Graphic of the word new



This article studies the peculiarities of using abbreviations in the English language, in particular graphic abbreviations and acronyms. The author managed to analyze the significance of abbreviations in modern English and learn how abbreviations are used in writing. The article also describes the differences between acronyms and graphic abbreviations and gives examples of commonly used abbreviations and acronyms. The author also reviews the concept of «Digispeak» and traces the influence of English Internet-acronyms on Russian.

Key words:



abbreviations, acronym, English, Digispeak.

At the turn of the XX and XXI centuries information became the overriding factor of progress. Today it determinate economic and political development and may be used even as devastating weapon in so-called «information wars».

The relevance of this research is based on the fact that globalization, global integration and rapid development of the Internet have led humanity to an unprecedented acceleration of the pace of modern life, which means that we are forced to increasingly use various tools that help significantly reduce the time of information transmission.

Since the key element of communication between people is still speech (both written and oral), the changes affected it primarily. We have started not only to speak more succinctly and quickly, but also to use techniques shortening our speech in writing. Such techniques include, for example, long-known graphic abbreviations and acronyms.

Abbreviation is one of the simplest and most popular ways to shorten words and sometimes create new lexical units. There are various kinds of abbreviations, such as simple, which are formed by dropping the final or initial parts of words (

bus

from

omnibus, demo

from

demonstration,

etc.), and complex, which are formed by reducing several words within the phrase (

UNESCO

from

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, NATO

from

North Atlantic Treaty Organization,

etc.).

It should be noted that graphic abbreviations and acronyms apply not only to words themselves, but also to stable word combinations. Besides, language is a constantly changing, inflectional «living being», and in the process of its development, abbreviations that we use in written speech often pass into oral speech and vice versa.

This work considers graphic abbreviations and acronyms as two methods of shortening words or two different directions in lexicology. However, it should be clarified that in real life, sometimes it is impossible to tell exactly what type of shortenings a particular abbreviation refers to.

Since abbreviations are a kind of tool in linguistics, theoretically they can be created by any person or organization at their own discretion, which means that before using any infrequently used abbreviations in scientific papers or significant articles, you need to make sure that they are legally correct. In addition, official documents — for example, credit contracts or marriage contracts — often include their own «local» abbreviations, usually graphic abbreviations, which make it possible not to repeat the most frequently used words, terms, or names of organizations in the document. [6, P. 208]

Graphical abbreviations

However, abbreviations that are used equally in oral and written speech are generally considered as lexical abbreviations. They are usually formed by shortening the morphemes of a single word or shortening the words included in a phrase and then combining the resulting parts [1, P. 15]. These abbreviations are much easier to pronounce aloud, their articulation is natural, which is not the case with graphic abbreviations.

Distinctive features of graphical abbreviations.

Graphic abbreviations are a separate type of abbreviations. Based on their name, you can talk about their mission: they are only used in writing. The purpose of graphical abbreviations is to save time and simplify the recording of individual «formal» speech units, such as metric units, service parts of speech or frequently used words.

Graphic abbreviations are one of the most commonly used abbreviations in everyday life. Their significance for the English language is also emphasized by the fact that English is the language of international communication, including in the Internet environment. However, the Internet has received its rapid development only in the XXI century, but graphic abbreviations have been known to mankind since time immemorial.

The main distinguishing features of graphic abbreviations are that they:

–

first,

they are used only in writing;

–

second

, they can be either complex abbreviations or simple abbreviations (for example, Ltd, p/pp, BA, kph);

–

third

, they are often borrowed from other languages (Latin, English, French, etc.).

–

fourth

, in oral speech, they correspond to full-stem words and phrases (e.g.: arr. — arrive, m.p.h. — miles per hour). [4, Pp. 29–30]

As mentioned above, sometimes it is impossible to determine exactly what format of shortenings a particular abbreviation belongs to. This is often due to the fact that graphic abbreviations can become almost full-fledged lexical units of the language, acronyms or words. This is how the words

MP — a member of the English Parliament

and

GI — an American soldier (from government issue)

appeared. [9, P. 208]

Examples of the most commonly used graphical abbreviations.

The Romans, as carriers of one of the most advanced civilizations, shared with the modern world not only grandiose architectural structures and magnificent works of art, but also a rich political, scientific and literary experience, which is reflected in the number of Latin abbreviations that are now used by the average British or American.

A classic case study is loanwords from Latin, for example, «ca» — «circa», «CV» — «Curriculum Vitae», «vs» — «versus» [7]. They are often used in everyday life, as well as in literature or scientific texts.

In addition to Latin, English speakers also often refer to the related Italian language. The most commonly used Italian abbreviations are «A.m.» — «Ante Meridiem», «P.m.» — «Post Meridiem» and «e.g.» — «Exempli Gratia». [8]

Most often, graphic abbreviations can be found in scientific literature and various documentation, for example,

n. — noun, v. — verb, adj. — adjective, adv. — adverb, H-bomb — hydrogen bomb, A.D. — of our era, B.C. — before Christ,

etc.

In addition, graphic abbreviations are very typical for personal and official letters, where all the usual abbreviations are used, such as:

St — Street, Rd — Road, Dr. — Doctor, P.S. — Post Scriptum, WA — Washington

, etc.

Abbreviations for metric units are most commonly used in writing in English, Russian or any other language:

in. — inch, sec. — second, gm. — gram, cm. — centimeter, ft. — foot,

etc. [5]

Acronyms

Another popular way of shortening speech in writing and in oral form, along with graphic abbreviations, are acronyms. Acronyms when reading not replaced by their full-stem equivalents in contrast to graphical abbreviations — they are read in their entirety as written, just like other complex abbreviations.

The difference between acronyms and abbreviations.

Acronyms are a form of abbreviation that can be read as an ordinary word. Which means, formally, acronyms form new words. For example,

NATO

—

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, UNESCO — United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, BASIC — Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

Abbreviations, in turn, are pronounced by letters, for example HIV is pronounced as [ˌeɪtʃ.aɪˈviː], CV — [ˌsiːˈviː], ID — [ˌaɪ ˈdiː].

«Digispeak»


— The language for communication in the Internet.

Today, the use of the Internet is becoming more and more active in our lives. We can study there, work there, shop there, and, of course, communicate. In the twenty-first century, English has become not only the language of international communication, but also the language of the Internet. Millions of people around the world who are not native speakers of English use it to communicate with each other.

In addition, communication on the Internet is most often reduced to conversations in social networks, various blogs, forums or messengers, which leads to the creation of a specific «digital language» or «Digispeak».

«Digispeak», also known as «techspeak» or «webspeak» — is a set of abbreviations that in most cases are acronyms and are used on various web resources [3]. These acronyms consist of the first letters of words included in phrases, sentences, or questions that people most often use in online chats. The list of the most used acronyms in «Digispeak» is given in Table 1. [2]

Table 1

List of the most popular acronyms in «Digispeak»

Acronyms	Meanings
A/S/L	Age, sex, location
ASAP	As soon as possible
B4N	Bye for now
BFF	Best friends forever
BTW	By the way
IDK	I don’t know
IMHO	In my humble opinion
IRL	In real life
LOL	Laughing out loud
OMG	Oh my God!
ROFL	Rolling on floor laughing
TU or TY	Thank you

Many of these abbreviations have become so popular that they have passed into spoken language. In addition, some acronyms from «Digispeak» are used even in Russian, but after borrowing they have changed their lexical and grammatical properties to some extent.

