GLOSSARY

Advancing Colours

Colours like red or yellow, which seem to 'advance' off the page, best used for foreground rather than background.

Ladder

This is when three lines of text ends in a hyphen. It resembles a ladder, is distracting and most designers try and avoid it.

Alternate Characters

Any character that's not a letter used for end of story, creative effects etc.

Bookface

A font designed for body copy.

Chunking

Splitting up long body text into smaller blocks of the same subject for easier reading.

Code Savvy/Shy

Programmes that you can use like a word processor and they insert the HTML tags for you are either code savvy, meaning you can view the tags, or they are not, meaning you can't.

Deck

Text between headline and body that introduces the headline and relates it to the readers self-interest.

Dingbats

A font consisting of alternate characters suitable for end of story symbols etc.

Downrules

A vertical rule between columns.

Emboss

A creative effect to make a font look like it's standing off the page.

Eyebrow

Short text above headline to introduce it.

Folio

volume number and issue date etc.

Frieze

Placing the pictures all together at the top or bottom of an article, good for lots of smaller images that would look scattered if they were placed in the body.

Greeked

Meaningless words inserted into a rough document so the layout alone can be checked without the eye becoming distracted. Very similar to using a print preview command.

Hanging Punctuation

Punctuation, very often speech-marks, placed in the margin oversized for the same effect as a drop-cap.

Jumpline

On a newspaper's front page there's often a small part of an article, then a jumpline explains what follows and which page it's on. On a web page, the equivalent would be text that entices people to click the links from the virgin (first load) page.

Layering

Writing articles in a non-linear manner, with a primary, or most basic layer, read first, then the reader can jump into deeper layers of various stories/articles.

Masthead

Like the end credits of a film, a name of everyone involved in production, usually seen in print more than on the web.

Organisation Chart

A chart resembling a family tree that illustrates hierarchy.

Rag

The ends of the lines of your text. So if you flush left then the rag is the jagged line on the right. The goal is to have the rag fairly even, no individual lines or blocks jutting out alone. The rag shouldn't be so uneven as to be distracting.

Rivers

Often occurring in justified text, a river is when the space between words lines up over five or six lines so when you look at the text from a distance, there's a long white vertical line of space running through the text, disturbing it's 'texture'.

Run In

Small phrase in small caps at start of article to introduce it.

Scalloped Columns

Columns that go to the end of the page, then start on a new column on the same page. Good in print but disastrous on the web as they introduce too much scrolling. Scalloping refers to starting each new column at the end of a paragraph or section break to create extra uneven white space at the bottom, the opposite of newspapers where the columns are generally even.

Schematic Drawing

Like a site map, showing the way everything is linked.

Scholars' margins

Margins all around the body text.

Splash Page

An initial p[age on a web site with only a concept and atmosphere and a single link to an index. A splash page is supposed to set the theme for the experience of the page.

Spot Colour

Small amounts of colour sparingly applied for greater effect.

Standing Head

A headline that doesn't change from issue to issue to introduce a regular column, like the letters page or editorial.

Swash

Fancy drawn initial capital.

Swipefile

A folder of examples of good design collected from magazines, brochures etc. used for learning and inspiration.

Tension

Contrast between the left and right of the page used for unusual, striking effect.

Texture

The 'weave' of the text, how dark or light it looks from a distance far enough so that the words themselves can't be made out. Imagine putting a magazine on the wall and walking five meters away. If the lines of text and letter spacing were far apart relatively, the texture would appear lighter that if letters and lines were closer together. Texture should also be uniform, for example, a very long line of bold text can appear like a island of dark. Use your word processors print preview to check the texture.

Tombstone Headlines

In print, when the headlines of two adjacent headlines run into each other so it looks like they are one and thus become confusing.