Graphic Design Word Search

A graphic design vocabulary puzzle with its answer key, from Font and Logo to Kerning and Wireframe.

Name Date

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

XKBSMUEYHKMGFEL

DOGBAQFCONTRAST

CEHBROCHUREAOAI

IFSGGQVLOGODSAZ

ESERIFLRLLXICON

DRAINYOYAMEEBSD

DZTDICBNABANNER

RFONTXNPALETTET

HUHENLEIIAYCHKO

XSEMSGGXRYOWDGC

ROSONSCECOGOCLL

PRWGDJELSUETLAC

OYUENRVECTORBYQ

PJEDZSLLUPOSTER

NKLMPOBSNWDPSRI

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

LayoutLAYOUT
FontFONT
ContrastCONTRAST
LogoLOGO
GridGRID
PalettePALETTE
VectorVECTOR
PixelPIXEL
MarginMARGIN
PosterPOSTER
SerifSERIF
GradientGRADIENT
IconICON
BannerBANNER
LayerLAYER
BrochureBROCHURE

16 of 20 words from the Graphic Design Key Terms list.

Start from a list

Easy: words go across and down.

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Show clues, not words

Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

The puzzle changes as you go. See the puzzle

Answer key: Graphic Design Word Search

XKBSMUEYHKMGFEL

DOGBAQFCONTRAST

CEHBROCHUREAOAI

IFSGGQVLOGODSAZ

ESERIFLRLLXICON

DRAINYOYAMEEBSD

DZTDICBNABANNER

RFONTXNPALETTET

HUHENLEIIAYCHKO

XSEMSGGXRYOWDGC

ROSONSCECOGOCLL

PRWGDJELSUETLAC

OYUENRVECTORBYQ

PJEDZSLLUPOSTER

NKLMPOBSNWDPSRI

LAYOUT, FONT, CONTRAST, LOGO, GRID, PALETTE, VECTOR, PIXEL, MARGIN, POSTER, SERIF, GRADIENT, ICON, BANNER, LAYER, BROCHURE

Next step Type in the terms from your own project sheet

All 162 words

Typography 26

Ascender The part of a letter such as b or d that rises above the rest.
Bold Letters drawn with thick, heavy strokes so that they stand out.
Bullet A heavy dot that marks each item in a list.
Caption A short line of text that explains a picture.
Descender The part of a letter such as g or p that drops below the line.
Font All the letters, numbers and marks of one size and style of type.
Headline The large title at the top of a page or story.
Indent To start a line farther in from the edge than the lines around it.
Italic Letters that slant to the right, often used for a title or for stress.
Justify To space out a line of text so that both of its ends line up.
Kerning Adjusting the gap between two letters so the pair looks even.
Leading The spacing between lines of type.
Legible Clear enough to read easily.
Lettering Letters drawn, painted or cut, as on a sign.
Ligature A single character made of two or more joined letters, such as æ.
Lowercase Small letters, not capitals.

Show all 162 words (146 more)

Typography, continued

Pica A printer's unit of measure equal to 12 points.
Point A printer's unit for the size of letters, about one seventy-second of an inch.
Roman The plain upright style of letters, as opposed to slanted ones.
Script A style of letters that looks like flowing handwriting.
Serif A small finishing stroke at the end of a letter's main lines.
Tracking Adjusting the letter spacing evenly across a whole line or block of text.
Typeface The full range of type that shares one look.
Typeset To arrange text in letters ready for printing.
Typography The art of choosing and arranging letters for print or screen.
Uppercase Capital letters.

Color in Design 18

Cyan A greenish blue, one of the primary colors for mixing inks.
Gradient A range of colors that changes little by little across an area.
Halftone A picture made of tiny dots that look like smooth tones from a distance.
Hue The property that makes a color red, yellow, green or blue.
Magenta A purplish red, one of the primary colors for mixing inks.
Metallic Shiny like gold, silver or steel.
Monochrome Made in tones of only one color.
Neon A very bright, glowing shade of a color.
Opacity The quality of not letting light through.
Palette The set of colors chosen for one piece of work.
Pastel A soft, pale color.
Pigment The substance that gives ink or paint its color.
Saturation How strong and pure a color is.
Shade A color made darker by adding black.
Swatch A small sample, such as a strip of cloth that shows a color.
Tint A color made lighter by adding white.
Transparent Clear enough to see through.
Vivid Bright and strong, the opposite of dull.