Borrowed acronyms are written in Russian equivalent to English using the transliteration method:

LOL — лол, IDK — идк, OMG — омг, IMHO — имхо, IRL — ирл, ROFL — рофл

. The values of acronyms such as

IDK, OMG, IMHO, IRL

completely preserved, they also did not acquire new grammatical properties. However, for example, the acronym

LOL (лол)

began to be used in Runet more as an interjection, a way of reacting to unexpected funny situations, jokes, or Internet-memes.

Much larger changes have affected the acronym

ROFL

— its Russian equivalent —

рофл

— became used as a noun meaning «joke» or «prank». In addition, the verb «рофлить» appeared, it has a new meaning — «to mock someone, to joke rude, to prank». [10]

It is difficult to overestimate the significance of abbreviations and acronyms in modern English. It was quite high since English tends to use abbreviations frequently both in spoken and written speech. In addition, due to the growing influence of the Internet, acronyms have become actively integrated into the everyday vocabulary of modern people.

When talking about the differences between acronyms and graphic abbreviations, you should pay attention to their usage. Graphic abbreviations are used exclusively in written speech, while acronyms are also used in spoken language. However, they are sometimes interchangeable, and graphic abbreviations can become acronyms in the course of transformations and simplifications in the language.

Both acronyms and graphical abbreviations should be distinguished from other types of abbreviations and acronyms — they are independent lexical subgroups.

As mentioned above, the development of the Internet has had a serious impact on the English language, it has a lot of new abbreviations, as well as a whole «new language environment» — «Digispeak».

It is important to remember that the trends towards shortening and speeding up speech are not always positive. Language is not only one of the most important sources of culture, but also one of the few ways to preserve and transmit it, so in the pursuit of time, it is important not to forget the true value of a rich literary language.

References:

1. Davletbaeva D. N. Lectures on English Lexicology. Course of lectures on the lexicology of the English language. Textbook for students of foreign languages. — Kazan: TSUHE, 2010. — 92 p.
2. Digispeak — Computer Definition // YourDictionary. LoveToKnow: Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. 2017. URL: https://www.yourdictionary.com/digispeak (Date of request: 13.04.2020).
3. English-Russian Dictionary of Normative and Technical Terminology // Academic: online dictionaries and encyclopedias. 2015. URL: https://normative_en_ru.academic.ru/229609/digispeak (Date of request: 13.04.2020).
4. Famina N. V. Lexicology of the English language: a course of lectures. — М.: MADI, 2018. — 96 p.
5. Graphic abbreviations and other abbreviations in English // Engblog.ru: Online blog about the English language. 2012. URL: https://engblog.ru/graphical-shortening (Date of request: 13.04.2020).
6. Karashchuk P. M. Word formation of the English language: a textbook. — М.: Higher School, 1977. — P. 208.
7. Latin acronyms // Allacronyms.com URL: https://www.allacronyms.com/latin/abbreviations (Date of request: 13.04.2020).
8. Latin acronyms in English // Allacronyms.com URL: https://www.allacronyms.com/latin/abbreviations/english (Date of request: 13.04.2020).
9. Matveev S. A. English in 3 months. — М.: AST, 2010. — 320 p.
10. What is rofl: meaning and etymology // KtoNaNovenkogo.ru: Everything about websites, SEO, earnings and the Internet. An Internet project. URL: https://ktonanovenkogo.ru/voprosy-i-otvety/rofl-chto-ehto-takoe-i-chto-znachit-roflit.html (Date of request: 13.04.2020).

Graphic design isn’t just a profession, it’s also a language. And, if you’re not up to scratch with the design lingo, then a conversation with a designer can be bewildering. A ‘creep’ definitely isn’t what you think it is, isn’t a baseline something to do with basketball? And, what on earth is kerning?

Don’t fret, we’ve put together this list of 120 design terms—from alignment to x-height—to help you make sense of the jargon and be talking the (designer) talk in no time. This dictionary of sorts is written for designers and non-designers alike, this list will help you make sense of any of the graphic design terminology you might not be able to put your finger on.

The list is alphabetised but if you’re looking for any specific graphic design terms then use CMD+F to find what you’re after!

1. Alignment

Alignment is the way that the different elements in a design are arranged, usually in relation to a page or document. In typography, alignment, which can also be called range, is the setting of text relative to a column, tab or page. It’s very easy to notice when elements in a design aren’t aligned.

2. Analogous (Colours)

Think of these as the neighbours of the colour world—analogous colours are colours that sit next to each other on the colour wheel. Think, in simple terms, red, orange and yellow—there’s a dominant colour, a primary or secondary colour and a tertiary colour. Analogous colours match really well and create a proper colour harmony—resulting in a composed design. A famous use of analogous colours in the iconic Pentagram-designed Mastercard logo.

3. Aperture

The white space at the end of an open counter in typography.

4. Apex

In typography, the top point where two strokes are joined together.

5. Arm

When a horizontal stroke is not attached to a stem on one end.

6. Ascenders

Ascenders refer to the parts of lower case letters that extend above the x-height of a typeface. If you look back at that first sentence, you’ll see loads of them—and that one too. In a majority of typefaces, the lowercase letters b, d, f, h, k and l are ascenders. Careful though, the letter t is not an ascender. In certain fonts, such as Garamond, the ascenders rise above the cap height.

7. Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio is most easily explained as the ratio of the width to the height of a rectangle—which usually, in design terms, is a picture or a screen. Aspect ratios are usually expressed as a mathematical ratio but, no fear, there’s no maths involved—it’s just two numbers separated by a colon. It’s usually width:height so, for instance, the aspect ratio for an iMac is 16:9—16 inches wide by 9 inches high.

8. Backslanted

Italics leaning backward.

9. Ball Terminal

Ball-shape extension of a letter.

10. Baseline

In typography, the baseline is the invisible line that text sits on—think of it as the floor, but for text. It’s also the place that x-height and other important parts of a font are measured from. There is also parts of fonts that don’t sit on the baseline, but we’ll get to them later.

11. Bleed

That little bit extra—the bleed is a printing term that refers to the edge of the sheet that will be trimmed off. In design terms, the bleed is the artwork or background colour that extends in to this area, in case the cut made to the design or sheet isn’t exact. It’s a way of ensuring that none of the design gets accidentally cut off or there’s no unexpected borders.

12. Body Copy

The main text that people will read on a design. The body copy refers to the paragraphs, sentences or other text that are the main content in any publication, whether print or digital. Put in real life terms, the body copy of a magazine is the articles themselves rather than the titles, subtitles, authors, etc.

13. Bold

A heavy weight of any given typeface, often used for emphasis.

14. Bowl

The generally round or elliptical forms which are the basic body shape of letters such as C, G, O in the uppercase, and b, c, e, o, p in the lowercase.

15. Bracket

A curved connection between the stem and serif of some fonts. Not all serifs are bracketed serifs.

16. Brand Identity

The visual version of a brand. The brand identity is made up of everything that relates to the brand—logos, typefaces, colour palettes, slogans, tone of voice, website, packaging and other marketing material. When designers talk about ‘branding’, it usually involves developing all aspects of the brand identity.

17. Calligraphy

The art of writing letters with a very specific tool (e.g., broad nib pen, brush pen, etc.).

18. Cap Height

Back to our friend the baseline—the cap height is the height of the top of a capital letter in any given font above the baseline. The cap height refers specifically to letters with a flat top, such as H and I. Round letters like ‘O’ and pointed ones like ‘A” may rise above the cap height in their capital forms.

