Graphic Design Fundamentals
119 flashcards by MentisLibrary
Layout principles, typography, color for screen and print, grids, production and prepress, brand identity, and the designers and movements that shaped the field, for anyone starting out in design.
- Why does contrast matter in a layout?
- Contrast is the difference between elements in size, weight, color, shape or spacing that lets the eye tell them apart and rank them. Without it nothing stands out.
- What does visual hierarchy control?
- The order in which a viewer notices elements, arranged so the most important reads first, the next second, and so on.
- What does alignment do for a design?
- It places elements along shared invisible lines so the layout looks deliberate and connected instead of scattered.
- State the principle of proximity.
- Elements placed close together are read as one group; elements spaced apart are read as separate.
- How does repetition strengthen a design?
- Reusing the same colors, type styles, spacing and shapes across a piece ties it together and teaches the reader what each style means.
- Is white space wasted space?
- No. White space, also called negative space, is the unmarked area around and between elements, and it is what gives content room to be seen.
- Symmetrical vs asymmetrical balance
- Symmetrical balance mirrors elements across a central axis and reads as formal and calm; asymmetrical balance offsets unequal elements by visual weight and reads as dynamic.
- What gives an element visual weight?
- Its size, darkness, color saturation, complexity and position: large, dark, saturated and detailed elements weigh more, and so do elements far from the center.
- Gestalt principle of similarity
- Elements that share a visual property such as color, shape, size or orientation are perceived as belonging together.
- Gestalt principle of closure
- The mind completes an incomplete shape, seeing a whole figure from partial edges.
- What is figure-ground?
- The perception of an element (the figure) as standing in front of a background (the ground); ambiguous designs let the two swap.
- Gestalt principle of continuity
- The eye follows lines, curves and aligned elements along the smoothest path and perceives them as related.
- How is the rule of thirds applied to a layout?
- The frame is divided into a three-by-three grid and key elements are placed on the lines or their intersections instead of dead center.
- What is the golden ratio?
- A proportion of roughly 1 to 1.618 in which the whole relates to the larger part as the larger part relates to the smaller.
- What is a focal point?
- The single element a design is built to be noticed first; every other element supports or defers to it.
- How does scale create hierarchy?
- Scale is the size of elements relative to each other and to the format; a large jump in size signals importance and creates drama.
- What is unity in a design?
- The sense that all parts belong to one whole, produced by consistent color, type, spacing and alignment.
- F-pattern vs Z-pattern reading
- Eye-tracking studies of web pages found that text-heavy pages are scanned in an F shape (two horizontal sweeps, then a vertical scan down the left) and sparse pages in a Z from top left to bottom right.
- Typeface vs font
- A typeface is the design, such as Helvetica; a font is one specific instance of it, historically a set of metal type at one size and style, today a single file such as Helvetica Bold.
- Serif vs sans-serif
- Serifs are the small finishing strokes at the ends of letters; sans-serif faces omit them. Serif faces carry a traditional, literary tone, while sans-serifs read as modern and plain.
- What is kerning?
- Adjusting the space between one specific pair of letters so the spacing looks even.
- What is tracking?
- A uniform adjustment of letter-spacing across a run of text, tightening or loosening the whole word or line.
- What is leading?
- The vertical distance from one baseline to the next, named after the strips of lead once set between lines of metal type; body text is usually set at about 120 to 145 percent of the type size.
- What is x-height?
- The height of the lowercase x, and so of the main body of the lowercase letters, measured from the baseline.
- Baseline, cap height, ascender, descender
- The baseline is the line letters sit on; cap height is the height of capitals above it; ascenders are lowercase strokes that rise above the x-height (b, d, h); descenders drop below the baseline (g, p, y).
- How big is a point?
- One point is 1/72 of an inch in the PostScript system used by all digital design software; 12 points make one pica.
- What is the recommended measure for body text?
- About 45 to 75 characters per line, with roughly 66 often cited as ideal for a single column.
- Widow vs orphan
- A widow is the short last line of a paragraph left alone at the top of a column or page; an orphan is a first line stranded at the bottom. Usage varies, and some sources swap the two.
- What are rivers in typesetting?
- Visible gaps of white running down through several lines of justified text, caused by wide word spacing.
- Justified vs ragged-right text
- Justified text stretches word spacing so every line fills the measure; ragged-right keeps word spacing even and lets line ends vary.