What is the printing term for the little icon or word at the end of articles in magazines? You don’t see it in newspapers but in magazines they put a little logo or something at the end so you know when it is over. I know this mark has a specific name and I used to know what it is but my head, so crammed full of facts as I’m sure y’all can relate, has forgotten.http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=3&subscription=0#
It’s called a colophon
Ahem. 
Actually, the colophon is the publisher’s details (you know, “Set in 18 on 20pt Comic Sans” etc etc), usually on the title page. It can also refer to the publisher’s logo/emblem itself.
I work in the newspaper business, and we just call them “end boxes” or “end blobs” depending on the graphic used. Typically we end text with a square box, with or without a drop shadow on it.
There may be a more technical term, but if there is I haven’t come across it. I’ll ask one of the old-time typesetting veterans when I get the chance…
A couple of years back you were very helpful in responding to my query “A Note on the Type.”
I read quite a bit, and try to collect colophons - the descriptive paragraph ones at the end of books. I copy the colophon, the first page of the book, and the title page.
I get a kick out of it when they wax poetically about the merits of the selected type, or discuss the history of the individuals who designed it.
Unfortunately, formal colophons are not as common as I would hope.
My most recent one was a neat one, as the book was a Bio of Ben Franklin, and it was set in Adobe Caslon, which was in turn based upon Caslon, a type BF imported to use in his print shop and chose for the first printing of the Declaration of Independence.
Sorry for the hijack.
I thought that was what the OP was describing. I just read it again, and I still think it’s what the OP is describing.
I think not, Mange.
Many, if not most, magazines denote the end of most articles with a little icon.
In many cases it is simply a square or a circle.
Other publications are more elaborate. For example, I am looking at a copy of Boys’ Life, and at the end of each article, there is a little red fleur-de-leis (or whatever they call the boy scout insignia.)
It seems to be the case with longer articles - shorter ones often have no end signal, or instead have the author’s name or initials.
OK, I appear to have been mistaken about the nature of a colophon - it’s distinct from the main body of text, rather than immediately following it.
In text Fortune magazine ends its articles with a stylized F in a box. On the Internet, it just uses a black box. See any article, as on this page. The F or black box is what the OP is asking about.
It’s a magazine device, not a book device.
Sorry Otto, Dingbats refers to any number of special typographic symbols including the one for paragraph that is used in the beginning if some stylized story layouts in magazines or special arrows, stars, etc . . . A dingbat could be used as the ??? and sometimes are. Lots of times a magazine uses their logo or some variation. Blender mag. uses a little ‘BLENDER’ in a box at the end.
There is a specific name for this little thing. Just like there is a name for ‘headline,’ ‘jump,’ ‘by line,’ etc . . . I’ll keep watchin’
Ron ‘Hollywood’ Parro ;>{)
http://www.greality.com/Hollywood/
“The face of evil, too oft encountered is at first abhorred, then pitied and finally embraced.”
— Annon. in a Greeley Bathroom
Actually, my experience in the newspaper business has led me to believe newspapers don’t use this little device. As a matter of fact, I tried to convince the publisher of a little farm-ranch weekley I helped start that he needed to use one of these at the end of his stories because they were sort of long. He didn’t believe me then but has since changed his mind and added them.
Ron ‘Hollywood’ Parro ;>{)
http://www.greality.com/Hollywood/
“Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility.”
— Richard Aldington, British Author
You’re right, in that they are not normally used in the newspaper itself. However I work mostly on the Sunday supplements (lifestyle magazine, that kind of thing), and we do use them there. And, as I said, everyone on the paper just calls them “end boxes”. If there is a fancy name for them then I doubt it’s in common usage.
I’m sure there’s a formal name for them, but the printers I’ve worked with just call them “bugs.”