19. Centre Aligned

When text is aligned to the centre of a text frame, with the rag on the left and right sides of the text frame.

20. Character

A letter, number, punctuation mark or symbol.

21. Character Set

Entire collection of characters for any given typeface weight.

22. CMYK

RGB’s printing brother, CMYK, is the colour mode which should be used when designing for print. The four colours the name stands for, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black), are the four colours most widely used in printing. Similarly to RGB, these four colours can be combined in lots of different ways to produce a majority of colours in print—though, unlike RGB, these colours are subtractive so get darker as they are combined. Key/black is added on top of the other three as mixing them will never produce a pure black.

23. Complementary (Colours)

Think of these as the best friends of the colour world—complementary colours are the colours that sit directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. Examples of complementary colours are red and green, blue and orange and purple and yellow. Using complementary colours will make a design more aesthetically pleasing—and can also be used in things like logos and retail displays to make a design stand out more.

24. Contrast

Contrast is the arrangement of opposite elements on a page—in other words, when two things on a page are different. This can be light vs. dark colours, smooth vs. rough textures, text colour vs. background colour. Contrast can be used to create areas of visual interest or even drama within a design.

25. Counter

The white space enclosed by a letterform, whether wholly enclosed, as in ‘d’ or ‘o’, or partially, as in ‘c’ or a double-story ‘a’.

26. Creep

Definitely not what you are thinking—creep, alternatively known as shingling, is the inside margin of a book, magazine or other publication. With some bindings, the creep often has to be made larger so that no content is covered when it is being read. Printing companies will sometimes have charts to calculate the size of the creep for their different paper stocks.

27. Crop Marks

Also known as trim marks, crop marks are specific marks (they kind of look like two lines crossing with a target) that indicate to a printer where the paper should be trimmed. They’re essential when designing for print and make it much easier to communicate with the printers.

28. Crossbar

A stroke across a stem (as in the horizontal line of the letter ‘T’, ‘H’, ‘E’, etc.).

29. Descenders

Descenders are the opposite of ascenders, they’re the tail of letters—the part of the letter that descends below the baseline. Generally, only the lowercase letters g, j, q, p and y are descenders. Though, in some fonts, the lowercase f, capital Q and J and certain numbers are also descenders. Both ascenders and descenders increase the recognisability of words to the extent that British road signs stopped using all capital letters and instead opted for their specialised font.

30. Display

Display type is fonts that are designed to make an impact and catch the eye—they’re used for things that need to stand out: headlines, posters, billboards, logo. Famous examples of display type will often be seen across different mediums—Stencil, for instance, was used for the TV shows The A-Team, MAS*H and Recess but also in The Home Depot logo and on the 2001/02 Real Madrid kits.

31. Ear

The stroke attached to the bowl of the lowercase g. Some typographers use the same term for the lowercase r.

32. Ellipsis

Character composed of three dots…

33. Embossing & Debossing

Embossing and its counterpart debossing are finishing processes that involve creating dimensional relief images in to a piece of paper or card. The practice uses a printing press to, in the case of embossing, lift the design into the material or, in the case of debossing, sunk the design into the material.

34. Extended

Character with an exaggerated width a character such as an accent mark.

35. Foiling

A process also known as foil stamping, foiling is a type of printing where metallic or pigmented foil is applied to a surface through the application of heat and a die. A relatively uncomplicated process, foiling can add extra dimensions to a design especially packaging—they’re excellent for catching a potential customers’ eye on shop shelves.

36. Font Colour

Used in web design to specify a colour.

37. Font Size

The height of a typeface. It is usually measured in points (8, 10, 12, etc.), from baseline to baseline.

38. Font Weight

Font weight refers quite literally to the thickness of a font, in terms of both an individual font and different styles of a font—black, bold, light etc. Font weight ranges from 100 to 900 with “normal” font being 400 so 100 being extra light or equivalent and 900 being extra black or equivalent. Though, you’ll rarely need to use the numbers as Adobe Creative Cloud and similar programs give the font weight as their names.

39. Golden Ratio

First studied by the Ancient Greeks in the 5th Century B, the Golden Ratio is when you take two objects, divide the larger by smaller and get the result of 1.6180 (or near it). We could get way more mathematical than that but we’ll just confuse ourselves. The most famous example of the golden ratio is the golden rectangle—this can be split into a perfect square and a rectangle of the same aspect ratio. The golden ratio can be used to make designs well formatted and attractive.

40. Gradient

Sometimes specifically called a colour gradient, gradients are a gradual change of colour or shade—for instance a red slowly fading into an orange—or a colour gradually fading into transparency. There are two types of gradients, axial/linear or radial, and both show the range of different shades and hues.

41. Greyscale

Greyscale is a colour palette that only uses black, white and different shades of grey. The most obvious examples of greyscale are black and white films or photographs (which seeing as they contain greys, strictly aren’t black and white). Greyscale can also be used in design for many different reasons—from evoking nostalgia to helping you to learn how to design better with colour.

42. Grid

We can’t stress enough how important grids are to designers! Grids are an underlying system of horizontal and vertical columns and guides used to provide structure, consistency, accuracy in any design. They also make a designer’s life a whole lot easier.

43. Hand-lettering

Creating custom letters from scratch for a specific purpose/client.

44. Hard Return / Soft Return

Both of these terms refer to hitting the ‘return’ key and moving to a new line of text. They differ in that a hard return creates a whole new paragraph, whilst a soft return drops the text down remaining in the same paragraph.

45. Hex

Though designers will usually find their colours using the aforementioned RGB or CMYK, hex is still an important term to know. Hex is a six digit code used to represent a colour. For example, The Simpsons’ yellow has the hex code FCD901. Hex codes are found alongside RGB and CMYK in a lot of design applications, but are most often used in HTML and CSS.

46. Hierarchy

One of the five basic principles of typography design, hierarchy creates organisation and direction in a design—it helps to give order to the text elements. Though it may not be immediately obvious to someone not in the know, you’ll definitely have seen hierarchy in action in pretty much anything you have read. It makes text more understandable and easier to read.

47. Hook

Curved arch (such as on the letter ‘f’).

48. Icon

Icons are something we all see practically every day—they’re images used to represent objects or actions. One of the most common examples of an icon is a magnifying glass used to signify a search, which is used on Google and countless other websites. Though, icons are used across a wide spectrum of industries—from supermarkets to the Olympics. Just make sure they’re clear and not going to cause any confusion!

49. Italics

Forward-slanting characters, developed in early 1500s.

50. Joint

A stroke that connects with a stem.

51. Justified

Instances when text is aligned to the left and right margin within a text frame, with no rag on either side.

52. Kerning

Kern is the space between two specific letters or characters, and the process of adjusting the space between letters or characters. Kerning can increase the legibility of a word or a entire block of text. It helps to create proportional and balanced typography and, in turn, better looking typography.

53. Leading

Pronounced ‘ledding’, leading is graphic design jargon for ‘line-spacing’. It refers to the space between two baselines of text. The larger the leading, the more space between the text giving it more room to breathe and, generally, making it look nicer. Bonus fact: the term originates from the strips of lead in typewriters which were used to spread the lines out evenly.

54. Left-aligned

Text that is aligned with the left margin.

55. Leg

Short stroke in a downward direction.

56. Letterpress

Letterpress is a distinctive printing process that dates back back over 500 years, but the origins of which date back at least 1000 years. It a kind of relief printing in which a press is used to apply the direct impression of a raised surface, in this case letters, which has been covered in ink against paper. It has seen a resurgence in popularity as a craft recently after a decline following the introduction of computers in the 1970s.

