graphic arts

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The fine or applied visual arts and associated techniques involving the application of lines and strokes to a two-dimensional surface.
2. n. The fine or applied visual arts and associated techniques in which images are produced from blocks, plates, or type, as in engraving and lithography. Also called graphics.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. a name given to those fine arts which pertain to the representation on a fiat surface of natural objects; as distinguished from music, etc., and also from sculpture.