Glossary

Designer Side

The term “Designer Side” refers to the Editor view the designer sees while creating Templates.

Anchor Control

A control icon located at the top of the Position tab allows the user to set the reference point (from the default top left) to any other point of the document. May also be used to anchor the width or height by selecting the highlightable anchor points on each side.

Arch - Wrap

Transforms a design into a semi-circle with an adjustable angle and a variable slice to bend the design upwards or downwards. May also be mirrored.

Aspect Ratio

The ratio between the height and width of an image, symbol, or text box. The first number refers to the width, and the second number indicates the height. By default, Printess will keep the aspect ratio of any inserted symbol until Keep Aspect Ratio has been manually switched off.

Baseline

A fixed point of reference that serves as a guiding line for text. Controls where all text characters “sit” in a frame. Is adjustable in Printess through features such as Baseline Grid.

Baseline Grid

A customizable horizontal grid for Multi Line texts that snaps the vertical position of each text line to the closest grid line. Can be enabled and disabled.

Bleed

An area of a document where the visual content intentionally overflows the intended cut line. Bleed is removed when the document is printed or cut to its specified size.

Blur - Effect

Applies a blurring distortive effect to images and frames. Works with all frame features.

Buyer Side

The term Buyer Side refers to what the customer of an e-commerce shop will see and edit.

Color Group

Creatable groups that make it easy for users to organize various color swatches. When two or more color groups have been created with at least one equally named color, Printess will automatically display a color scheme selection.

Color Scheme

Are created when a user has made two or more color groups with different variations (and one equally named color) that are used to define several different appearances for the same design. Color schemes are totally customizable to the needs of each individual customers, making them a very useful Printess feature.

Custom - Wrap

A wrap that has independently defined parameters for the top and bottom of a frame. Totally customizable by users.

Distortion - Wrap

A wrap that applies a wave-like transformation to text and graphics. Scale, octave, and frequency are customizable.

Document

A document is the core element of a Printess Template. It contains pages. A document can change its size and the designer can define how elements on pages should behave in this case. Documents within the same Template can also get nested into each other as a form of graphical building block which will stay variable.

Drop Shadow - Effect

Creates a shadow below the selected frame feature. Can be created with any available color. X & Y shadow offset, blur, spread, blend mode, and color are customizable.

Editor API

An API (Application Programming Interface) allows two pieces of software to communicate with each other. Our Editor API allows users to embed a Printess “container” on their website. The Printess UI can still be used (as is the default) but users are also able to build their own business-specific UI around the Printess program.

Effect

Effects are a feature of a frame. Effects transform multiple frame contents like text, image, or shape. Available Effects are:
Opacity, Blend Mode, Blur, Mask, Turbulence, Bevel, Drop-Shadow, Inner-Shadow, Outer-Glow, Inner-Glow and the Stroke-Effect

Facing Pages

A page layout for side-by-side pages. A document needs to contain a minimum of three pages to create facing pages, as the first and last pages will always be single pages. Facing pages are normal pages extended to the right.

Fish - Wrap

A mirrored wave-type frame warp based on sin-wave scaling. The number of waves and height amplitude are customizable.

Flag - Wrap

An ocean wave-type frame wrap that is based on vertical sin-wave translation. Wave count and amplitude are customizable, and the wave can be shifted with a phase shift function.

Form Field

A Form Field is a variable that can be changed by the Buyer or in Designer Side. Some form fields are automatically created like the Product-Matrix or Color-Scheme form field. Layer and Text Frames have the option to create a form field.

Frame

A box on a page. Frames have features to host various content types: Text, image, shapes, sub documents, Text on Path, and frames can have Effects and Warps

Frame Features

The customizable aspects of a frame. Printess excels at identifying and manipulating frame features.

Frame Group

A Frame Group keeps various frames together and also intelligently collects their Buyer Side properties.

Grid Gap Size

Sets the distance between both the vertical and horizontal grid lines, effectively setting the grid size.

Grid Lines

An optional and customizable grid that will snap frame positions and sizes (keeping aspect ratios) to the grid lines when a user moves frames around or scales them.

Groups

Frames can be grouped together into different layers, on top of a Base Layer. Groups are very effective in organizing a user’s layout and moving multiple frames around. They create a more streamlined Buyer Side experience.

HSL

HSL stands for hue, saturation, and lightness. It is represented by a circular color wheel.

Inner Glow - Effect

Creates a glowing effect inside of the selected frame feature. Can be created with any available color. X & Y shadow offset, blur, spread, blend mode, effect area, and color are all customizable.

Inner Shadow - Effect

Creates a shadow on top of the selected frame feature. Can be created with any available color. X & Y shadow offset, blur, spread, blend mode, effect area, and color are customizable.

Kerning

The spacing between letters or characters.

