TYPOGRAPHY 1: VOCABULARY TERMS ALIGNMENT Refers to lining up the top, bottom, sides, or middle of text or graphic elements on a page. Horizontal text alignment is referred to as… • Flush-left, Left-justified or Ragged right • Flush-right, Right-justified or Ragged left • Centered • Fully justified ALL CAPS Text set completely in UPPERCASE or all capital letters. Also refered to as: Uppercase ALPHABET A group of symbols that represent the elementary sounds of a spoken language. AMPERSAND (&) A stylized character of the Latin “et” used to represent the word and. APOSTROPHE (’) A punctuation mark in languages that use the Latin alphabet. In English, it serves three purposes: • The marking of the omission of one or more letters (as in the contraction of do not to don’t). • The marking of possessive case (as in the eagle’s feathers, or in one month’s time). • The marking by some as plural of written items that are not words established in English orthography (as in P’s and Q’s). Apostrophe’s (”) should not be confused with prime symbols (") BLACKLETTER (CLASSIFICATION) Based on early written forms, a style of typeface that features elaborate thick to thin strokes and serifs. The Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever printed with movable type, was set in a Blackletter Typeface to mimic the manuscript writing of the time. Also Known As: Old English BODY TEXT Body of written content on a page or document. Also referred to as Body Copy or Text. BOLD A typeface with thicker strokes than regular. Bold type is used for emphasis to make certain words and phrases stand out from the surrounding text. BULLET (•) UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA // FALL 2015 FALL // OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY DISTRICT OF THE A typographic symbol used to call attention to lines of text such as in a list. Bullets can be round, square or composed of small pictures or icons such as those found in dingbat or symbol fonts. CALLIGRAPHY The design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, dip pen, or brush to produce expressive marks. CAPTION Text under an illustration or picture to explain or draw attention to. CEDILLA A hook shaped mark added under certain letters to modify their pronunciation; as when a C is pronounced as an S. Example: Façade TYPOGRAPHY 1: VOCABULARY TERMS COLOR The relative lightness or darkness of a block of text created by variances in letterform weight & structure, kerning, tracking, leading, type size, and x-height. COLUMN One or more vertical blocks of content positioned on a page. CONDENSED (TYPE) Font where the shape of the letterforms are made narrow. CONCORDANT RELATIONSHIP Occurs when only one type family is used allowing the page to remain harmonious. This creates a formal, quiet appearance without much variety in style, size, and weight. CONFLICTING RELATIONSHIP Occurs when typefaces are combined that are too similar in style, size, and weight. The similarities are disturbing because the visual attractions are not the same as with concordant, but neither are they contrasting, so they conflict. CONTRASTING RELATIONSHIP Occurs when separate typefaces are combined that are clearly distinct from each other. These combinations achieve a level of contrast and are more visually appealing than with a concordant relationship. DAGGER ( † OR ‡ ) Used to indicate footnotes in a text. Typically, an asterisk* is used for the first footnote, a dagger† for the second footnote and a double dagger‡ for the third. DASH (– OR —) A punctuation mark that is similar to a hyphen or minus sign, but differs from both of these symbols primarily in length and function. DECORATIVE (CLASSIFICATION) Designed for visual impact, decorative typefaces often employ flamboyant ornamentation, outlines/ inlines, shaded or cast-three dimensional shadows. These typefaces should be used sparingly as their trendy nature lacks longevity. Examples include: Curlz, Braggadocio, bastian DIACRITICAL MARK (Á) Symbols added to letters of the alphabet to indicate different pronunciation than the letters are usually given. These marks are often referred to as accents. Example: Résumé UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA // FALL 2015 FALL // OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY DISTRICT OF THE DINGBATS (☞) Once known as “printer’s flowers,” these are the small decorative marks, bullets, or symbols that usually make up a specialty face. Examples include: Zapf Dingbats, Wingdings, Marlett DROP CAP The first letter of a paragraph that is enlarged to “drop” down two or more lines, as in the next paragraph. Drop caps are often seen at the beginning of novels, where the top of the first letter of the first word lines up with the top of the first sentence and drops down to the four or fifth sentence to the beginning of a section. ELLIPSIS (…) A series