Glossary

Adjustment—an effect which can be applied to your design as a new layer for creative or corrective purposes.
Alignment—positioning a selection of objects or paragraph text to the left, right, center, top or bottom.
Anchor—an inserted text marker that can be jumped to from a clicked hyperlink.
Asset—a stored design element which can be accessed from any document you have open.
Baseline—determines the position of the bottom of text characters.
Baseline grid—a grid which is overlaid over your page to help you align text vertically.
Bleed—the area of the page that goes beyond the page edge to be trimmed off at commercial printers in the event of paper movement or design inconsistencies.
Blend mode—a mode applied to your layer which changes how the applied pixels interact with existing pixels on the layer below.
Blend range—let you blend layers in a project by controlling opacity across the tonal range of the currently selected layer or the underlying layer(s).
Body text—the main text on a page, not including headlines.
Bounding box—a temporary frame around a selected object showing its outer dimensions.
Color picker—a tool used to select and sample colors.
Color space—the range of colors used to display and print your file.
Column guide—a series of non-printing filled or outlined columns that can be used as a design aid for columnar projects.
Clipboard—a memory space used for short-term storage and transfer of content during cut, copy and paste operations.
Clipping—the act of positioning one object inside another.
CMYK—a color model that is used for commercial process printing.
Document preset—a blank file containing a group of recommended document setup options according to how you plan to work.
Document template—a file containing reusable pre-formatted text styles, graphics, and layouts which you can use to form the basis of another document.
Embedded file—a placed copy of an original file that is embedded into a document. If the original file is moved or updated, the embedded copy will remain unchanged.
Global color—a color that can be created, applied, and updated for different objects across your design from a single place.
Glyph—a specific shape of a letter presented in a particular typeface.
Gradient—a gradual blend from one color to another.
Grid—a pattern of horizontal and vertical lines which is overlaid over your page to help you align objects.
Guide—non-printing, non-exporting lines that float over page objects and assist with their positioning.
Gutter—a blank space that runs between text columns.
Hyperlink—a link that allows you to jump to specific pages, anchors, files or web addresses (URLs).
Hyphenation—parameters determining how a line of text will be hyphenated.
Index—a list of keywords (or topics) used in a publication which contain referenced page numbers.
Justification—parameters determining how spaces between words and characters should be adjusted.
Kerning—controlling the space between two characters which, due to each character's geometry, might otherwise leave an unappealing gap.
Leading—space added between lines of text.
Ligatures—presents two adjacent characters in a more creative way.
Linked file—a placed file containing a link between the document and the file on disk to allow it to update if it is changed on disk.
Margin—the buffer area between the main content of the page and the page edges (or spread and spread edges).
Master page—a page that can be used to automatically apply formatting to other pages in your document.
Orphan—a stray opening line of a paragraph that appears by itself at the end of a page/text column, separated from the rest of the paragraph.
Overprinting—printing one ink color on top of another instead of the underlying color being removed (knocked out).
Overset—text overflows its text frame leaving it hidden.
Palette—a selection of colors.
Pasteboard—the off-page area around the document.
Persona—allows in-app access to other Affinity products' features using Affinity's proprietary Studiolink technology.
Picture frame—a frame which content (such as images and documents) can be inserted into.
Placeholder text—a section of text that can temporarily be inserted into a frame to test the formatting and layout before the final copy is ready.
Preflight check—a final check of page layout, fonts, graphics and colors before exporting or printing.
RGB—a color model that is often used for digital work.
Ruler—guideline used to accurately place objects or guides in the document view.
Ruler guide—a non-printing guide that can be aligned to any point on the ruler.
Spot color—a color that can be used when your artwork contains a very limited color set, reducing print costs significantly and allowing you to accurately reproduce colors otherwise impossible with process colors.
Spread—left and right page pairings displayed at the same time (when Facing pages is checked).
Swashes—a more ornate alternative for a glyph, often appearing more exaggerated and calligraphic in nature.
Table of contents—a list of chapter or section headings, usually found at the start of a document and normally annotated with page numbers.
Text frame—a frame containing paragraph text which uses a formalized structure and layout.
Text style—a set of text attributes and properties which can be applied to text.
Tracking—the letter spacing between any two characters in your text. This can be increased or decreased equally.
White space—design-free areas of your layouts intended to give your publication an uncluttered appearance.
Widow—a stray line at the end of a paragraph that falls at the start of the next page/text column, separated from the rest of the paragraph.