57. Ligature

A ligature occurs where two or more letters are joined together as one character.

58. Link

The stroke connecting the bowl and the loop of the lowercase g.

59. Logomark

A logo of a company that does not contain the brand name itself—usually a shape or character used to visually represent the company. Logomarks are more easily shown than described, so think of Twitter’s bird (which in case you didn’t know is called Larry after basketball legend Larry Bird) or Apple’s iconic apple with a bite.

60. Logotype

Also known as a wordmark, a logotype is a brand name styled as a logo—designed in a visually unique way for a company. They’re usually very obvious and quickly associate a business with its visual identity. Some famous and recognisable examples include Disney, Coca Cola and Google.

61. Lowercase

Lowercase characters are the non-capital letters of the alphabet. They make up the bulk of written text, with uppercase or capital letters used primarily only to start sentences or proper names. The term lowercase is derived from the days of metal type where the more frequently used letters were kept near at hand in the lower case while the less frequently used capital letters were kept in the harder to reach upper case.

62. Margin

The margin is the blank space between the edge of a page and the content within it. The margin ensures that everything, but especially text and body copy, sits properly and comfortably in the document. The width of a margin can really affect the overall feel and look of a design.

63. Masthead

Though it sounds like it should be something to do with a ship, the masthead is simply the title design for the name of a publication, usually found on the front cover of a magazine. Masthead can also refer to graphic image or text title at the top of a webpage.

64. Mock-up

A mock-up is a realistic, normally 3D representation of a design, used to demonstrate how a design will look in the real world. There’s mock-ups for everything from tote bags to iPads so they can be used to show how an entire campaign or brand roll-out would look. Check out our list of 50 free mock-ups to help bring your designs to life.

65. Monochrome

Monochrome is a colour palette made up of various different shades and tones of a single colour. It’s important to note that while grayscale is monochrome, monochrome is not necessarily greyscale—monochrome images can be made up of any colour, for example an image made up of different shades and tones of purple.

66. Monospaced

A monospaced typeface is a typeface where each character is the same width, all occupying the same amount of horizontal space. They can also be called fixed-pitch, fixed-width or non-proportional typefaces.

67. Moodboard

The starting point for a lot of designers, a moodboard is a way for designers to collect together lots of visual references for a new design project—these can be photos, images or typography. Moodboards are used to develop the project’s aesthetic, for inspiration or to help communicate a specific idea or concept.

68. Orphan

A widow’s (see below) partner in crime, orphans is a single word (or very short line of two or three words) that sits on its own on a new line or new page/column. Like widows, they can be very frustrating but any designer worth their salt knows to always look out for these tricksy bits of text.

69. Palette

A palette is the colour scheme that is chosen for a specific design or brand—making up part of a brand’s style guide. A palette should be carefully chosen so that the colours in it work harmoniously together and help make a design as successful as possible. The term comes from an artists’ palette, which is a board or slab where artists would lay and mix different paint colours.

70. Pantone (PMS)

The Pantone Matching System is a standardised colour scheme used for printing, in addition to graphic design, it is used in a number of other industries including product and fashion design and manufacturing. Each colour has it’s own individual number and name—this year’s Pantone Colour of the Year is Living Coral, which has the Pantone number 16-1546. The numbers make reproducing and referencing colours super easy.

71. Pilcrow

A pilcrow is the name of the symbol, this one ¶, used to mark the beginning of a new paragraph or section of text. Pilcrows also appear on some software as a toolbar icon—it’s used on Adobe Photoshop as the icon for the paragraph tab, which allows the user to make changes to their paragraph structure. It’s also a great tidbit to know for any future pub quizzes.

72. Pixel

It’s all good explaining the difference between pixels and dots, but what exactly is a pixel? A contraction of the words ‘picture’ and ‘element’, a pixel are the smallest basic unit of programmable colour on a computer and all digital images are made up of a large number of individual pixels. Basically, they’re very, very small but very, very important.

73. Placeholder Text

You’ve probably seen the words ‘Lorem Ipsum’ before and thought “umm what?”—well, that’s a placeholder text, which can also be called a filler text or dummy text. The placeholder text is used for testing purposes—they fill the gap where the words will be in order to show where and how the final copy will sit. The words ‘Lorem Ipsum’ themselves have been the industry standard since the 1500s—and were invented randomly by an unknown printer.

74. Point Size

The distance from the top of the highest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender is the point size of any given typeface. Originally, this was the height of the face of the metal block on which each individual letter was cast.

75. PPI / DPI

The two measurements used to measure the resolution (see below). PPI stands for pixels per inch whilst DPI stands for dots per inch—they refer to the amount of pixels or dots, respectively, that can be placed in a line across one linear inch. PPI is used to describe the resolution of a digital image and DPI is used to describe the amount of ink dots per inch in a printed image. PPI can also affect the print size and quality of a design, but DPI has no affect on a digital design.

76. Printer’s Proof

Never underestimate the importance of a printer’s proof—these are mock-ups or a print sample of design that you can have in front of you, read, check and double check to ensure everything is correct and sign it off before sending it to the printer for the final print run.

77. Quick Keys / Shortcuts

Whatever you call them, quick keys or shortcuts are one of the most important things for a designer to know! They refer to the certain keys on your keyboard that allow you to carry out specific functions in a single click, rather than a longer, more complicated process. A majority of shortcuts combine pressing the cmd ⌘ key on Mac or the ctrl key on Windows and a combination of one or two letters, numbers or symbols. Here’s one to try—put your cursor on the word ‘shortcuts’ and press ⌘+ctrl+D.

78. Ragged Edge/Rag

Nothing to do with early 2000s R&B group Jagged Edge, ragged edges refers to when the body copy in a piece of design has uneven line lengths and the shape that this creates. They’re relatively easy to clean up through kerning and tracking—whose definitions can also be found in this article!

79. Raster

Another kind of graphic image, a raster (which can also be called a bitmap image) is an image made up of a certain number of pixels. Each pixel has its own colour, hue, saturation and transparency which helps to make up the image as a whole. Unlike vectors, due to them being made up of pixels, raster images will lose quality and become blurry as they’re resized.

80. Readability

Degree to which text can easily be read.

81. Repetition

Repetition simply means using the same element in a design more than once. Repetition simply means using the same element in a design more than once. Repetition simply means using the same element in a design more than once. It can create a sense of unity, cohesion and consistency.

82. Resolution

The term resolution refers to the number of units, measured in either DPI or PPI, that occupy a linear inch an image, both on screen and in print. Resolution is used to denote the quality of an image—it can generally be assumed that the higher the resolution, the better the quality of the image. You can tell if the resolution is too low as the image will appear blurry or pixelated.

83. RGB

Not to be confused with RBG (US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg), RGB stands, somewhat simply, for Red Green Blue, and is the colour mode which should be used when designing for digital applications. The three colours, Red, Green and Blue, can be combined in many different proportions to create any colour in the visible spectrum and as each colour refers to light, they grow brighter the more they are combined—it’s not magic, it’s design.

84. Right-aligned

When text is aligned to the right margin with the rag on the left side of the text frame.

85. Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a helpful way of aligning the subject of an image and making it aesthetically pleasing as possible. Imagine a 3×3 grid (or even add one in Photoshop or InDesign) over your picture and align the picture’s subject with the guidelines or intersection points (where the lines meet) or allow the picture’s different elements to flow through the grid.

