Graphic Design Terms

A large selection of graphic design terms, their definitions and utility.

Composition/Layout

The visual arrangement of design elements to create a complete and functional image. This involves organizing various pieces of information, such as text and images, often to a grid.

Balance

The visual weight of elements on a page, affected by form, size, color, and texture. It can be symmetrical (elements reflected equally on a central line) or asymmetrical (elements on both sides of a central line are equal in visual weight but not mirrored).

Alignment

The position of elements on a layout, ensuring visual elements line up (e.g., left, right, justified, centered).

Repetition

Creating consistency by repeating the same element within a layout multiple times.

Contrast

The level of differentiation between design elements (form, color, texture, size) to create visual hierarchies and emphasize certain parts.

Negative Space (White Space)

The blank area around a design element, used to emphasize specific parts of a layout.

Hierarchy

Arranging elements by their level of importance, often achieved through contrast (e.g., larger images have more emphasis).

Grid

A group of intersecting vertical and horizontal lines that help structure and organize content on a page.

Rule of Thirds

An imaginary 3x3 grid on an image or design; the four intersection points indicate focal points where important elements should be placed.

CMYK

A subtractive color mode used for printing. It stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black). Colors are less vibrant than RGB.

RGB

Red, Green, Blue. An additive color mode used for screens and digital pixels. Mixing these primary colors simulates a wider range.

Grayscale

A monochromatic palette using different shades of gray (up to 256 combinations) in an image.

Opacity

The level of transparency of an element. 100% opacity means solid, lower percentages mean more transparent.

Saturation

The intensity or purity of a color. Saturated images appear brighter, desaturated images are duller.

Hue

A pure color without tint or shade, representing any color on the color wheel (e.g., blue, yellow, red).

Tint

A hue with added white to lighten it and make it paler.

Shade

A hue with added black to darken it.

Tone

A hue with added gray, which lowers the intensity and can make the color dull.

Color Palette

A group of colors used for a specific design project, often representing a brand and chosen to work in harmony.

PMS

Pantone Matching System. A widely used system for blending colors not available in CMYK, identifying each hue by a number for consistent reference and reproduction in printing.

Resolution

The quality of an image, determined by the density of pixels or dots. High resolution images are crisp and defined; low resolution images are pixelated and blurry.

Pixels

The smallest basic unit of color on a computer screen that makes up images.

PPI

Pixels Per Inch. A measurement defining the resolution of a screen (monitors, cameras, scanners).

DPI

Dots Per Inch. A measurement for printing, referring to the small dots printers produce to affect print quality.

Vector

Infinitely scalable imagery that always retains high resolution because it's based on mathematical equations (points, lines, curves).

Raster

Pixel-based imagery with a set bounds of scaling for proper resolution; stretching it will cause pixelation.

Crop

Eliminating unnecessary parts of an image to change its emphasis, direction, or composition.

Scale

The relative size of an element.

Proportions

The relationship of an element's size to another element.

Typography

The art of letters and characters.

Font

Refers to the specific style of a typeface (e.g., italic, bold).

Typeface

A unique font family (e.g., Arial, Minion, Times New Roman).

Serif

A small extra stroke at the end of each character, making serif typefaces (e.g., Times New Roman) generally easier to read for body copy, especially in print.

Sans-serif

Characters without the small strokes at the end, often used on screen as they don't have small details that are difficult to render.

Script Font

Typefaces based on handwriting, often fluid and used as display fonts.

Slab Serif Font

Characterized by thicker, heavier serifs (square, angular, or rounded).

Monospace

Fonts where each character occupies the same amount of horizontal space, often seen in typewriters or computer code.

Kerning

Adjusting the space between two specific characters to improve legibility.

Tracking

Adjusting the space across a group of letters.

Leading

The distance between multiple lines of text, ensuring comfortable reading.

Weight

The thickness of a character relative to its height (e.g., normal, bold, light).

Point Size

The measurement of a font, dictating the height of the character (72 points = 1 inch).

Uppercase (Capitals/Caps):

Also known as capital letters or caps, these are the larger forms of letters in the Latin alphabet (e.g., A, B, C).

Lowercase

These are the smaller forms of letters in the Latin alphabet (e.g., a, b, c, etc.).

Small Caps

Uppercase characters that are shorter than regular uppercase, often the same height as lowercase characters or slightly taller.

Lorem Ipsum

Placeholder text used to mock up designs without meaningful content until final copy is available.

Readability

Refers to how well blocks of text are arranged on the page.

Legibility

Refers to how well one character can be distinguished from another.

Widows

A short line or word at the end of a paragraph or column, causing too much white space at the bottom of a page.

Orphans

A short line or single word at the beginning of a column or page.

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group. A common raster image format that reduces file sizes and maintains reasonable image quality; doesn't support transparency. Suitable for web and print.

PNG

Portable Network Graphics. A raster image format with lossless data compression; can contain transparency and was created to improve GIF quality. Suitable for web.

Alpha Channel

A grayscale channel in a digital image or video that stores transparency information.

GIF

Graphics Interchange Format. A raster file format that supports animation and transparency; limited to 256 colors, allowing for small file sizes perfect for the web.

EPS

Encapsulated PostScript. A resizable vector image file format (made of lines and curves, not pixels) that doesn't lose quality, mostly used for logos.

SVG

Scalable Vector Graphics. A web-friendly vector file format.

PDF

Portable Document Format. A file format that captures all elements of a printed document as an electronic image; users can view, navigate, print, or forward it. Can embed vector data.

PSD

Photoshop Document. Adobe Photoshop's native document format.

PSB

Photoshop Large Document Format. Allows for larger Photoshop file sizes.

AI

Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator's native format, representing single-page vector drawings.

Layout Software

Used for designing and arranging visual content, often for print or digital publication.

INDD

Adobe InDesign's native document format.

TIFF

Tagged Image File Format. Produces higher quality raster images compared to JPEG/PNG, mostly used in layout design and InDesign.

Lettermark (Monogram)

A type-based logo made of a few letters, often initials of a company name.

Wordmark

A logo focusing solely on the business name without reduction to initials.

Pictorial Mark (Brand Mark)

A graphic-based logo that is a simplified and stylized icon representing a brand.

Abstract Mark

An abstract geometric representation not based on a real object.

Emblem

A logo where the business name is contained within a single shape (e.g., badges, seals).

Mascot

Logos that include stylized illustrated characters that can be animated and become a brand spokesperson.

Combination Mark

A mix of a wordmark and an abstract/pictorial mark or a mascot.

Favicon

A shortcut icon, a distilled logo based on a primary logo, used for website branding (e.g., in browser tabs).

WIP

Work In Progress. A label designers use to note work that is not yet finished for reviewers.

Pipeline

Short for the development of a project.

TK

To Come. Means "coming soon" or "not done yet."

Concept

A more fully fleshed idea that serves a specific goal.

Sketch

A rough visual to get an idea on paper or screen.

Thumbnails

A slightly more solidified version of a sketch with clearer information and composition.

Blocking

A free-flow way of creating a composition, often with blocks of color or value.

Wireframe

Commonly used in web or UX/UI design to organize information like text and images, usually to a grid.

Campaign

A collective of multiple deliverables targeting a central goal for a brand, company, or product, usually with a unified look and feel.

Mockup

A visual to demonstrate a deliverable within context (e.g., a logo on a T-shirt); designers often use PSD mockups.

Delivery Day

The day of finishing or receiving final files/deliverables.