Part 7 — GLOSSARY

TERMS OF DESIGN AS APPLIED TO PRINTING

Assyrian (Art)—The Assyrian Empire lay in Southwestern Asia between the Tigris and the Euphrates, now part of Turkey in Asia. Its art was largely expressed in the treatment of flat surfaces, using enameled bricks, painted stuccoes, figured bronzes, etc. Bricks were the only building material. The period dates from 4000-3000 B.C. to about 500 B.C.

Attraction—The force exercised upon the eye by a mass through its tone, color, size, or shape.

Axis—A line dividing a surface for purpose of comparison or construction.

Balance—An apparent state of rest between the various attractions in a design. To balance the elements of a design is to arrange them so that they are set at rest with one another.

Byzantine (Art)—The art of Eastern Christendom, from the time when Byzantium (now Constantinople) became the capital in 330 A.D. until the taking of the city by the Turks in 1453 and even later. Byzantine art embodied Asiatic luxury in splendor and in profusion of color and gilding. Its forms of design were purely geometrical and conventional, with no use of the human figure.

Celtic (Art)—Particularly active in the fourth century among the people of what are now the British Isles. It was influenced by Central Asia and Persia, and is thus somewhat oriental.

Chinese (Art)—Characterized by the use of fantastic forms and brilliant color. Best exemplified in porcelains, lacquers, and carvings in wood and semi-precious stones. The source of inspiration of the Japanese who have commercialized and cheapened it in everything save wood-block cutting and printing.

Classic—The period of early Greece and Rome.

Colonial (Art)—Found in the printing and other applied design of the early American colonies and during the first years of the American Republic. Derived from England and sometimes called “Georgian.”

Color—The kind of light reflected by a surface.

Conception—The process of forming an idea or scheme.

Decoration—Any thing or group of things that embellishes or adorns.

Design (In general)—An arrangement of forms or colors, or both, intended to be executed in hard substances or pliable material or to be applied to a fabric or other surface for ornament. (In printing)—The arrangement of masses, lines, and dots to secure the qualities of beauty, and fitness. (Specific)—“A design”: any piece of work into which the elements of design have been incorporated.

Egyptian (Art)—Includes the period of art activity in Egypt dating from about 4000 B.C. through successive steps to 500 B.C. It was highly conventionalized, richly decorated, making use of material forms interpreted with vigorous color. In architecture its chief characteristic was durability.

Esthetic—Pertaining to beauty as manifested in the fine arts. “The esthetic imagination differs from the scientific.... The difference is seen in the fact that the end is no longer knowledge but beauty.”

Ecclesiastical (Style)—That which characterized the books and manuscripts of the early churches, usually in black text letter forms with elaborate ornamentation and illumination.

Geometrical (Design)—Based upon spots, bands, or all-over patterns made up of straight and curved lines developed geometrically.

Georgian (Period)—Included the English and Colonial American design of the 17th and 18th centuries. Similar to “Colonial.”

Gothic (Art)—Developed in the architecture and applied design in Europe from 1200 A.D. to 1500 A.D. Characterized by vertical lines, pointed arches, and decorative material based directly upon nature.

Greek (Design)—That of early Greece, dated from about 620 B.C. to about 350 B.C., developed under the influence of Egypt and Assyria but rising far above either in purity and expression. “The Greek artisan had the unerring taste of the artist and sought his inspiration from the same sources.”

Harmony (In art)—A state of completeness in the relationship to things to each other.

Headband—The horizontal strip of decoration used to ornament or to set off a type page.

Indian (Art)—That of the East Indies or India, which have several styles, all oriental in character. American Indian art was manifested in geometric ornament, raw colors, and crude representation of animate forms.

Initial Letter—A large letter, unornamented or decoratively designed, used to mark the beginning of a chapter, an important change in the text, or to decorate a single mass of type.

Japanese (Design)—Derived from the Chinese and usually commercialized in its application. Of chief interest to printers in the arrangement and rendering of wood-block prints.

Mahometans—Followers of the Prophet Mahomet, including Arabian, Indian, Moorish, Persian, and other nations.

Mass—One of the main portions of a design, readily distinguished and having some unity in itself, yet remaining in proper relationship to the whole scheme.

Materials of Design—Masses, dots, and lines which compose the completed design.

Motif—The original source for a decorative scheme or element.

Natural Forms—Motifs of design chosen from nature, either animate or inanimate.

Naturalistic (Design)—The direct imitation of forms taken from nature, retaining as much as possible of their original shape, color, etc.

Optical Illusion—An error, normal to the average eye, in the perception of certain lines, angles, and spaces. Recognized by the designers of type and of typography.

Ornament—Similar to decoration.

Persian (Art)—Covered by the period from about 550 B.C. to 330 B.C. Derived from Assyrian art but strongly influenced by the Greek.

Point of Balance—The point, unindicated in the finished design, upon which the various attractions of the design are balanced in appearance.

Proportion—The comparative relationship between the various elements in a design.

Renaissance—The period of art activity in the 14th and 15th centuriesin Italy. A revival of the classic arts but developed and enriched beyond former heights.

Rhythm—Movement, characterized by the regular recurrence of accent or motion.

Roman (Design)—A transplanted development of Greek design, influenced by Roman habits and character. More realistic in the treatment of natural forms than the Greek.

Shape—The contour or appearance of an area.

Scandinavian (Design)—That of the nations Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, characterized by rich interlacements, and many symbolic devices.

Symbolic—Typifying or representing the idea or purpose of a design.

Symmetry—Regular arrangement of parts across a given axis, so that a division through that axis will give similar halves.

Tone—The amount (not kind) of light reflected from a given surface—“a light tone” or “dark in tone.”

Variety—An intermixture of elements in a design different in form or color and not arranged symmetrically.