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Glossary of magazine terms and jargon
This is a glossary of terms and jargon used in magazines and magazine publishing. It has been quoted in Mag Scene, the careers guide from the Periodicals Training Council.
Please note that terminology and jargon can vary between industries, individual titles and internationally| Gantt chart | bar chart showing periods of activity with start and end dates. Used in planning project schedules | |
| GAPP | General Administration for Press and Publication. Licenses magazines in China | |
| GASAA | Graphic Art Services Association of Australia sets prepress and data standards. www.gasaa.asn.au | |
| gravure | high-quality printing process used for very large print runs | |
| grey scale | use of 256 shades of grey to represent an image. In Photoshop, each pixel has a brightness value from 0 (black) to 255 (white) | |
| grammage | weight of paper | |
| gsm | grams per square metre; unit for paper weight. Magazine sare typically 60gsm upwards | |
| gutter | gap between columns of text or around the text area of a page | |
H |
back to top | |
| hanging indent | where the starting line stands proud of the rest of a paragraph | |
| header | information line at the top of a page | |
| heat-set | drying of ink by heat rather than naturally | |
| Hello! phenomenon | magazines buyers being too ashamed to read a title in public. Said of men's titles, such as Loaded, FHM, Maxim, Nuts, Zoo and GQ | |
| Henley Centre | London-based company that forecasts trends | |
| hits | early measure of popularity of website. Each hit was a file viewed. Over-estimated use because each page is typically made up of several files; so extra files could be added to increase hits | |
| hickey | mark on page caused foreign matter, such as dust, entering printing ink | |
| HND | home news delivery service offered by newsagents | |
| Hollis | directory of public relations companies | |
| holy trinity | nickname for combination of publishing software: Quark XPress, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop | |
| home page | opening page on a website | |
| HSB | colour system defined by Hue (described by position on a colour wheel), Saturation (the amount of grey in a colour) and Brightness (the intensity of light reflected by, or transmitted through, an image) | |
| HTML | Hyper Text Mark up Language. Used to tag files and build in links to web pages | |
| HTTP | Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Controls jumps between pages on the the web | |
I |
back to top | |
| IBC | inside back cover | |
| ICC | International Color Consortium. Industry body that develops standards for colour processing and printing | |
| IEPRC | body founded by publishers to share technical knowledge | |
| IFC | inside front cover | |
| Illustrator | Adobe software used for tables, graphs, charts and line illustration | |
| imposition | the arrangement of pages on a printing plate | |
| imprint | information about a publisher | |
| In Design | layout software from Adobe; competes with Quark XPress | |
| indent | text aligned to right of other text | |
| internet | worldwide computer network built by agreeing file protocols (TCP/IP). Using these protocols, files may be sent across national networks. Originated by linking national military, research and academic networks. Messages sent from user's computer to host computer which is a node on the network. Host splits up packages so they may be sent economically across international telephone lines at very small cost. Receiver's host assembles message and stores it until it is retrieved | |
| intranet | use of internet technology for internal networking | |
| ISBN | International Standard Book Number | |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network. Digital phone connections that are faster for computer communication. Standard line speed 64,000bps | |
| ISSN | International Standard Serial Number. Unique number given to a publication so it can be identified internationally | |
J |
back to top | |
| Jicmars | Joint Industry Committee of Medical Advertisers for Readership Surveys. Body formed by medical publishers to fund readership surveys | |
| JIG | Joint Industry Group. UK trade body launched on 30 April 1998 following the Director General of Fair Trading's decision not to refer the newspaper industry to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. Works to improve the distribution system for newspapers and magazines. Membership comprises: Association of Newspaper and Magazine Wholesalers (ANMW); Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA); Periodical Publishers Association (PPA); Association of News Retailing (ANR); British Retail Consortium (BRC); and the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN). Has own glossary page | |
| justified | when a column of text is parallel on both sides | |
K |
back to top | |
| kern | to squeeze two letters together so they overlap | |
| keyline | line of space around an images to separate it from other elements | |
| King's Reach | building in London near Waterloo station; headquarters of IPC Media until 2007. Replaced by the Blue Fin Building | |
| komikku | see manga | |
| KPI | key performance indicator. A target against which something is measured. For example a customer magazine might aim to increase the number of people visiting the clients shops | |
L |
back to top | |
| landing page | web page someone is taken to when they click on a link (in an advert). Term often used in advertising for the selling page to which someone is taken once they click on a banner advert | |
| layout | a page design | |
| lenticular | technique whereby ribbed plastic is glued over an image to give the impression of a moving or 3D image. Lenticular images were used on front and/or back covers of Shine in 2001 and Top Gear and NME in 2004 (by Hive Associates). The lenticular technique has long used for marketing purposes, for example 'animated' postcards for film of Alistair MacLean's Ice Station Zebra in late 1960s | |
| lines per inch | measure of the resolution of a piece of printing film | |
| literal | a spelling mistake | |
| logo | the name of a publication in a specific type face used on the cover and for the masthead | |
| logotype | a single piece of metal type to produce a group of letters; the word logo comes from this | |
| loose insert | a card or sheet slipped into a magazine rather than bound in. Readers will be most familiar with them as subscription forms that fall out of the magazines |
|
| lower case | not capitalised | |
| Back to top | Magazine glossary M to P |
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