What is "vignette"

Vignette \Vi*gnette"\, v. t. To make, as an engraving or a photograph, with a border or edge insensibly fading away.

Vignette \Vi*gnette"\ (?; 277), n. [F. vignette, fr. vigne a vine. See Vine, and cf. Vinette.]

1. (Arch.) A running ornament consisting of leaves and tendrils, used in Gothic architecture.

2. A decorative design, originally representing vine branches or tendrils, at the head of a chapter, of a manuscript or printed book, or in a similar position; hence, by extension, any small picture in a book; hence, also, as such pictures are often without a definite bounding line, any picture, as an engraving, a photograph, or the like, which vanishes gradually at the edge.

3. A picture, illustration, or depiction in words, esp. one of a small or dainty kind.

1751, "decorative design," originally a design in the form of vine tendrils around the borders of a book page, especially a picture page, from French vignette, from Old French diminutive of vigne "vineyard" (see vine). Sense transferred from the border to the picture itself, then (1853) to a type of small photographic portrait with blurred edges very popular mid-19c. Meaning "literary sketch" is first recorded 1880, probably from the photographic sense.

n. 1 (context architecture English) A running ornament consisting of leaves and tendrils, used in Gothic architecture. 2 (context printing English) A decorative design, originally representing vine branches or tendrils, at the head of a chapter, of a manuscript or printed book, or in a similar position. 3 (context by extension English) Any small borderless picture in a book, especially an engraving, photograph, or the like, which vanishes gradually at the edge. 4 (context by extension English) A short story or anecdote that presents a scene or tableau, or paints a picture. 5 The small picture on a postage stamp. 6 (context photography English) The characteristic of a camera lens, either by deficiency in design or by mismatch of the lens with the film format, to produce an image smaller than the film's frame with a crudely focused border. Photographers may deliberately choose this characteristic for a special effect. vb. To make, as an engraving or a photograph, with a border or edge gradually fading away.

1. n. a brief literary description [syn: sketch]

2. a photograph whose edges shade off gradually

3. a small illustrative sketch (as sometimes placed at the beginning of chapters in books)

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.

In philately, the vignette is the central part of a postage stamp design, such as, a monarch's head or a pictorial design, which often shades off gradually to the edges of the stamp.

The central vignette is often surrounded by a frame which may be printed separately and is normally of a different colour. The plate from which the vignette is printed is known as the vignette plate.

Printing errors have sometimes led to the vignette being inverted. Perhaps the most famous example is the Inverted Jenny.

In a novel, theatrical script, screenplay, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or character and gives a trenchant impression about that character, an idea, setting, and/or object. It's a short, descriptive passage that's more about evoking meaning through imagery than it is about plot.

A blog or web series can also provide a form of vignette or be presented as a series of vignettes. An example of this is the critically acclaimed web series High Maintenance, which presents a different set of characters in each episode, focusing intensely on their specific traits, ideas, and worlds.

Vignettes are more commonly used and have been particularly influential in the development of the contemporary notions of a scene as shown in postmodern theater, film and television, where less emphasis is placed on adhering to the conventions of traditional structure and story development. It is also a part of something bigger than itself: for example, a vignette about a house belonging to a collection of vignettes or a whole story, such as The House On Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros.

Vignette is a form of road pricing imposed on vehicles, usually in addition to the compulsory road tax, based on a period of time instead of road tolls that are based on distance travelled. Vignettes are currently used in several European countries. The term is of French origin, and is now used throughout Central Europe, as well as in Italy (vignetta).

Vignettes are used in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. In most of these countries a small, coloured sticker is affixed to a vehicle windscreen, but in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia these have been superseded by electronic vignettes. In Moldova and Romania vignettes are required for the use of any road, and in Bulgaria are required for the use of any road outside built-up areas. In the other countries vignettes are required only for the use of motorways and expressways.

Prices for an annual vignette for passenger cars range from €30 to €150, depending on country. In all countries except Switzerland short period vignettes are sold for visiting or transiting vehicles. In Switzerland visiting foreign motorists must buy an annual vignette to use the county's motorways. Vignettes can usually be obtained at border crossings, gas stations and other outlets. Improperly used or lost vignettes are usually not refunded.

Vignette stickers are usually constructed in such a way that detaching and reattaching them is impossible without destruction, ensuring that they cannot be used on more than one vehicle. Road traffic is often monitored by roadside cameras, and vignettes are verified by state officials, such as border guard and national police. Hefty cash fines are often charged to travelers using public roads without a valid and properly affixed vignette. Additional tolls are usually levied for passing through certain motorway tunnels and bridges.

Eurovignette is a road toll for trucks of minimum 12 metric tons. The system was adopted in 1999, and is used in Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Sweden. (Belgium left the Eurovignette scheme on 1 April 2016 in favor of a distance-based tolling system.)

Vignette (from the French for "little vine") may refer to:

• Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters
• Vignetting in photography, any process by which there is loss in clarity towards the corners and sides of an image
• Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy
• Vignette (literature), short, impressionistic scenes that focus on one moment or give a particular insight into a character, idea, or setting
• Vignette (road tax), a small, colored sticker affixed to motor vehicles in some European nations to indicate road tolls have been paid
• Vignette Corporation, a Texas-based commercial software company
• Vignette (vineyard), in viticulture, part of a larger consolidated vineyard
• Vignette (philately), the central part of a stamp design
• Vignette (psychology), a short description of an event, behavior or person used in a psychology experiment to control information provided to participants
• Vignette, sometimes used to describe an image that is smaller than the original
• Vignette (model), a form of diorama
• Vignette (professional wrestling), a video package used to promote wrestling characters or storylines
• Vignette (R programming language), Vignette (R) a long-form guide to your package, organized like a book chapter or an academic paper: it can describe the problem that your package is designed to solve, and then show the reader how to solve it.

A vignette in psychological and sociological experiments presents a hypothetical situation, to which research participants respond thereby revealing their perceptions, values, social norms or impressions of events.

Peter Rossi and colleagues developed a framework for creating vignettes by systematically combining predictor variables in order to dissect the effects of the variables on dependent variables. For example, to study normative judgments of family status, "there might be 10 levels of income; 50 head-of-household occupations, and 50 occupations for spouses; two races, white and black; and ten levels of family size". Since this approach can lead to huge universes of stimuli - half a million in the example - Rossi proposed drawing small random samples from the universe of stimuli for presentation to individual respondents, and pooling judgments by multiple respondents in order to sample the universe adequately. Main effects of predictor variables then can be assessed, though not all interactive effects.

Vignettes in the form of sentences describing actions have been used extensively to estimate impression formation equations in research related to affect control theory. In this case, different respondents are presented with each sentence, and some are asked to rate how the actor seems during the event, others rate the object of action, and other respondents rate how the overall action makes the behavior seem. Subgroups of respondents receive different sets of event sentences, and the subgroup data are pooled for final analyses.

Vignettes enable controlled studies of mental processes that would be difficult or impossible to study through observation or classical experiments. However, an obvious disadvantage of this method is that reading a vignette is different from experiencing a stimulus or action in everyday life.