Layout and Composition 27

Alignment Lining things up along one edge or down the center.
Balance Visual weight spread so that no side of a page feels too heavy.
Bleed To print past the edge of a page, so no border is left after cutting.
Border A line or band around the edge of a page or box.
Column One of two or more blocks of text that stand side by side on a page.
Composition How all the parts of a picture or page are put together.
Contrast A strong difference, such as light against dark or big against small.
Crop To cut away the outer parts of a picture.
Emphasis Making one part stand out as the most important.
Footer A title, date or page number repeated in the bottom edge of every page.
Grid Crossing guide lines that help place things evenly on a page.
Gutter The blank space where the inner edges of two facing pages meet.
Header A title, date or page number repeated in the top edge of every page.
Hierarchy An order of importance that shows the eye what to read first.
Landscape A page turned so that it is wider than it is tall.
Layout The way text and pictures are arranged on a page.
Margin The blank band between the edge of a page and what is printed on it.
Portrait A page turned so that it is taller than it is wide.
Proximity Closeness: how near one item on a page sits to another.
Repetition Using the same color, shape or style again and again to tie a page together.
Sidebar A short piece of text set in a box beside the main story.
Spacing The amount of room left between letters, lines or objects.
Spread Two facing pages planned as one.
Symmetry Matching halves on each side of a center line.
Template A ready-made page plan that you fill with your own words and pictures.
Trim To cut a printed sheet down to its final size.
White space The empty parts of a page that give the eye a rest.

Things Designers Make 33

Badge A small emblem worn to show membership or rank.
Banner A long strip of cloth or paper with a message; also a wide image across a web page.
Billboard A very large outdoor board for a printed message.
Booklet A small thin book with paper covers.
Brochure A small folded booklet that tells about a place, a product or a service.
Business card A small card printed with a person's name, job and contact details.
Calendar A chart of the days, weeks and months of a year.
Catalog A book or list that shows items for sale.
Decal A picture made to be transferred onto a surface; also a decorative sticker.
Emblem A picture that stands for a group, such as a school crest.
Envelope A flat paper cover for mailing a letter.
Flyer A single printed sheet handed out to announce an event.
Glyph A carved or drawn symbol, such as the arrow on a public sign.
Icon A small simple picture that stands for an action, a file or an idea.
Infographic A chart or diagram that explains facts with pictures.
Invitation A written or printed request to come to an event.
Label A printed tag or sticker that tells what something is.
Leaflet A small printed sheet, often folded, given out free.
Letterhead The name and address printed at the top of a sheet of writing paper.
Logo A name or symbol drawn in a special way to stand for a company or group.
Menu A printed list of the food a restaurant serves.
Monogram A mark made from a person's initials.
Newsletter A printed report with news for the members of a group.
Packaging The box, bag or wrapper made to hold and sell a product.
Pamphlet A few unbound printed pages about one subject.
Pictogram A picture that stands for a word or an idea.
Postcard A card for mailing a short note without an envelope, often with a picture.
Poster A large printed sheet put up on a wall to announce something or to decorate.
Signage All the signs made for one building or place.
Stationery Writing paper and envelopes, often printed to match.
Sticker A printed label with glue on the back.
Symbol A mark or shape that stands for something else.
Trademark A name or symbol that the law reserves for one maker's goods.

Design on the Computer 27

Animation Pictures shown quickly one after another so that they seem to move.
Bitmap A picture file that stores the color of every dot.
Clip art Ready-made pictures that can be copied into a document.
Clipboard The hidden place where a computer keeps what you copy or cut.
Cursor The pointer or blinking mark that shows your place on a screen.
Export To save work in a file type that another program can open.
Import To bring a file from another program into your work.
Interface The screens, buttons and menus through which a person uses a program.
Layer A single sheet or thickness that lies over or under another.
Mask A cover that keeps chosen parts of a picture from being changed.
Monitor A computer's display screen.
Pixel One of the tiny dots of color that make up a picture on a screen.
Printer A machine that puts text and pictures on paper.
Raster A picture made of a grid of tiny colored dots.
Render To turn a graphics file into a picture on the screen.
Resolution The fineness of detail in a picture, often counted in dots.
Rotate To turn a picture around its center.
Scanner A machine that copies a paper picture into a computer.
Screenshot A picture of exactly what a screen is showing.
Software The programs that run on a computer.
Stylus A pen-shaped tool for drawing on a touch screen.
Tablet A small flat computer worked by touching its screen.
Thumbnail A very small preview version of a picture.
Toolbar A row of buttons for a program's tools.
Undo To reverse the last step you made.
Vector Artwork built from points, lines and curves, so it stays sharp at any size.
Zoom To make text or pictures appear larger on the screen.

