Glossary of Terms

‘Approved’ – concepts

An official agreement to move forward with the development of a project without further changes. Changes past this point will halt development work, and may incur additional charges.

‘Approved’ – artwork

Document/site/work has been fully checked, and confirmed to be ready to go to print/live. Changes past this point may incur additional charges, or may incur re-printing costs.

Above the fold

An expression that originally referred to the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. In web publishing it refers to the section of a Web page that is visible on an average screen without scrolling.

Alignment

The way text is positioned within the page margins. Text can be left justified like in this sentence

or it can be centred

or it can be right justified.

Another option is to simply justify the text, which means that it aligns with both the left and right margin. This last effect cannot be easily used on a web page due to difficulties with responsive design.

Artwork

Any materials or images that are prepared for graphic reproduction or printing.

Digital Assets

Digital images, fonts, or documents pertaining to a brand.

Bleed

Extending an image beyond the finished trim size so that the image runs right to the end of the printed sheet after trimming and binding. Note that most office printers do not have the capacity to print to the ‘edge’ of the page.

Body text

The main portion of the text (ie the content below a header/headline).

Boldface or bold type

A type style that is heavier, thicker and blacker than the regular typeface, generally used for emphasis.

Bounce back

An email which is sent back by a mail server as undeliverable

B&W

Abbreviation for Black and White

Content

All the information – text, images, links, pdfs or other documents that will go into a website/brochure/other.

Copy

Written information that is to be published in print or online.

CMS

Abbreviation for Content Management System. This is the application in a website that allows website content to be edited and modified.

CMYK or ‘Process’

Process colour is a system of using four standard inks and mixing them on the press to create a wide spectrum of different colours. The inks used are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK.)

DNS

Abbreviation for Domain Name System. Domain Name Servers (DNS) are the Internet’s equivalent of a phone book. They maintain a directory of domain names and translate them to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. This is necessary because, although domain names are easy for people to remember, computers access websites based on IP addresses.

Drop shadow

A design technique where a shadow image is placed strategically behind an image or piece of text to create the effect of the object lifting off the page.

FTP

Abbreviation for File Transfer Protocol, FTP is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet.

The larger bold text at the top of a page, article or chapter.

Hosting

The act of storing files on a common server and making them available to their owner or others.

HTML

Abbreviation for HyperText Markup Language; HTML is used as the source language for Web pages on the Internet. A text description language related to SGML; it mixes plain text content with text format markup to describe formatted text.

HTTP

Abbreviation for HyperText Transfer Protocol – an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. It is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.

HTTPS

The secure version of HTTP. The ‘S’ at the end of HTTPS stands for ‘Secure’. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. HTTPS is often used to protect highly confidential online transactions like online banking and online shopping order forms.

Lorem ipsum text

Lorem ipsum is a filler or ‘dummy’ text commonly used to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation before the ‘real’ content is available.

A website navigation menu is the place on each page where links to other pages on your website are displayed.

Negative or white space

In page layout negative space refers to the parts of the page that are not occupied by type or graphics, ie: the space between elements in a composition.

Plug-in

An add-on to a software application that gives it additional functionality.

PMS or Spot colours

PMS (Pantone Matching System) or Spot Colour is a numbering system for ink colours. The ink is mixed to a precise formula, which means the colour is more accurate from one print run to the next.

Proof

A check made at a strategic interval in a process to ascertain quality. These can be digital or printed, and are used to run a final check for the accuracy of layout, type matter, tone, and colour reproduction.

SEM, PPC or paid search

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the process of gaining website traffic by purchasing ads on search engines. Also includes PPC (pay per click); Display Advertising; Adwords etc

Responsive website

Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach to web design aimed at crafting websites to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling – across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones). All new websites should be built to be responsive.

RGB colours

RGB (red, green, and blue) refers to a system for representing the colours to be used on a computer display. Red, green, and blue can be combined in various proportions to obtain any colour in the visible spectrum.

SEO

Search engine optimisation is the use of various techniques and tactics to improve the ‘ranking’ of a site by search engines (like Google, Yahoo etc). The purpose of a higher ranking is to increase the number of visitors to a site. SEO uses ‘organic’ or ‘unpaid’ methods, including adding search engine friendly elements into a website. See also ‘Paid search/PPC’.

Thumbnail

A small low-resolution version of an image or page.

Type

Letters of the alphabet, and all the other characters used to create words, sentences, paragraphs, etc.

Typeface

A particular design of type, commonly referred to as a font choice.

Web safe fonts

are fonts that are pre-installed by many operating systems and therefore are more likely to render correctly on a user’s computer.

URL

Abbreviation for Universal Resource Locator. A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the location of a file on the web. When you type the address of a web page into your browser, you are typing a URL.

Web Browser

Commonly referred to as a browser, a web browser is software used to access information on the web. Common browsers are Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. Websites are developed to be compatible with the more recent versions of each of the main browsers.

Website Map (sitemap)

A site map is a list of pages of a website accessible to crawlers or users. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for Web design, or a Web page that lists the pages on a Web site, typically organised in hierarchical fashion.