about usportfoliocontactservicesclient listestimatingresources
     
     
Face An abbreviation for ' typeface' referring to a family in a given style.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse as Pet Grooming and Cryptography.
FDDI (Fibre Distributed Data Interface) A standard for transmitting data on optical fibre cables at a rate of around 100,000,000 bits-per-second (ten times as fast as Ethernet, about twice as fast as T-3).
See: Bandwidth, Ethernet, T-3
Felt Side Smoother side of paper for printing. The right side of sheet in paper manufacturing.
File Any cohesive and named collection of information stored on a disk.
File Menu The menu containing the new, open, and quit commands.
File Types Refers to the way your software built and labelled your content. Different software programs create different file types, but your computer can recognise many different file types. A file type is usually identified by the extension, the last three characters of its name. Some of the more common graphic file images are .bmp, .pcx, .tif, .jpg, .gif, and .pcd.
Here is a list of a few of the most common type of files found in desktop publishing.
BMP: A Bitmap image. Standard PC high quality picture format. Can also refer to high contrast B/W picture format and is used as jargon for coarse pixel resolution.
JPEG: (JPG) Joint Photographic Experts Group. This is a compression format for photographs that economises on the way data is stored because it discards data! It is therrefore a’lossy’ file format and will degrade with continual use.
TIFF: (TIF) Tagged Image File Format cross-platform - compressable without much loss of quality (LZW).
RTF: Rich Text format - cross platform text format (MS WORD) that retains formatting, styling and accents across platforms. Excellent for multilanguage work.
ZIP: Compressed file/folder format (Windows).
TXT: This is a simple file that contains only text.
GIF: This is a graphic file format owned and licensed by CompuServe used mainly in Web applications.
DOC: A document file commonly created by Microsoft Word or Wordpad.
MIC: This is a Microsoft Image Composer file, a graphics file created with Image composer. It can be converted into other types of graphic files.
MIME: (.MIM) File compression format This is used for e-mail files and has the suffix .MIM. It can be multi-part. It needs to be put through a translator (Unzip or Dropstuff) before being opened within a programme.
MPEG: (.MPG) Movie Photography Electronic Group Similar to JPEG, but for movies.
EPS: Encapsulated PostScript. A PostScript file contains additional information about the picture, its size and position on the page and, in many cases, a screen bitmap of the image that is used for screen display only. An EPS file can be printed only on a PostScript printer unless it is accompanied by a low-resolution bitmap image.
PDF: Portable document file format. Used as a proofing medium or for offering downloadable documents on the web. Viewed using Adobe Acrobat reader.
Filler Extra material used to complete a column or page, usually of little importance.
Film Instead of printing your artwork onto paper, some companies can print it onto camera film. Film is usually required when you are printing with more than one colour and it is a necessity for four-colour printing. Film can be either negative or positive. Providing film to your printer will usually result in the highest quality product.
Finder One of the two traffic-cop files that runs the Macintosh. The Finder keeps track of windows (their size, location, and type of view), maintains an inventory of icons representing every file on your disk, and continually updates the invisible desktop file.
Find File Apple-supplied software that makes it possible to search a disk for any folder, file or application.
Finger An Internet software tool for locating people on other Internet sites. Finger is also sometimes used to give access to non-personal information, but the most common use is to see if a person has an account at a particular Internet site. Many sites do not allow incoming Finger requests, but many do.
Flat Colours Colours and tints not formulated from standard process colours.
Flexography Flexography is a method of direct rotary printing that uses resilient relief image plates of rubber or photopolymer material. The plates are affixed to plate cylinders of various repeat lengths, inked by a cell structured ink metering roll, with or without a reverse-angle doctor blade, and carrying a fast-drying fluid ink to plates that print on virtually any substrate, absorbent or non-absorbent.
Floating accent An accent mark which is set separately from the main character and is then placed either over or under it.
Flop Flipping over a transparency or negative so that right side is now the left.
Floppy Disk The 3.5” plastic disk used in all Macintosh/PC disk drives. The plastic disk is encased in a hard plastic container for protection. This has become the standard size for nearly all machines today.
Flush left (US) Copy aligned along the left margin.
Flush right (US Copy aligned along the right margin.
Flyer An inexpensively produced circular used for promotional distribution.
Foil blocking A process for stamping a design on a book cover without ink by using a coloured foil with pressure from a heated die or block.
Folding Folding is a relatively imprecise operation, so you must leave room for variations in the folds. Also, remember that each fold is affected by the variation in the previous fold. Paper stock also affects folds. Carefully prepare a paper dummy of the fold and verify that the paper grain in the dummy matches that of the final product before you go to press. Remember to allow adequate trim for the bindery operation. If a precise fold is critical, you may consider scoring the job on press to assure that the fold will align more accurately.
Folio Page number.
Font A type face or the collection of all the characters that comprise the entire character set of a typeface. In the Macintosh, each size of each style of typeface counts as a single font. A font in the Macintosh world is also called a resource in the sense that it is available to all applications without being part of any one program.
Form letter Used in word processing to describe a repetitive letter in which the names and addresses of individuals are automatically generated from a data base or typed individually.
Four-Colour Process The method of separating colour art or photos, by use of filters, into the four process colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
French fold A sheet which has been printed on one side only and then folded with two right angle folds to form a four page uncut section.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a special way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly-accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name “anonymous,” thus these sites are called “anonymous FTP servers".
Full measure A line set to the entire line length.
Full point A full stop.
Full-Scale Black A black printer that prints dots in every part of the picture, from the highlight to the shadow. Also called full-range black.
Galley proof Proofs taken from the galleys before being made up into pages.
Galleys The printing term for long metal trays once used to hold type after it had been set and before the press run. Now refers to text that has been formatted, but not laid out.
Gatefold A page or spread where both left and right edges fold into the centre.
Gathering The operation of inserting the printed pages, sections or signatures of a book in the correct order for binding.
Gloss ink For use in litho and letterpress printing on coated papers where the ink will dry without pentration.
Gothic Typefaces with no serifs and broad even strokes.
Grey scale A range of luminance values for evaluating shading through white to black. Frequently used in discussions about scanners as a measure of their ability to capture halftone images. Basically the more levels the better but with correspondingly larger memory requirements.
Grid A systematic division of a page into areas to enable designers to ensure consistency. The grid acts as a measuring guide and shows text, illustrations and trim sizes.
GSM Grams per square metre. The unit of measurement for paper weight.
Gutter The central blank area between left and right pages.
Hairline rule The thinnest rule that can be printed.
Hairlines The thinnest of the strokes in a typeface.
Half up Artwork one and a half times the size which it will be reproduced.
Halftone An illustration reproduced by breaking down the original tone into a pattern of dots of varying size. Light areas have small dots and darker areas or shadows have larger dots.
Halftone screen Traditionally a glass plate or film placed between the original photograph and the film to be exposed. The screen carries a network of parallel lines. The number of lines to the inch controls the coarseness of the final dot formation. The screen used depends on the printing process and the paper to be used, the higher the quality the more lines can be used. In current use it refers to the frequency of dots to the inch/cm.
Head The margin at the top of a page.
Hickies A dust particle sticking to the printing plate or blanket which appears on the printed sheet as a dark spot surrounded by an halo.
Highlight The lightest area in a photograph or illustration.
House style The style of preferred spelling, punctuation, hyphenation and indentation used in a publishing house or by a particular publication to ensure consistent typesetting.