The Designer's Lexicon: The Illustrated Dictionary of Design, Printing, and Computer Terms

by Alastair Campbell

Book Overview

The digital revolution has brought with it a dizzying multiplication of new styles and techniques in the field of graphic designnot to mention a whole new professional jargon. The Designer's Lexicon is the only cross-disciplinary technical dictionary that captures this rich and often confusing profusion of design-speak. It is packed with over 4000 terms that cover the broad spectrum of practices a modern designer must be familiar with: traditional...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811826252
• ISBN13: 9780811826259
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 8.6"
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Handy day-to-day reference

Not only is this the most complete reference for terminology, it is one of the most inventive and best examples of infomation design (similar to the work of Richard Saul Wurmann in its approach to looking up information, but without the maps and graphics). It's cross-referenced to the hilt, and contains explanations even seasoned old-timers will find useful. I'm currently using it as a required text in one of my design courses (graduate-level); my only hope is that it stays current and updated as the field and technology progresses.

An education in itself

I have a fairly minimal background in graphic design, except for a two week class I took when I was 12 (I'm 24 now). Other than that, I'm just computer literate and I learn things quickly. This book gave me a wealth of knowledge in an easy to digest form- Running into terms in your Adobe help files that you don't recognize? Get out the lexicon. Talking to a printer and you don't want to sound like an idiot? Get out the lexicon. Everyone from beginners to pros should have this book. The definitions are simple but precise, with examples of the more difficult terms to make them easier to understand. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

A definite reference book worth owning!

Have you read about the story of a designer who went for an interview with a design company and was not considered because they didn't know terms such as "gutter" or the difference between "seriff" and "sans-seriff".Sure, many of us should know those terms but if you are an individual who wants to continue to learning these terms that printers or professionals tend to use and you are asking yourself in yourself "what the heck are they talking about?". Sure, no one will blame you if you were nodding off in your graphic design class or didn't really read that chapter on print terminology or just plainly forgotten the terms but the thing is, if you really want that job, don't want to look ignorant in front of certain people or if you don't want to continually badger that professional, printer or broker of terminology, then "the designer's LEXICON" is the book that you will find quite helpful.The book is broken down to chapters for terms such as:· Computer Terms· Internet Terms· Photography Terms· Typography Terms· Prepress Terms· Paper Terms· Printing Terms· Finishing Terms· General TermsAnd to find these words, you are provided with a word finder which helps finding that word in a jiffy.You know paper but you are asked by a client about satin laid paper, a printer wants you to ad a bleed, a designer asks you about glyphs or asks you about a pica size for print where you usually are working more with pixels, it's important to know these words and it's good to have a book that you can look to and get the definition quickly.There are a few reference books that I highly recommend which include popular books such as "Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market", "Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color" to name a few, "the designer's LEXICON" is one of those books that is worth owning.

Great reference tool for all in the graphics field

A great book for defining all those confusing terms in all the computer and design books. It clearly defines the terms you will come across in the design, layout, pre-press, and printing fields as well as offering many illustrations and diagrams or useful charts further explaining terms.I looked long and hard to find it and for this price, EVERYONE who works in the field should own it!

The Designer's Lexicon : The Illustrated Dictionary of

This book is useful to learn about graphic design. For another language speakers, (for example Japanese, French, Spanish. etc.) are interested in how to say the contents in English. And this book includes more recently topics. We can learn exactly meanings.