of dots that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. Depending on their context and placement in a sentence, ellipses can also indicate an unfinished thought, a leading statement, a slight pause, a mysterious voice, or a nervous or awkward silence. TYPOGRAPHY 1: VOCABULARY TERMS EM-DASH (—) The em dash is used to make a break be tween parts of a sen tence. Use it when a comma is too weak, but a colon, semi colon, or pair of paren the ses is too strong. The em dash puts a nice pause in the text—and it is un der used in pro fes sional writing. EN-DASH (–) The en dash has two uses… • It in di cates a range of val ues (1880–1912, pages 330–39, Ex hi bits A–E). If paired with from use “to” in stead of an en dash (from 1880 to 1912, not from 1880–1912) • It de notes a con nec tion or con trast be tween pairs of words (con ser v a tive–lib- eral split, Ari zona–Nevada reci proc ity, Sar banes–Ox ley Act). EXPANDED (TYPE) Font where the shape of letterforms are stretched wide. FAT FACE Roman type style consisting of extreme contrast and weight. Examples include: Abril Fatface, Dude, HWT Roman Extended FLUSH The alignment of text or graphics against one side or another of the page. FONT A complete set of letterforms (upper and lowercase), numerals, and punctuation marks in a particular typeface that allows for typesetting by keystroke on a computer or other means of typographic composition. FULLY JUSTIFIED Text that is aligned to both the left and right margins. GLYPH Graphical representations of a character. Example: “a” and “A” are the same character, but “a” is a glyph and “A” is a different glyph. GOTHIC (TYPE) Typefaces intended to look like European Medieval calligraphy. Example: Givry GUTTER The space between columns of printed text, including the gap between facing pages. UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA // FALL 2015 FALL // OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY DISTRICT OF THE HEADLINE The extra large opening statement used in a layout, used to grab the reader’s attention and usually summarizes what the text is about. Also referred to as Display Type. HEIRARCHY The organization of content, emphasizing some elements and subordinating others. HYPHEN (-) The hyphen has three uses… • A hy phen ap pears at the end of a line when a word breaks onto the next line. • Some mul ti part words are spelled with a hy phen (topsy-turvy, cost-ef­fec tive, bric-a-brac). • A hy phen is used in phrasal ad jec tives (lis tener-sup ported ra dio, dog- and-pony show, high-school grades) to en sure clar ity. INDENTS A inward offset from the margin setting. TYPOGRAPHY 1: VOCABULARY TERMS ITALICS (EMPHASIS) Angled typeface that has different design characteristics from its upright, roman companion. They are most often a separate yet complementary design, with unique features and often different character widths. Many italics have a somewhat calligraphic appearance, especially those that are designed for a serif typeface. KERNING The adjustment of spacing between letters in words. Usually pre-defined by the type designer. Also referred to as Letterspacing or Character Spacing. LATIN ALPHABET Root of the modern alphabet; came to the Romans from Greece by way of the Etruscans. LEADING The distance between lines of text. This distance, (usually measured in points) is from the baseline of one line of text, to the baseline of the next line. Also referred to as Line Spacing. LEGIBILITY The ease with which a reader can recognize individual characters in text. Aspects that affect legibility include x-height, character shapes, stroke contrast, counter size, serifs or lack thereof, and weight. LIGATURE ( fi ) Two or more letters combined into one character make a ligature. In typography ligatures are used primarily to make type more readable on the page such as the “fl” and “fi” ligatures. In most cases, a ligature is only available in extended characters sets or special expert sets of fonts. LINING FIGURES A modern style of numerals where all figures are of the same height. There are two types of lining figures: • Proportional: Variable spacing, comparable to that of upper and lowercase characters. This spacing maintains the even, balanced color of the rest of the alphabet, allowing the figures to blend in nicely with horizontal text. • Tabular: Monospaced and work best when rows and columns of numbers need to align such as in tables, financial documents, and numbered lists. LOGOGRAM Graphic signs which represent entire words. Examples include: $, @, &, % LOWERCASE The little letters glyphs or non-capital letters of the alphabet. Also referred to as miniscules. UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA // FALL 2015 FALL // OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY DISTRICT OF THE MARGIN White space at the top and bottom, left and right edge of a page.