Graphic Art Glossary

Graphic Art Glossary In order to help our clients fully understand the different elements of a design project, we provide this glossary of some important design terms.

Bitmap An image made up of pixels, such as a screen shot or Web image.

Bleed An extra amount of a printed image that extends beyond the trim edge of a piece to allow for imperfect trimming and/or binding.

Blueline A one-color proof that shows how a printed piece will look when folded and bound. Used as the only proof on one-color jobs and as an accompaniment to a full-color proof on four-color jobs.

Camera-ready Art Film or paper artwork given to the printer for prepress and printing. The printer must provide exact artwork specifications to the designer before camera-ready art can be created.

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) The four process colors used in printing. Before a photographic image or spot color is printed in four colors it must be converted into CMYK. Cromalin A type of color proof used to represent CMYK and Pantone colors. Duotone A black-and-white photograph reproduced in two colors. Used to create a richer-looking image when four-color printing is not an option.

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) A file format used for images that will be printed to a PostScript device. EPS graphics for logos and line art diagrams are often created in Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand.

GIF (Graphic Information Format) A file format used mostly for Web images, especially line art and type.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) A file format used mostly for Web images, especially photographs and continuous tone images.

Line Screen A measure of the frequency of dots in a halftone screen. Usually from 55-200 lines per inch (lpi) with lower numbers representing a coarser line screen (e.g., for a newspaper) and higher numbers a finer line screen (e.g., for offset printing).

Loose Color A proof that includes all the images in your piece so you can make color and image corrections before creating final camera-ready art.

Moiré A distortion created when the halftone screen pattern of the film conflicts with a pattern in an image.

PDF (Portable Document Format) A file format used for exchanging full-color layouts across multiple platforms. PDF files are read using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader application available at Adobe's web site.

PICT A file format used mostly for screen images (Macintosh only).

PMS (Pantone Matching System) A widely used system used for specifying spot ink colors for printing. Most colors are specified by a number.

Point A unit of measurement for type sizes. There are approximately 72 points to an inch. Proof A representation of how a printed job is intended to look.

RGB (Red, Green, Blue) The three colors used to create images on a computer screen. Saddle Stitched Stapled along the folded paper edge, as on a brochure.

TIFF(Tagged Image File Format) A file format used mostly for printed photos and illustrations.

 |About | Services | Portfolio | Links |
| Glossary  | Artwork Requirments |
| Privcy Statment  | Terms of Use |