D

descender A typographic term for the portion of lowercase characters that falls below the main body of the letter. The lower case letters g, j, p, q and y have descenders
dingbat bullets, ballot boxes, florets, and other such decorative devices, e.g., ☞★❦❐✔, etc.
display type large type (usually 14 points or more) used to attract attention.
ditch space between columns, as in tables see gutter margin
dithering Simulating gray tones by altering the size, arrangement or shape of background dots
dot The individual element of a halftone. Its size (density) can be related to the density of the original used to produce the halftone dot. The size of the dot is indicated by the percentage of the area it occupies from zero to on hundred percent. It may be several shapes including round, square or elliptical
dot gain An increase in the size of halftone dots that may occur as a result of errors or imperfections in any of the steps between screening an image and printing it onto paper. Common causes of mechanical dot gain are incorrect plate exposure, excessive tack or incorrect viscosity of printing ink, excessive ink film thickness, internal reflection of the ink, or too much pressure between the blanket roller and the impression cylinder
drop cap a large letter often used at the beginning of a chapter and dropped below the baseline of the first line.
DPI 1. Dots Per Inch. A measurement of output device resolution and quality. Measures the number of dots a printer can print per inch both horizontally and vertically. A 600 dpi printer can print 360,000 (600 by 600) dots on one square inch of paper. 2. Digital Printing and Imaging. The Digital Printing and Imaging Association is a non-profit printing association that serves all segments of the graphic arts industry involved in digital printing technology, including users, manufacturers, and sellers.
drop out describes type which becomes white within a dark (or color) background see reversed
dummy A preliminary layout showing the position of illustrations and text as they are to appear in the final reproduction. A set of blank pages made up in advance to show the size, shape, color, form and general style of a piece of printing.
duotone A two color halftone reproduction from a one-color photograph.
ellipses (...) three spaced periods indicating the omission of text.
em dash (—) the standard interruptive dash, same as 2 hyphens in typed matter.
em space a space equal to the type size, e.g., 8 points wide in 8 point type.
en dash (–) a dash equal to half of an em dash, used for ranges of numbers and combining hyphenated words
en space a space equal to half an em.
extended type a font of greater than normal width, the opposite of condensed.

F

face (short for typeface and same as family) all type of a single design, e.g., Helvetica.
facing pages verso and recto pages of a spread.
feather In Photoshop feathering is used to blur the edges of a selection.
file format The structure or arrangement of data stored in a file.
fixed space particular amount of white space, such as an em, en, or thin space, which will not be “stretched” for justification purposes as will a spaceband.
fixed-width Font see monospace
flat bed A flat bed optical input or output device (scanner or plotter) transfers images by means of a flat plane rather than a revolving cylinder.
flop to provide a mirror-image of a photograph or other graphic. see reflect
flush bottom text or art base aligns on the last line of a page.
flush left (left aligned, left justified, fl, F/L) pertains to copy which is aligned on the left margin.
flush right (right aligned, right justified, fr, F/R) pertains to copy which is aligned on the right margin of a measure.
font A graphical design applied to all numerals, symbols and characters in the alphabet. A font usually comes in different sizes and provides different styles, such as bold, italic, and underlining for emphasizing text.
FPO For Position Only. Low resolution temporary image that is replaced before file is imaged.
full bleed bleed which extends off all four sides of the page. see bleed

G

galley proof, galley laser printout of typeset material.
ganged the printing of multiple images of different jobs on the same press run.
gradient, gradation gradient or vignette see blend
gutter margin the inside or binding margin of a book.Space between images containing bleed printed in multiples on a page.

H

hairline rule 1/4 point rule.
halftone The production of continuous-tone artwork, such as a photograph, through a screen that converts the image into dots of various sizes. When printed, the dots merge to give an illusion of continuous tone to the naked eye.
hang same as indent; usually refers to turn lines- hanging indent. Hang is also used to indicate that an element is top aligned, e.g. hang chapter opening art from the top margin.
head margin space from top of type page to trim.
header Text that appears at the top of every page of a printed document.

I

icon graphic symbol.
imagesetter A device which transfers a computer image or composition onto photographic film or paper.
imposition laying out pages in a press form so that they will be in the correct order after the printed sheet is folded.
indent (indention) the amount by which a line of type is less than full measure (i.e., paragraph indention is space left blank at the left in the first line of a paragraph).
initial cap capitalize only 1st letter of 1st word (and proper nouns).
inline graphic A graphic that is embedded in a text block or line of text.
input resolution The number of samples taken at the scanner per unit of length when digitizing an image. If the image is destined to be resized, the scanner resolution is set to accommodate interactive enlargement or reduction of the image at the workstation.
inside margin see gutter margin
italic a sloping, slanted variation of a typeface; italic type.