From Idea to Print 31

Approval An official yes.
Audience The people a message is meant to reach.
Binding The cover and fastening that hold the pages of a book together.
Brainstorm To come up with many ideas quickly, without judging them yet.
Brand The name and look that set one company's goods apart.
Brief A short written summary of what a job must do.
Client The person or company that a designer works for.
Collate To gather printed sheets into the right order.
Concept The main idea behind a piece of work.
Copyright The legal right to control who may copy a work.
Critique A careful review of the strong and weak points of a work.
Deadline The time by which a job must be finished.
Designer A person who plans how something will look and work.
Draft An early version that will still be changed.
Emboss To press a raised pattern into paper.
Feedback Comments that tell a maker what works and what to change.
Freelance Working for many clients and not as one company's employee.
Illustrator An artist who makes pictures for books, posters and other printed work.
Laminate To cover with a thin clear sheet of plastic for protection.
License Formal permission to use someone else's work.
Mockup A full-size model that shows how a finished piece will look.
Pitch A short talk meant to win someone over to an idea.
Portfolio A collection of a person's best work.
Press A machine that prints by pushing inked plates onto paper.
Proof A trial print checked for mistakes before the final printing.
Prototype A first working model made to test an idea.
Revision A changed and improved version.
Sketch A quick rough drawing made to try out an idea.
Slogan A short catchy phrase used again and again by a company or cause.
Storyboard A row of rough pictures that outlines the scenes of a movie or a game.
Wireframe A sketch of the layout of a website or an app.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the word list and every clue were written for this page. Spellings and meanings were checked on 2026-10-11 against The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, https://www.ahdictionary.com/. Terms of type and of computer graphics were checked on 2026-10-11 against English Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/, in the articles Font, Letter spacing, Vector graphics, Raster graphics and Color gradient. Licence: own work

How it works

This graphic design word search opens on 16 key terms: Layout, Font, Contrast, Logo, Grid, Palette, Vector and Pixel among them. Every word has a one-line meaning, and six more lists follow a job from the first sketch to the printed page.

Read the full guide

Type, color and layout

Under Start from a list, Typography has Serif, Kerning, Leading and Ascender. Color in Design sets Hue beside Tint, Shade, Cyan and Magenta. Layout and Composition has Margin, Gutter, Bleed, Alignment and White space.

From the screen to the press

Things Designers Make runs from Logo and Letterhead to Infographic and Pictogram. Design on the Computer has Pixel, Raster, Bitmap and Stylus. From Idea to Print follows one job: Brief, Sketch, Mockup, Proof, Emboss and Binding.

White space, Business card and Clip art hide closed up: WHITESPACE.
Short Graphic Design Words has 35 words of three to five letters, such as Font, Grid, Hue, Tint and Crop.
Under More options, tick Show clues, not words and Grid prints as "Crossing guide lines that help place things evenly on a page."

Questions and answers

What is the difference between a font and a typeface?

A typeface is a set of fonts that share one overall design. In metal type a font was one size, weight and style of that typeface. On computers the two words are now often used to mean the same thing.

What is the difference between kerning, tracking and leading?

Kerning adjusts the space between one pair of letters. Tracking, also called letter spacing, adjusts it evenly across a whole line or block of text. Leading is the spacing between lines.

What is the difference between vector and raster graphics?

A raster image is a grid of tiny colored pixels and stores the color of each one, which suits photographs. Vector graphics are built from points, lines and curves, so scaling them does not lower their quality.

What do serif and sans serif mean?

A serif is a small stroke that ends a main line of a letter, such as those at the top and bottom of a capital M. A sans serif typeface has none. Serif is on the Typography list; sans serif is not listed.

All 162 words

Typography 26

Typography, continued

Color in Design 18

Layout and Composition 27

Things Designers Make 33

Design on the Computer 27

From Idea to Print 31

How it works

Type, color and layout

From the screen to the press

Questions and answers

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