avenue 25 lingo: graphic design edition part 2
Written by: Lindi KoprivnikarArt Director
Part 2 of our graphic design lingo. Check out part 1 if you missed it!
Font (font) and Typeface (tipe-face)
Our favorite 4-letter word that starts with an F. Believe it or not, there is actually a difference between a font and a typeface. Think of it like this: A typeface is the album, and the fonts are the songs that make up that album. Nowadays these whippersnappers use the words interchangeably, but technically, there’s a difference.
Serif (ser-if) and Sans-serif (sanz-ser-if)
In the typography world, we have terms that visually distinguish styles of typefaces. The most common ones are serif and sans-serif. There’s also slab, script, display, and more, but these two are the most commonly used classifications. Simply put, a serif font would be the classic Times New Roman, and a sans-serif font would be the overly-used Helvetica.
Resolution (rez-oh-loo-shun)
No, not that thing you swear to do every New Year and then give up on 4 weeks later. In the digital world, resolution refers to the number of pixels in your image. Higher resolution means more detail, but not necessarily a larger size. Dots Per Inch (DPI) and Pixels Per Inch (PPI) are technically different terms, but we’ll save that for the next graphic design term blog. All you need to know is: bigger is better. It’s easy to size down from a high resolution image, but nearly impossible to size up from something tiny.
White Space (wehyt-speys)
Also known as “negative space”, a rare commodity that often times gets eaten up by tons and tons of content that nobody wants to read. And huge logos. Really huge logos. When we read things, our precious little eyeballs need space to rest. It’s why you wouldn’t smash 10 paragraphs together without any breaks. It feels claustrophobic.
Orphan (or-fan)
It’s just a hard knock life for those isolated words, abandoned by the rest of the copy. All alone on a single line at the end of a paragraph. You’re responsible for that content! You take care of it!
Slug (slllll-ugh)
Definitely doesn’t involve any slimy residue. When setting up a document for print, designers can actually create a “slug’ around the outside of the document, which is simply optional space for notes, guidelines, suggestions, and love notes to your printer.
Die-cut (dye-kut)
Despite this term sounding super violent, no person dies or is cut. If you’ve ever wanted to print something as a custom, unconventional shape, you would have to use this method of printing to achieve it.