86. Sans Serif

Sans is French for ‘without’ so you can probably guess that San Serif Fonts are fonts without serifs on the end of their letters. Usually, sans serif fonts are easier to read on the web and digital screens—for instance, Apple use the sans serif font Helvetica Neue, across all their operating systems. Alongside Helvetica Neue, some of the most well known examples of sans serif fonts are Futura and Brandon Grotesque.

87. Saturation

Saturation is a term used in chemistry and photography, but design-wise it’s about colour. Put simply, saturation is the intensity and brilliance of a colour. Saturation is usually expressed as a number which represents the degree to which it differs from white—this means that, if the saturation is very low a colour will appear white or close to it and if the saturation is very high a colour will appear brighter and more intense.

88. Scale

Scale is the relative size of an object or the different objects within a single design. Scale is something that can be used very cleverly in a design and even be used to deliver a message. Two objects of the same scale are usually seen as being equal, whilst if one object is considerably larger then it could be seen as being more important. It can be used to create hierarchy or drama.

89. Script Type

Script type is a font that is based on modern or traditional handwriting styles. There’s two forms of script fonts—formal and casual. Formal script fonts, the more traditional of the two, are based on seventeenth and eighteenth century letterforms. They are used, on documents like invitations and diplomas, to give a sense of elegance. Casual script fonts became popular in the 1970s and often appear to be created by a wet brush—showing a more active hand.

90. Serif

A serif is the small line that appears on the end of a letter in some typefaces—these typefaces are known as Serif Fonts. Serif fonts are easier to read in printed designs as the serifs make letters more distinctive and their shape makes even letter easier to recognise. Famous examples of serif fonts include Baskerville, Times New Roman and Garamond.

91. Shoulder

A curved stroke connected to a stem.

92. Skeuomorphism

A word that is fun to both say and write, skeuomorphism is when something, most usually a digital element, is designed to look like a physical replica of that thing, while not behaving in the same way or necessarily having the same function. Apple Macs have several examples of skeuomorphs on their operating system—have a look at the phonebook icon for the Contacts app for one such example.

93. Slab Serif Type

We’re not done yet with serifs, Slab Serif fonts are an offshoot of serif fonts that are characterised by thick serifs—the serifs can either be block or rounded. One popular example of a rounded slab serif font is Courier, which was widely used in typewriters. Slab serifs became popular in the nineteenth century as printed advertising became widespread.

94. Stem

A vertical stroke in a letterform. Can be found in both lowercase and uppercase letters.

95. Stock Photo

Stock photos are licensed images that designers are able to use so they don’t have to organise an entire photoshoot to get the images they need for a project. The stock photo industry has been around since the 1920s and there’s stock photographs for pretty much everything—from wildlife to sport to architecture and everything in between—even the infamous Boyfriend Looking Back meme came from a stock photo.

96. Stress

A diagonal or vertical change in stroke width across a letter.

97. Stroke

Any linear feature on a letter.

98. Style Guide

A style guide is an important part of branding. They determine the correct set of standards for the branding of a business or publication—anything from a business card to a multi-page website. A style guide is used to ensure that all a brands’ assets have complete uniformity and are kept looking spick and span. Now you know what a style guide is, you’ll definitely keep noticing when brands have one!

99. Swash

Addition of a decorative stroke in typography.

100. Symmetry

In everyday terms, symmetry refers to a sense of harmonious balance and proportion. It’s something most people are introduced to at an early age. In design terms, one of the fundamental principles of design, it does much the same—symmetry is used to add balance and create a sense of harmony in a design.

101. System Font

Main font used by a computer operating system.

102. Terminal

Any stroke which does not terminate in a serif is a terminal. It can be either straight or curved.

103. Texture

In design, texture refers to the visual appearance of a design. In others, adding rich, layered graphics to a design can help to create a visual texture. Designs can also imitate textures such as metal or fabric to likewise create a visual texture or add a fabricated tactile feel. Finally, texture can also be added to a print design through printing on different paper stocks or materials.

104. Thumbnail

A thumbnail is a small, rough sketches of how a designer wants their design to look—they can be used to help decide upon a layout or how a design will come together. They’re usually done by hand in the very early stages of a design so all the different options can be explored before any work is done on a computer.

105. Tittle

A tittle (also known as, the much less interesting, superscript dot) is a small distinguishing mark—most commonly used to refer to the dot on a lowercase i or j. Tittles also appear above other letters in various other languages. It’s also a great fact to know for your next pub quiz.

106. Tofu

Probably the most delicious word in this list, tofu is slang that refers to the little squares that are displayed when a typeface is not loaded on to a computer or when a font doesn’t have a specific glyph. Noto is a font family that aims to remove tofu from the web entirely—it’s short for ‘No tofu’.

107. Tracking

Though they are similar, be careful not to confuse tracking with kerning. Tracking is the spacing of an entire word or paragraph (not just between two letters)—the act of tracking changes the space between every letter in a word/paragraph at the same time. It can be used to change the density and structure of a word or paragraph.

108. Triadic (Colours)

Triadic colours, or a triadic colour scheme, are three colours that are equally dispersed around a colour wheel. The most common of these are the primary colours; red, yellow and blue. Triadic colours tend to be more vibrant than complementary or analogous colours so it’s important to consider how the colours balance together—there should be one dominant colour and the others used as secondary colours or accents.

109. Type Classification

Type of characters based on style.

110. Type Properties

Specific qualities that allow characters to fit on a grid.

111. Typeface Design

The process of creating a complete set of characters in a specific style. This could include uppercase and lowercase characters, mathematical symbols, punctuation, numerals, etc.

112. Typesetting

The process of laying out large amounts of text (e.g., a book, a magazine, etc.) and making sure it’s legible and readable.

113. Type Size

The distance from the top of the highest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender. It is usually measured in points.

114. Typography

The term typography refers to two things. Firstly, the style and appearance of printed words. Secondly and more importantly, it refers to the art and procedure of arranging type to make it readable, legible, attractive and engaging in print or digital designs. Typography is something that all graphic designers will deal with in their careers—whether they are working at a type foundry, creating their own typefaces, or working in UX design.

Want to learn more about typography? Check out Shillington New York teacher Nikita Prokhorov’s deep dive into typography, its history, rules and terms (some of which are included in this article).

115. Uppercase

Uppercase characters are the capital letters of the alphabet. Uppercase letters are normally used at the beginning of sentences and as the first letter of proper names. The term uppercase is derived from the days of metal type where the lesser used capital letters were kept in the harder to reach upper case while the more frequently used letters were kept nearer at hand, in the lower case.

116. Vector

A vector is a graphic image that is made with mathematical equations—they’re defined in terms of 2D points connected by lines and curves to form shapes. Basically this means that vectors can be resized or scaled to any size without losing quality or getting blurry. They’re very, very useful!

117. Vertex

The bottom point where two strokes are joined together.

118. White Space

White space, despite its seemingly misleading name, does not need to be white. It is the space, which can be any colour, pattern or texture, between different elements in a design that are essential in creating a successful design. Think of white space as giving a design visual breathing room, like some sort of design meditation. It can also be called negative space—which is slightly less misleading.

119. Widows

In typesetting, widows are the lines of text that are separated from the main body of paragraph—usually the end of a paragraph that goes over on to a new page or column or the opposite of that, the start of a paragraph that is at the very bottom of a page. They’re the bane of a designer’s life.

