Glossary - A

Adobe®

Computer software company responsible for many of the industry-standard software packages: Acrobat®; Distiller®; Illustrator®; Indesign®; Photoshop®

A/W

An abbreviation for Artwork.

Align

To line up typeset or other graphic material as specified, using a base or vertical line as the reference point.

Alignment

Orientation of type with regard to edges of the column or paper, such as aligned right (flush right), aligned left (flush left), and aligned on center (centered) - Also called range.

Alley

Space between images or columns of type on a page, as compared to gutter.

Alphabet (length or width)

The measurement of a complete set of lower case alphabet characters in a given type size expressed in points or picas.

Alteration

Any change made by the customer after copy or artwork has been given to the service bureau or printer. The change could be a copy, specifications or both. Also called AA, author alteration and customer alteration.

Anti-aliasing

The rendering of hard-edged objects so they blend smoothly into the background. A technique for merging object-oriented art into bitmaps.

Art paper

A smooth coated paper obtained by adding a coating of china clay compound on one or both sides of the paper.

Artwork

A general term used to describe photographs, drawings, paintings, hand lettering, and the like prepared to illustrate printed matter

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard format for representing digital information in 8-bit pieces.

ATM®

Adobe® Type Manager® software, which makes type appear sharp and clear on-screen and in print.

Ascender

Any part of a lower case letter extending above the x-height. For example, the upper half of the vertical in the letters b or h.

Authors corrections

Changes made to the copy by the author after typesetting but not including those made as a result of errors in keying in the copy.

Autoflow

In some computer applications, the ability to flow text automatically from one page to another, or one column to another.