Magazine production: glossary of terms

A glossary of the terms used in magazine journalism (and in our magazine production module).

Bleed-The very edge of the paper. Extending a picture to the bleed avoids leaving white space round the edge of a cover.

Concept-The idea behind the magazine, including estimated number of copies sold per annum and target audience.

Flatplan-The contents of the magazine, showing the location of each article and advert. Each page will have its own box.

InDesign-Adobe software used to lay out magazine pages and front covers. Some companies still use Quark Xpress, which does the same job. I have used both CS2 and Cs3 Indesign (CS3 is the newest).

Photoshop-Adobe software used to edit pictures for a variety of purposes, including for use in magazines and online.

Spread-two facing pages. Sometimes the same article will be on both pages of the spread. In this case, text or pictures will extend across the fold.

Widows and orphans-A "widow" is the last line of a paragraph that appears alone at the top of a page. An "orphan" is the first line of a paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page. As defined at Miss Snark.