Vignette (graphic design)

For other uses, see Vignette (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Vignetting.

Vignette frame by William Brown Macdougall

A vignette, in graphic design, is a unique form for a frame to an image, either illustration or photograph. Rather than the image's edges being rectilinear, it is overlaid with decorative artwork featuring a unique outline. This is similar to the use of the word in photography, where the edges of an image that has been vignetted are non-linear or sometimes softened with a mask - often a dark room process of introducing a screen. An oval Vignette is probably the most common example.

Originally a vignette was a design of vine-leaves and tendrils ('vignette'=small vine). The term was also used for a small embellishment without border, in what otherwise would have been a blank space, such as that found on a title-page, a headpiece or tailpiece.

The use in modern graphic design is derived from book publishing techniques dating back to the Middle Ages Analytical Bibliography (ca. 1450 to 1800) when a vignette referred to an engraved design printed using a copper-plate press, on a page that has already been printed on using a letter press (Printing press). Vignettes are sometimes distinguished from other in-text illustrations printed on a copper-plate press by the fact that they do not have a border; such designs usually appear on title-pages only.

Woodcuts, which are printed on a letter press and are also used to separate sections or chapters are identified as a headpiece, tailpiece or printer's ornament, depending on shape and position.

See also

• Calligraphy, another conjunction of text and decoration
• Curlicues, flourishes in the arts usually composed of concentric circles, often used in calligraphy
• Scrollwork, general name for scrolling abstract decoration used in many areas of the visual arts

External links

• Nat Vignette, a commercial font composed of vignettes