Parts of a stamp

Many older stamps were similarly designed and so their parts can be better described in terms of standard design terms. Knowing the names allow us to describe varieties and differences in similar designs.

Typical for older stamps including definitives, stamps can often be separated in a vignette, a more-or-less central design of a portrait, numeral or view, and a frame, the outer decorative and data elements. See: vignette  File:Ceylon QV 4c 300.jpg|the full design File:Frame AA.jpg|the frame File:Vignette AA.jpg|the vignette 

Single color stamps would have the vignette integral with the frame, i.e., it was all printed at the same time. However, in a few cases as with a couple of Malaya George VI definitives, stamps would be printed in a two-step process as well as in a single step, each part printed in colors so close as to make it difficult to tell the difference without close examination.

In the case of bicolor stamps, vignettes and frames are printed in different colors separately during the time. Vignettes often had outer shading reduced at the edges so that registration, the meeting up of the parts, did not have to be absolutely perfect. This demonstrates the limitations of print technology of the times. So, vignettes can be found shifted slightly to a large amount, the latter becoming a definite variety though not an error. Since each color was printed separately back in the day, this could result in inverted centers that are definitely errors.

The overall design would often be enclosed by an outer frameline/frame line or framelines.

There would often be triangular decorations that were used to fill the space between a circular vignette and frame elements. These are called spandrels.

Further, tablets were boxes or frames that typically carried inscriptions and stamp denominations.  File:Frameline.jpg|for this stamp, just a single frameline File:Spandrels.jpg|the spandrels File:Tablet AA.jpg|tablet (of value); other stamps might have more tablets for other data 

[[Category:P]]