Glossary of graphic design terms and concepts, beginning with the letter W.
W
Watermark
Watermarks are feint image areas embedded in some paper stocks. Often watermarks are used as security devices for currencies, certificates and stamps. The watermark is generally visible when the substrate is held up to a light source.
Watermarks are created by pressing a wet metal stamp or roller onto the paper during the manufacturing process.
WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG is one of the terms that came into use with the Desktop Publishing (DTP) revolution and refers to the display system whereby what is seen on a computer screen, using a DTP package, is what you will get when the document is printed. The use of WYSIWYG has now been expanded to include web site design software, such as Dreamweaver, that allow web designers to build web sites, without having to hand-code HTML or javascript.
All the DTP page layout programs such as Pagemaker, QuarkXpress and so on, all claimed to be WYSIWYG. In practice, the process of duplicating on-screen content into the 'real' or printed medium remains easier said than done. Similarly, this could also be said about WYSIWYG web development tools. Although, the criticism here was often that the code that they create is not as 'clean' as it would be if it were hand coded.