Ascender to ZIP: The A to Z of Publishing Jargon

By Rachel Guise — PPS Editor

Whether you’re new to publishing or a seasoned pro, there are a lot of terms to know in the publishing industry. You’re probably familiar with font, headline, and serif vs sans serif, but what about words that have alternate meanings in the publishing world? Bleed, justification, and widow come to mind.

Double Meanings

Bleed? Widow? While these may be words you’d hear on Halloween, they also serve a purpose in the publishing industry!

• Binding: Methods of attaching pages together (e.g., glue, three-ring binder).
• Bleed: Each page has a specific place that it will be trimmed by the printer. The bleed is anything that goes beyond that trim mark.
• Drop cap: A large capital letter that begins a paragraph of text. It’s usually used as a decorative element at the beginning of a chapter.
• Justification: Text alignment that sets the last words of a block of text aligned (justified) or uneven (ragged).
• Ladder: Three consecutive lines that end in hyphens.
• Leading: The space between lines of text or the amount of space plus the font size (e.g., 10-point type with 12-point leading).
• Orphan: The first line of a block of text placed at the bottom of a page and separated (“orphaned”) from the rest of the paragraph.
• Point: A unit of measurement used for design elements such as font size.
• Widow: Similar to an orphan, a widow is a single word or short phrase on a line by itself at the top of a page or column. It has been “widowed” from the rest of the paragraph.

Say That Again?

Let’s look at some more publishing terms that may sound absurd:

• Ascender/descender: Parts of lowercase letters that are above or below a font’s x-height.
• Colophon: A quick summary of the publication (e.g., a copyright page). Can also refer to the publisher’s emblem or trademark.
• Galleys: Manuscript to be proofread before being placed into the final design.
• Kerning: Spacing between pairs of letters that may be difficult to read (e.g., WA). Condensed kerning is type with very tight letterspacing.
• Recto/verso: Right page and left page.
• X-height: A font’s height based on lowercase “x.”
• ZIP: A file that is condensed to contain a large file or several files at one time to send or store.

Can you think of bizarre words in your line of work that might raise some eyebrows?