A - you heard first time
Brassieres aside, ‘A’ sizes are a series of finished trim sizes in the ISO international paper sizes range. They range from A0 you could paper a wall with, to A10 the size of a postage stamp. Devised in Germany in 1922 each size is derived by halving the size immediately above it, using the same diagonal. Your ‘C’s are envelope sizes, and ‘B’s give you sizes that the ‘A’s can’t do. The Americans of course use a totally different protocol. In book publishing ‘A format’ refers to a format of mass market paperbacks usually with a trimmed page size of 178 x 111 mm.

Abbrajargon – the beginning of the end of literacy
Ever tried deciphering text and email messages that are just a string of seemingly unconnected letters? I leave that to my daughters.
AFAIK As far as I know
BTW By the way . . .
CYA See ya (good grief)
FWIW For what it’s worth . . .
FYEO For your eyes only
IMHO In my humble opinion
KIT Keep in touch
RTFM Read the effing manual
TIA Thanks in advance
TVM Thanks very much

ABC – dah
Audit Bureau of Circulation publishes audited statements of newspapers’ and magazines’ circulation figures. A good measure for working out the cost per mille, or how much it costs to reach an audience of 1,000. Avoid mags without an ABC, there are ways that readership figures can be massaged. Always reminds me of a little wordplay my father taught me when I was young.
AB – CD goldfish
MNO goldfish
SAR
OS

ABC1 – dah plus a one
A social grading classification for defining different social groups. Originated in the UK and has been adopted around the world. The drinking classes now clamour to be as high up the alphabet rather than wanting to be an upper or a middle. Most fit a C1 or C2. Beat that and you’re posh.

Above-the-line – what little boys try to do against the wall
The budget you’re spending advertising in the media. The ‘line’ refers to accounting terminology and defines where expenditure is accounted for.

ACE – but just don't get shot down in flames
A comparison between the cost of advertising space against an equivalent editorial equivalent providing a measure of PR value. Generally viewed that the value of a piece of PR is 2.5 times more than that of advertising. Oh, and the A.C.E stands for Advertising Cost Equivalent.

Acrobat – tumbler without the whiskey
Where would we be without a PDF? To be able to transfer documents via Portable Document Format is a true godsend because anyone can view and print them regardless of their computer’s operating system. Perfect for putting documents on the web and CD-ROMs that you want to distribute. Also bridges that big divide between the PC user and those snobbish Mac users.

Adhesive binding – you’d be upset if it didn’t
A method of binding paper where glue is used instead of stitching. Case binding is where a lining is also affixed.

Advertorial – making words count
Flattering copy you’ve written about your business in the editorial section of a publication, but usually actually paid-for space made to look more like an article and written by one of the publication’s journalists.

AI - Scottish greeting
Abbreviation for the Advance Information sheet that publishers produce to promote new unprinted books to buyers. Could also be Artificial Intelligence, which might explain some of the dubious output of some publishers nowadays.

Anti-aliasing – using your proper name
Getting shot of all those jagged edges in graphics by using shades of grey to blend in along the edges and make angled lines appear smooth. A process much in need the morning after the night before.

Applet – giving your web page a cidery flavour
A clever little application downloaded without you knowing onto your hard drive when you’re online. It uses a small program called ActiveX to run multimedia effects on web pages that wouldn’t have been possible with standard HTML commands. ActiveX sounds like a nasty virus your doctor would talk to you about in hushed tones. Indeed applets have been maliciously used to give your computer a rather nasty cold...

ASCII – heavy stuff
You really don’t want to know – and nor do I for that matter. Let’s leave it to the programming geeks.

Atomistic test – getting Greenpeace all agitated
Methodology for testing the effectiveness of an advertisement or packaging. A clothing ad for example would have the jingle tried out on an audience separately from the look of the male model wearing the jeans, or of the female model looking at the male model who is looking at the jeans. A holistic test tests all of the elements together. Confused? Believe you me so is the audience.

Awareness – avoiding a nasty bump on the head
Ever, ever so important to advertisers is just how much an advertisement is remembered. Usually measured by the prompted “Have you heard of an instant coffee called Happy Beans?” and spontaneous responses “Can you name a brand of instant coffee?” Of course the muck hits the fan when you spend an absolute fortune on a campaign and everyone gets your brand mixed up with someone elses – like the famous Leonard Rossiter 1970s ad on the plane when Joan Collins gets drenched in Martini, or was it Cinzano? Ranked as the top most memorable ad ever, although people still get the brands mixed up. Perhaps it was Cinzano? Or was it?