S Glossary of Terms | Absolute Design
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Glossary of Terms - S

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Saddle stitch

Binding a booklet or magazine with staples in the seam where it folds.

Saddle stitch

Sans serif typeface

A typeface that has no serifs, such as Helvetica or Swiss. The stroke weight is usually uniform and the stress oblique, though there are exceptions.

Sans serif typeface

Screen angles

Frequently a desktop publishers nightmare. The angles at which halftone, duo tones, tri tones, and color separation printing films are placed to make them look right.

Screen angles

Screen font

Low-resolution (that is, screen resolution) bitmaps of type characters that show the positioning and size of characters on the screen. As opposed to the printer font, which may be high-resolution bitmaps or font outline masters.

Screen font

Self-cover

Using the same paper as the text for the cover.

Self-cover

Serif Font

in a typeface, a counterstroke on letterforms, projecting from the ends of the main strokes. For example, Times or Dutch is a serifed typeface. Some typefaces have no serifs; these typefaces are called sans serif.

Serif Font

Side stitch

Binding by stapling along one side of a sheet.

Side stitch

Signature

A sheet of printed pages which when folded become a part of a book or publication.

Signature

Small caps

Capital letters set at the x-height of the font.

Small caps

Soft Return

Similar to a carriage return but differentActivated in page layout software and in most word processors by holding the shift key and then hitting return. This will create a break in the copy forcing the keystrokes that follow to go to the next line but it will NOT define a new paragraph. This is most often used when a line break is desired but when proper formatting requires both lines to be in one paragraph.

Soft Return

Stet

Proof mark (let original copy stand).

Stet

Stock

The material to be printed.

Stock

Stripping

The positioning of film on a flat prior to platemaking.

Stripping

Subhead

A secondary phrase usually following a headline. Display line(s) of lesser size and importance than the main headline(s).

Subhead

Subscript

A character slightly smaller than the rest of the font, set below the baseline; used in chemical equations and as base denotation in math, and sometimes as the denominator of fractions.

Subscript

Superscript

A character slightly smaller than the rest of the font, set above the baseline, used for footnote markers and sometimes as the numerator of fractions.

Superscript
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