Glossary
Desktop Publisher Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential desktop publisher terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key desktop publisher vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in desktop publisher training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Bleed
- Image past trim.
- Gutter
- Space between columns.
- Kerning
- Space between letter pairs.
- Layout
- Page arrangement.
- Leading
- Line spacing.
- Master page
- Template page.
- Orphan
- First line alone at page bottom.
- Paragraph style
- Saved text format.
- Preflight
- Checking files.
- Print-ready
- Prepared for printing.
- Proof
- Review copy.
- Style guide
- Rules for consistency.
- Tagged PDF
- Accessible PDF.
- Typography
- Use of type.
- Widow
- Short last line alone.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Desktop Publisher practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Desktop Publisher training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.