120. X-Height

X-Height refers very literally to the height of a lowercase x in a specific font. You may question why such a specific height is so important, but the x-height affects the proportion of any font and, in turn, its legibility. It can generally be assumed that as the x-height increases, legibility improves.

There we go—you should now know all the graphic design vocabulary to be able to decipher your new creative director’s feedback or ask your designer for exactly what you need. Reckon we’ve missed any? Let us know and we’ll add them to the list!

Has this list made you want to learn more? Consider taking the online graphic design course at Shillington and launch your creative career!

Dive into the hottest current graphic design trends in 2023! Read a thorough review of what awaits on the stage of graphic design – well-known or completely revolutionary approaches that are about to shape our new reality.

Remember the times when the world was all about flat, subtle design? “The plainer, the better” was the norm. Well, things have changed. The reign in the graphic design world was slowly but very firmly taken over by big voluminous shapes in screaming colors that offer an alternative reality to the viewer – more vivid than ever!

The newest graphic design trends in 2023 offer us a ride to the future and invite us to observe a world of new depths, colors, and shapes that push the limits.

Welcome to the new reality. Ready to indulge together?

Video Recap of Graphic Design Trends 2023

Check out a quick video recap of all trends further explained in this article. We’ve captured the most essential points and principles of each trend, and featured awesome examples that will inspire you to the bone. And if you want to get into more detail, just keep scrolling!

Top 11 Trends Out of Millions of Styles

We’ve outlined 11 great and exciting styles as the most influential and noteworthy graphic design trends for 2023, among millions!

Graphic design is a universe of shapes, colors, and effects, all working in symbiosis to make the viewer immersed in new feelings, impressions, and experiences. Enjoy a great video that represents the never-ending diversity of graphic design styles gathered together.

Example by RAXO STUDIOS

So, let’s dive into each trend of the top 11 graphic design trends in 2023! Enjoy plenty of amazing examples that will load you with inspiration and expand your perspectives on how you see and create a design.

Trend #1: The Clay Look

Finding perfection in the imperfect is one powerful message behind this trending graphic style. The Plasticine Clay design effect is achieved by using a digital technique or real plasticine.

Unlike classic 3D design that usually presents glossy, smooth surfaces, the Plasticine Clay graphic design trend in 2023 introduces imperfect bumpy surfaces that seem to be shaped with fingers. It is here to remind you that beauty hides in imperfection.

But there is even more. The Plasticine Clay design is one that goes through ever-lasting metamorphosis. It never dries. It knows no limits. It can be modeled and reused in infinite ways, many times. This revolutionary graphic design trend for 2023 motivates you to seek a constant change, to explore and experiment. It is here to tell you that the power to change the world is in your own hands.

Here are some great examples of the Plasticine Clay graphic design trend that perfectly illustrate the imperfection introduced by this style, and the constant metamorphosis that one goes through.

Example by Francesca Di Vito, Federico Piccirillo

Example by Andi Meier

Browse more clay design examples

Trend #2: 3D Memphis Style

The well-known Memphis art movement, which had its first apogee in the 80s, is now back on the graphic design stage with its bright colors, bold combinations, patterns of contrasting colors, simple and abstract geometric shapes. But this time, all presented through the prism of a 3D digital reality.

The 3D Memphis design style of 2023 invites you to a real fest of colors, stimulating your senses to experience new exciting sensations. It’s a brilliant design approach based on 3D geometry and an experimental play of colors that reminds you to search for the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Dive into the diversity of 3D Memphis style design examples, all based on the same design principles but providing so versatile experiences.

Example by Humberto Rapelli

Example by My Name is Wendy Studio

Browse more Memphis style examples

Trend #3: Clean Style

In contrast to the colorful 3D Memphis style, comes the clutter-free clean style to bring calmness and purity to the graphic design world. This style allows you to embrace the essence of things.

The clean graphic design style gets rid of patterns, ornaments, and decorations to create breathing room for what really matters. In some designs, it is presented through the depth of a 3D reality as a predominant design technique we observe. For others, it’s just plain flat minimalism.

The main color palette of the Clean graphic design style presented on the digital stage, consists primarily of white, light beige, and whitish tints of other colors of the color wheel, all conveying the feeling of cleanliness in its purest form.

In the following good examples, you will see variants of the Clean style using white as a predominant color, pale tints of beige, pale blue, pale pink, or simply clutter-free design that focuses on the product.

When it comes to package design, the Clean style really finds a lot of applications. While being quite subtle, minimalist, and well… clean, this design style manages to make the product stand out in an elegant, yet strong and memorable way.

Example by Forner Studio

Example by Herman Scheer

Browse more websites with clean design

Trend #4: Trippy Design

Yes, you read it correctly. This design style offers a surrealistic experience in response to the growing demand for sense-provoking visuals. The Trippy design sends the viewer on a journey to a non-existent, fictional reality. If you describe it as “too much”, you won’t be wrong.

Example by Joe Taylor

The Trippy Design is not defined by any particular rules besides distorting the reality as much as your imagination allows. Designers usually present a mishmash of styles that may or may not follow logic.

The sequence or combination of styles doesn’t obey restrictions, too. The wanted effect is the feeling of having hallucinations. It can easily make you dizzy and it’s hard to say it’s aesthetic. But the Trippy design is definitely rebellious which is why it managed to get among the most popular trends on the graphic design stage in 2023!

The Trippy design surely carries a rebellious spirit in it. Here are some awesome examples of Trippy design put into action.

Browse more trippy design examples

Trend #5: Neon & Abstract Cartoon Stickers

Physical stickers have been widely popular for decades, being the first to offer a low-cost, accessible opportunity to personalize your belongings and create unique edgy designs that distinguish you from the crowd.

Fast forward to the present day, stickers have carved their way to the digital stage presenting an even greater diversity of styles, shapes, and colors that can be found in their physical form.

Two styles pop among others with being super trendy and hot in the current graphic design trends of 2023, and these are the neon and abstract cartoon sticker styles.

While most digital stickers are crafted to resemble physical stickers with the typical border line around them to indicate the cut, or a strict shape like a circle or a rounded rectangle, we also observe an innovative modern design approach that distorts the shape, and even adds volume and motion to present the well-known in a completely new light.

Example by Rytis Jonikas for Flair Digital

On the other side of the spectrum, some designs offer a near-realistic perception that makes you wonder whether you are looking at a picture or a digital graphic.

Many modern digital sticker collections fall into the huge category of abstract cartoon style, all conveying the sense of abstract art drawings, even stickers made of words.

Trend #6: 70s Retro Flat Style

We are witnessing a huge comeback of vibrant, daring flat designs inspired by the 70s art movement. Whether simple or more complex, these design compositions put bright, saturated colors on the pedestal. Although bold and quite flashy, the color combinations of the 70s retro flat design style are aesthetically pleasing. The colors go well together and manage to balance the overall design.

A significant trademark of this style is the thin black outlining, aiming to put a border to each element distinguishing it from the rest.

Typography is also a part of the overall art composition putting attention-seeking bulky, rounded letter types in the spotlight. In fact, typography here is often a main element of the design composition. A popular practice is to add a 3D-effect thick border line to make the letters pop.

The style was popularized by the famous interface design app Figma. Although being super simple, this 70s retro design style looks pleasing and catches the attention with ease. So, it’s not surprising that it managed to make its way to the 11 most modern graphic design trends in 2023.

