography: text that moves or changes over time in video and animation.

Graphics terms

• Graphics: visual images or designs such as illustrations, icons, charts, maps, diagrams and logos used to inform, explain or decorate.
• Pixel: the smallest unit of a digital raster image, a single square of colour.
• Raster (bitmap) graphic: an image made of a grid of pixels, such as a photograph.
• Vector graphic: an image made of mathematical paths that can be scaled without losing quality.
• Resolution: the amount of detail in an image. For screens it is given as pixel dimensions (for example 1920 × 1080 px); for print it is given as pixels per inch (ppi) or dots per inch (dpi), with about 300 ppi usual for quality print.
• Aspect ratio: the relationship between the width and height of an image or frame, such as 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5.
• Colour mode: the colour system of a file, RGB for screens and CMYK for print.
• Layer: a separate level in a design file on which elements can be edited independently.
• Mask: a tool that hides part of a layer without deleting it.
• Compositing: combining elements from different images into one image.
• Opacity: how solid or see-through an element is.
• Alpha channel: transparency information stored in an image or video file, allowing graphics to be placed over other content.
• Compression: reducing file size. Lossy compression (JPEG, MP3) discards some data; lossless compression (PNG) keeps all of it.
• Grid: a set of guide lines that divides a layout into columns and rows for consistent placement.
• Template: a pre-designed layout reused to produce consistent graphics quickly.
• Infographic: a graphic that combines short text, data and images to explain a topic.
• Icon: a small, simple symbol that represents an object, action or idea.
• Rendering: processing a design, animation or 3D scene into a final image or video file.