We continue our A to Z of Design series with one of my favorite design topics, negative space. Read on to learn more terms that will make working with a designer (or creating your own designs) more effortless.

N is for negative space

Also called “white space,” this refers to the areas of a design that are empty, or don’t contain any design elements. Negative or white space gives a design “breathing room.” Using adequate negative space allows design elements to stand on their own, prevents a design from looking cluttered, and helps to guide the viewer’s eye successfully around the design.

O is for orphan

An orphan is a word or short line of text that appears by itself at the top of a column (i.e. when a paragraph flows onto the next column). Similarly, a widow is a word that appears by itself at the bottom of a text block or paragraph.

HINT: It’s always a good idea to manually adjust a text layout to avoid orphans and widows as they can distract the reader and create spacing issues.

P is for print

There are several types of printing that a designer may use.

• Offset printing transfers ink from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to paper using a different printing plate per color. It is best used when precise color and print quality are needed.
• Digital printing is a method where a digital-based image is printed directly to paper (or another substrate such as plastic or metal). It is useful when quantities are low or a quick turnaround is needed, as there isn’t as much set-up required as for offset.
• Letterpress printing is a type of relief printing where an inked raised surface (printing plate) is pressed down onto paper in a printing press. This results in a slight indentation of the paper, so heavier and higher-quality paper stock should be used. Letterpress is best used for fine line work and typographic designs.

Q is for quote

A pull quote is a quote or excerpt “pulled” from the main text to set it apart or highlight it in some way. Pull quotes are usually styled differently (i.e. bold, italic, color) and larger in size to stand out from the body text. They are commonly used in magazine and brochure design.

TIP: A pull quote may be a sentence that has been removed from the main text, or one that has been repeated for emphasis.

R is for resolution

Resolution is a way of measuring the quality of an image. In general, the higher the resolution, the higher the quality. A high-res image will be sharp and detailed, while a low-res image will be pixelated or blurry. A high-resolution image results in a larger file size due to the larger number of pixels captured within the image. If you are using a vector image, resolution is not an issue as the file is scalable.

TIP: For print projects, 300 dpi (at 100% of the desired size) is usually the minimum resolution recommended for quality output, while for online images, 72 dpi is recommended. Also, sending your designer a file in the correct resolution will make them very happy.

S is for serif

Serifs are the small lines or flourishes that extend from the beginning and end of a stroke on a letter or symbol. Serif fonts have this decorative element, while sans serif fonts do not.

T is for tint

A tint is formed when white ink is mixed with a color to make the color lighter. It’s also called “screening back” a color and is indicated by a percentage. Using tints allows you to include multiple colors in a design when a budget only allows for 1-color printing.

U is for usage

Image usage rights are generally available in royalty-free or rights-managed options.

• Rights-managed (RM) images are basically “rented” from the image owner, so they are limited by things such as duration of use, type of use (i.e. editorial, print, online), geographic location, or number of impressions.
• Royalty-free (RF) images allow (nearly) unlimited use, in any application for as long as you like, based on the terms of the license agreement.

You can now also find free stock images licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

TIP: Always check licensing information for any photo or illustration you purchase or download before using them. Never use an image you copied from a website or Google unless you have permission! (See why here)

V is for vector

Vector images are made up of points, lines and curves, so they can be scaled to virtually any size without losing quality or becoming pixelated or blurry; they maintain their high resolution. They are generally created in Adobe Illustrator and have a file extension of .eps or .ai.

W is for weight

Weight is the range of a typeface stroke’s width. Most type families are available in weights of Normal (or Regular), Semibold, and Bold. Some also include weights such as Light and Extra Light or Heavy and Extra Bold.

TIP: The weight of a typeface is especially important to consider when designing a print piece with small type as too light of a typeface could be illegible.

X is for x-height

X-height is the distance between the baseline (the line a letter sits on) and the top of a lowercase letter, excluding ascenders and descenders (the parts of the letters that extend up or down). The name comes from the fact that x-height is measured by looking at the height of the letter “x” in a typeface.

TIP: Typefaces with large x-heights may appear crowded when used in body copy, and will need extra leading to assure legibility.

Y is for yard

So, we don’t actually use yards in graphic design, but I had to stretch my creativity to find a design term that starts with Y.

Graphic designers started out using a unique measuring system that consisted of points and picas. Points are still used for measuring type sizes (as well as things like paragraph leading) however most designers now use inches for layout measurements.

Z is for ZIP

A ZIP (Zone Information Protocol) file is a file format that compresses multiple files into a smaller, more manageable size. ZIP files are easily restored by clicking to unzip the file.

HINT: I always recommend creating a ZIP when sending multiple files—especially if sending font files as they can get corrupted in transfer.

This article was adapted from the blog series A to Z of Design.

Read Part 1 of this series here

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lidia Varesco Racoma

Lidia Varesco Racoma of Lidia Varesco Design in Chicago helps organizations and entrepreneurs share their message through branding and marketing design. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter for quick branding and marketing tips