Layer

Layers belong to a single document and allow a better organization of frames. Layers can be used to steer language versions or to control which frames appear during Buyer Side configuration and which appear in the production. Layers also help to display non-editable frames on the Buyer Side.

Layout Snippet

A Layout Snippet is a page design block that can be used across multiple products.

Mask - Effect

An image-only effect that creates a customizable “picture frame” around the edges of an image. Masking Channels can be changed between image and alpha with different effects for each, and a mask can be inverted.

Mesh - Wrap

A grid wrap that is perfect for applying text and graphics to uneven surfaces. Can create a crumpling effect among many others. The number of columns and rows can be adjusted to provide more or less movable intersect points.

Mug - Wrap

Projects frames to perfectly fit onto coffee mugs! The visible angle and y-offset can be adjusted to Buyer specifications.

Multi Line Text

A text box that can contain paragraphs. Multi Line texts are highly customizable, with the user being able to select font, font size, line height, color, tracking, manual kerning, etc… They can be altered through the Character Properties tab, as well as the Styles tab.

Opacity - Effect

The transparency of a frame. Printess sets each frame to a default opacity of 100%, which means the frame is non-transparent. This can be very easily changed to allow images to be visible through text, and vice versa. Blend modes can also be applied to the opacity effect.

OTF

OTF stands for OpenType Font. It is a file type and indicates that a file is a font. This OTF indicator allows Printess to utilize OTF files as fonts.

Outer Glow - Effect

Only available as a background, the Outer Glow effect creates a glowing effect behind the selected frame feature. X & Y shadow offset, blur, spread, blend mode, and color are customizable.

Padding

The empty space around different features on a page. Controls the distance of the text to the respective frame edge. Padding creates a “white space” that balances and clarifies the layout of a document.

Pages

Pages are what determine the general layout of a Printess document. There are two types of pages: facing pages and single pages. They are on what frames are placed, and are organized through the Pages tab.

Paste Board

The area around a document where design elements are visible. Can be enlarged to show an entire product outside of the printable area. Paste Board size can be automatically set to the size of a frame, or manually set by inputting the required dimensions.

Perspective - Wrap

A wrap transformation to give off the feeling of depth. Edges can be adjusted to change the angle of perception.

Pit - Wrap

A wrap that gives the perception of standing in front of a curved wall. The height of a pit can be amplified through its Height Fraction feature. Pit wraps have 3 modes: Upper, Lower, and Squeeze.

Product-Matrix (Layer Matrix)

The Product Matrix allows the control of layer visibilities in a very simple matrix-style way.

Reference Point Control

A control icon located at the top of the Position tab that gives the user total control over the point of rotation, as well as the ability to reassign the rotation point to any corner or side of a frame.

RGB

RGB stands for red, green, and blue. RGB is a color model that combines these 3 colors to reproduce a huge array of various colors.

multi line text Editor

Allows users to input different content such as characters in Japanese or Chinese, texts, and symbol fonts.

Single Line Text

A single line of text that is fantastic for headlines and form fields. Can be easily converted to Multi Line text when needed. Alignment, font, font color, size, padding, stroke, and spacing can all be customized. Before and after texts can also be added to Single Line texts, which is useful for form fields where a Buyer might input phone numbers or other changing business details.

Smart Guide

The Printess positioning aid that snaps frames to edges or maintains user-defined distances from one frame to another while they are being moved around.

Sticker Snippet

A Snippet is a graphical asset that can be placed on any document.

Stroke

An outline around frames and Single Line texts. Can be customized with colors, stroke width, type, stroke alignment, and stroke joins.

Stroke Alignment

Controls if a stroke will appear on the center, outside, or inside of an object.

Stroke Join

Controls how stroke edge contours are formed. Joins can be miter, round or beveled.

Sub Document

A Sub Document is another document from the same Template which has become the content of a frame.
Template In Printess you always work on Templates. A Template itself can contain multiple components such as:

Symbol Text

Emojis, graphics, and symbols that are input with keyboard keys as a font. Can be found as OTF or TTF font packages. Ex: Glyphyx One

Template

A template is a collection of documents that share the same fonts, colors and styles.

Text on Path

A text box where the baseline can be set to follow a path around the edge of a shape, or a custom drawn path.

TTF

TTF stands for True Type Font. It is a file type and indicates that a file is a font. The TTF indicator allows Printess to utilize TTF files as fonts. OTF (OpenType Font) is based on TTF standards.

Turbulence - Effect

An effect that distorts a frame like the surface of water. Frequency controls distortion levels, octave adds sub-frequencies, and scale controls the intensity of turbulence.

Warp

Warps are a feature of a frame. Warps transform multiple frame contents like text, image, or shape. Available Warps are: Perspective, Mesh, Distortion, Arch, Pit, Arc, Mug, Flag Fish, and Customs Warps.