The following terms refer to items on an actual newspaper page.

Click here to see a "Sample Front Page"

Banner: a wide headline extending across the entire page.

Boldface: a heavier, darker weight of a typeface; used to add emphasis (the word 'darker' here is in boldface).

Border: a rule used to form a box or to edge a photograph.

Box: a ruled border around a story or art.

Broadsheet: a full-sized newspaper, measuring roughly 14 by 23 inches.

Bumping/butting heads: headlines from adjacent stories that collide with each other. Also called Tombstoning; should be avoided whenever possible.

Byline: the reporter's name, usually at the beginning of a story.

Callouts: words, phrases or text blocks used to label parts of a map or diagram (also called factoids).

Column: a stack of text; also called a leg.

Column inch: a way to measure the depth of text or ads; it's an area one column wide and one inch deep. A space two columns wide by two inches deep would be four column inches.

Copy: the text of the story.

Crop: to indicate where a photo should be trimmed before it runs in the paper; usually done by making crop marks in the margins of the photo.

Cutline: a line or block of type providing descriptive information about a photo.

Dateline: a line located at the beginning of a news story that tells where the story takes place or where it was written.

Double truck: Two facing pages on the same sheet of newsprint, treated as one unit.

Drop head: a small headline running below the main headline; also called a deck.

Dummy: a small, detailed page diagram showing where all elements go; also, the process of drawing up a layout.

Feature: a non-hard-news story (a profile, preview, quiz, etc.) often given special design treatment.

Flag: the name of a newspaper as it's displayed on page one; also called a nameplate.

Folio: type at the top of an inside page giving the newspaper's name, date and page number.

Four-color: the printing process that combines cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow (yellow) and black to produce full-color photographs and artwork.

Headline: large type running above or beside a story to summarize its content; also called a 'head' for short.

House ad: an advertisement promoting upcoming editorial features, benefits of subscribing or an event sponsored by the newspaper. House ads are often used as filler.

Infographic: Newsroom slang for "informational graphic"; any map, chart or diagram used to analyze an event, object or place.

Jump: to continue a story on another page; text that's been continued on another page is called the jump.

Jump line: type telling the reader that a story is continued from another page.

Kicker: A short, small label above a main headline that names the subject the story is about or, in the case of sports stories, provides the final score of the game or match.

Layout: the placement of art and text on a page; to lay out a page is to design it.

Liftout quote: a graphic treatment of a quotation taken from a story, often using bold or italic type, rules or screens.

Masthead: a block of information, including staff names and publication data, often printed on the editorial page.

Mug shot: a small photo showing a person's face.

Photo credit: a line that tells who shot a photograph.

Refer: A line of bold, small type with a page number at the end that "refers" or directs readers to a related story elsewhere in the paper.

Sidebar: a small story accompanying a bigger story on the same topic.

Style: a newspaper's standardized set of rules and guidelines. Newspapers have styles for grammar, punctuation, headline codes, design principles, etc.

Slug: the key word (or words) used to locate or identify a story when it is continued on another page of the newspaper.

Tabloid: a newspaper format that's roughly half the size of a regular broadsheet, like the Weekender. White space: areas of a page free of any type or artwork.

Source: The Newspaper Designer's Handbook, 1989/1995.