Example by Nicolo Bianchino

Example by Lili des Bellons, Fanny Engrand, Daniel Vargas Diaz, Studio | Europe

The 70s retro-style flat illustrations with outlining also paved their way up the charts, modernized with futuristic, less saturated color palettes. Multi-color gradients are also introduced on the stage but black thin outlining still remains a must-have feature of this style. Here are some more cool examples of this trend of 70s-inspired illustrations, some – with a futuristic vibe.

Example by Lili des Bellons

Example by Carlos Rueda, José Neto, Bah Nozari, Ana Hill, TheLittleLabs Studio

Browse more inspirational examples in retro style

Trend #7: Simplified 3D Style

Many designers search for perfection in simplicity, so it’s not a surprise that the simplified 3D style is also among the cool current trends in graphic design. A famous quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is “Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.”

Example by ATendril *, Jonathan Lindgren, Microsoft Design, Matthias Winckelmann, Samuel Bohn, Zelig Sound, Facu Labo, Jordi Pagès, Lenar Singatullov, Nidia Dias, Eric Bernal, Rodrigo Rezende, Andras Csuka, Nando Costa, Leonardo Bortolussi, Leo Natsume, Plenty Studio, Leo Mateus, Margarida Lemos, Gustavo Henrique, Guilherme Vasconcellos

Basic geometric shapes lay the foundation of this type of design, simplifying as much as possible all elements of the image. Think baby toys – big, smooth, basic shapes put together to create a simplified, stylized, and easily recognizable object.

This train of thought leads us to another reason why simplified 3D design is so effective. Basic three-dimensional shapes like spheres, cubes, and cylinders are among the ones to form our perception of the world in early childhood years. This is why the simplified 3D design is just instantly understood – it is familiar, approachable, and fun.

Since all details are reduced to a minimum, this style is used in making icons, too. But taken to the big scale, the simplified 3D design turns into an unmatchable experience that makes you feel you’ve landed in a world of toys.

Example by Igor Tsaruk, Marina Ahmadova, Veronika Supruniuk, Tsaruk Ahmadova

Example by João Gonçalo Lucas, Shut Up Claudia, Jonas Mosesson, Edgar Ferrer, QB SOUND, Sebastian Pfeifer, Clim Studio

Trend #8: Abstract Line Art Characters

Characters have always been somehow bound with graphic design. They give life to the design and make the brand behind it feel more human. While character design gives indeed a field of wild imagination, we are witnessing a rise of a particular style trend here – abstract line art characters with weird looks and retro vibes.

Completely fictional, weird-looking characters, which don’t resemble anything you know, are enjoying wide popularity in current graphic design trends 2023. Unified by simple design characteristics – flat linear art and bright colors that radiate retro vibes, these characters actually find their place in many contemporary design projects.

In terms of abstractness, expect to see distorted proportions and weird mixtures of animals, objects, and human traits. This is what we will continue to see on the graphic design stage regarding character style.

Example by Jose Morquecho

Browse more character design style ideas

Trend #9: Artistic Serif Fonts

Lately, designers have been all about beautiful and sophisticated Serif Fonts taken even further. Some website designs are built around oversize Serif Fonts being the only or main design element in the composition.

The graphic design world knows Serif fonts for a long. They have been widely used to set a formal tone, a sense of reliability, professionalism, and sophistication. While designers are widely aware of these strong qualities, the newest graphic design trends of 2023 will require them to challenge the status quo and push the limits of imagination in this field.

Designers will be encouraged to add playfulness, creativity, and unpredictability to the mixture. We will see them playing with letter shapes, intertwining strokes and uniting letters, distorting or liquifying strokes, extending the strokes of some letters to wrap around other letters, or interacting with the rest of the text in a particular way. The possibilities are endless.

Trend #10: Rainbow Palette Colors

It’s already clear – modern designers are crazy about colors. Multi-color designs like these inspired by the rainbow color palette are widely popular right now and usually seen in combinations with other cool trending design styles.

Example by Five Three Five Design

On the one hand, the rainbow palette is a great epitome of diversity in all its forms. On the other hand, it introduces a dream destination, a magical experience, and an escape from boring everyday life. No wonder why it became so popular among contemporary graphic designers. These colors can literally enchant the viewer.

The rainbow color palette can go through many transformations. You will see it in the form of beautiful multi-color gradients, compositions of simple one-color 3D designs combined together, flat and flashy design elements, colorful patterns, or even multicolor light effects.

Browse more color combinations and ideas

Trend #11: Nature-Inspired Designs

As much as designers want to escape from the world as we know it and introduce us to a reality of overstimulation, eccentric colors, and fictional surroundings, it’s good to know that nature-inspired designs remain among the best current graphic design trends 2023.

Either conveyed through muted earthy tones, natural materials, textures, and shapes or even taking it literally and depicting nature the way it is, nature-inspired designs remind us that we shouldn’t lose our roots.

Moreover, nature-inspired designs are a great tool to balance your senses, as they convey tranquility, inner peace, and harmony. It’s not a coincidence that even heaven is usually illustrated as peaceful nature scenery, a harmonious symbiosis between fauna and flora.

Of course, even nature-inspired designs can implement elements from a fictional, imaginative reality such as objects with vivid colors and even big bulky 3D letters. Check out some inspirational examples of product designs and commercial video projects that depict purely nature-inspired graphic compositions and amazing mixtures the fictional and the real.

Example by Pleid St., Ruye, Leandro Beltran, bruma fx studio, Pocko Agency, Gabriel Morala, Juanma Mota

Example by Bartek Kalinowski, Rafał Woźniak, Abra Network

Example by HELIX D ., Mohigh Design, Young Hwangbo

Final Words

The latest graphic design trends for 2023 are here to push the imagination of designers to new heights. They create unrealistic, dreamy environments that make you immersed in a completely new reality – a world so mysterious and enchanting that awakens the viewer’s curiosity from first sight and drives a person’s natural desire to explore.

And if you thought there was enough craziness in the world already, then we believe the best we can do is to channel this craziness into something productive and inspirational for others. And this is where graphic design trends 2023 step in!

We are really curious to see what you think of these predictions. Feel free to share your thoughts and impressions in the comments below!

You may also be interested in some of these inspirational articles:

• 30 Inspiring UX Design Examples For Your Next Vision in 2022
• 18 of the Best Portfolio Examples That Do It Right
• 38 Incredible Poster Design Ideas that Impress with Creativity and Style

Visualize data in MS Word with graphs

Updated on December 9, 2021

What to Know

• In a Word document, select Insert > Chart. Select the graph type and then choose the graph you want to insert.
• In the Excel spreadsheet that opens, enter the data for the graph. Close the Excel window to see the graph in the Word document.
• To access the data in the Excel workbook, select the graph, go to the Chart Design tab, and then select Edit Data in Excel.

This article explains how to create a graph in Microsoft Word for a Mac or a Windows computer. Instructions in this article apply to Microsoft Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, and Microsoft 365 for Windows and Mac.

How to Create a Graph in Microsoft 365 for Mac

Microsoft Word offers a variety of ways to visualize data. When you know how to make a graph in Word, you can create visual aids by importing data from Microsoft Excel.

Follow these steps to create and customize graphs in the version of Word that comes with Microsoft 365 for Mac:

1. Select Insert in the upper-left corner of Word.

2. Select Chart.

3. Hover the mouse cursor over the type of graph that you wish to create, for example, Line or Statistical.

4. A sub-menu appears that contains multiple options, including different formats and variations. Select the graph you want to insert in the document.

5. In the Excel spreadsheet that opens, enter the data for the graph.

6. When you’re satisfied with the category names and values, close the Excel window to see the graph in the Word document.

7. To access the data in the Excel workbook at a later time, select the graph, go to the Chart Design tab, and then select Edit Data in Excel.

How to Create a Graph in Word for Windows

To create a graph in Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013:

1. Select Insert in the upper-left corner of Word.

2. Select Chart.

3. In the Insert Chart dialog box, select the type of graph that you wish to create. For example, choose either Line, Bar, or Histogram.

4. Each grouping of graphs contains multiple options, including different formats and variations. After choosing the graph that you wish to insert, select OK.

5. The graph appears in the Word document, and a new window containing editable data in a spreadsheet opens. To modify the category names and data, replace the existing text and numeric values with the appropriate entries. Changes made in the spreadsheet are instantly reflected in the graph.

   If you want to edit the data in Microsoft Excel, select Edit Data in Microsoft Excel in the miniature spreadsheet.

6. When you’re satisfied with the category names and values, close the spreadsheet window.

How to Change the Graph Format and Edit Data

After the graph is created, formatting buttons appear to the right. If these buttons aren’t visible, select the chart. These settings control how the graph interacts with the text around it from a layout perspective.

You can also add or remove elements in the graph (including titles, labels, gridlines, and a legend), change graph styles and colors, and apply filters to the graph. More configurable options are found in the Windows version as opposed to macOS.

To access or edit the data in the graph, select Edit Data or Edit Data in Excel.

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Resume/CV Template for Microsoft Word & iWork Pages that includes US Letter Size Files and A4 Size Files; Microsoft Word Files (.docx) and iWork Pages Files (.pages); 1, 2, and 3 Page Resume…

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Resume/CV Template for Microsoft Word & iWork Pages that includes US Letter Size Files and A4 Size Files; Microsoft Word Files (.docx) and iWork Pages Files (.pages); 1, 2, and 3 Page Resume…

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Resume/CV Template for Microsoft Word & iWork Pages that includes US Letter Size Files and A4 Size Files; Microsoft Word Files (.docx) and iWork Pages Files (.pages); 1, 2, and 3 Page Resume…

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We all know art objects make the end product look attractive, comprehensive. Microsoft Word graphics are varied with figures, images, pictures, charts, and tables to develop the winning item. There are job recruitment industry templates that are editable in Microsoft Word. In general, it’s offered resumes, covered, business, reference letters, CVS, and other useful docs. Because of the professionals working on creating high-quality items, with the help of it, you can get hired for your dream job, impress your boss. They have not one purpose but other directions, functions.

The fact that the formers are beautiful and elegant helps to reconsider the information more structured. A familiar situation when you are doing your best to save time, energy? Our service won’t make you do this, because we’ve already thought it over and made up fast, comfortable facilities. Is it worth it to read to the end of the article? Yes, because you will get precise information, mindful understanding. After reading to the end, you’ll realize how relevant, profitable our offer is.

Great Features of Microsoft Word Graphics

An integral part of a template is the features it contains. You might be confused about the amount of them, but we guarantee that all of these you’ll get in one purchase. In addition, artworks are editable in Microsoft Word, so it’s one more added benefit.

Take a look at the main multi-role characteristics:

1. Editable and customized. If you don’t like design, you are in charge of changing it under yourself and enjoying free use. We surely care about our customers’ tastes and preferences.
2. A4 paper size. The most common, recognizable.
3. Print-ready. We understand that you are in a rush to job meetings, so it’s the reason we’ve made the function where you are free to print documents without blinking an eye. Everything is simple, even for kids or retired people.
4. Fully layered. As it was mentioned, simplicity takes a big place in the working process. A layered template contains design cues to help during the usage. To cut a long story short, sketches.
5. Modern design. We don’t follow fast-coming trends because we’re sure simple, plain, pastel designs will always be in high demand among clients. In this way, we differ from others.
6. Free fonts. Affordable tools come in handy and become an essential part of future page making.
7. Help guide. There is a file helping you to figure out issues you are dealing with or maybe to ensure you are doing everything right. Don’t worry; you will have help from us.
8. Spot color design. Sharp and bright colors are a sign of qualitative, conscientious, professional work from our side.
9. Bleeds, guides are also included.
10. Resizable components. As well as changing colors and elements’ places, you can change sizes as you desire. We give you the freedom to select whatever you want from our offered possibilities.

As you see, there are plenty of advantages to exploiting illustration templates. Don’t forget they are fully editable in the Microsoft Word program to add cool stuff and make it one-of-a-kind. These are made to satisfy your wishes, and don’t worry; you will meet expectations. The next question is who might get interested in MS Word graphics. Let’s have a look.

Who May Need Microsoft Word Graphics for Work

It is for a job or schoolwork purposes. To land your dream job, you need a formulated application. Patterns, with graphics, will lead you to the end and assure a successful future working process in the company you hoped to. Firms use MS Word to manage correspondence. For instance, you can use a program to create an email; merge functions can fill the mock-up email with pertinent contact details. It may be used to create business documents, company reports, budgets, plans. It can help you build a library of key forms like receipts, accounts.

Design features are easy to use, allowing you to use data visualization tools to add charts, graphs, and tables to your documents. Its SmartArt function uses craft items to transfer information. Promotional and marketing materials such as brochures, flyers, newsletters are full of colorful graphics and exploited in MS Word. It handles letterhead, allowing to format and create it. It can be helpful for small businesses that are doing their best to pay for services, consumables. You can use styles, themes to decide how all your documents will look for branding aims, ensuring harmonization in colors, fonts, and effects.

For everyday routines such as doing a daily journal or calendar, graphs come in handy. Teachers are target users as well. To provide students with a great repository of information, they need to assemble it and give it cool visuals. They will wake up wanting to learn in this way. Methodists help teachers, coaches with problems, emergency tasks to handle. In turn, pupils are supposed to do homework, presentations, take notes, coursework to get a good mark and learn a little for themselves. Marketologs and business owners like to build tables related to finances and other necessary things to their minds. As you can see, art elements are multipurpose and are used in different spheres of life.

Microsoft Word Graphics Video

Not a secret everybody in their time was a beginner. But not everybody had access to Internet resources to gain knowledge in a particular field. Today’s days are full of free, valuable information to read or watch. In this article, you have an opportunity to get more. Check out the video translation; it’s about tools for web designers, illustrators, marketers. In this live stream, experts are sharing a bunch of super useful online instruments. Enjoy!

Microsoft Word Graphics Q&A

What is Microsoft Word graphics?

Microsoft Word is soft designed for text manipulations. Graphic elements are inherent components of a program. They are varied, fulfilling texts. Actions to do are: change shapes, colors, add pictures, audios, videos, play with sizes, add shades, borders, shadows. They are used in different fields by different people.

How can I use Microsoft Word graphics?

Here is a step-by-step instruction:

1. Click on a doc where you want to see a future picture.
2. Click the “Insert” and then on the “Picture” option available in the Illustrations group. As a result, the “Insert Picture” dialog box will appear.
3. You can select the desired image using the dialog box.

Well done!

What is SmartArt in Microsoft Word graphics?

SmartArt is a type of image that often can be shown in PowerPoint. It allows you to communicate information with graphics instead of dull text. There is a huge range of styles you can choose from to use to illustrate many ideas.

Where can I find SmartArt in Microsoft Word graphics?

You have a plan to follow. On the «Insert» menu, select «SmartArt graphics.» On the tab in «Insert SmartArt graphic group,» you will see and choose the type of computer graphics you want. Then decide the layout you want and enter text.