Welcome to Gaia! ::

Have you ever heard or seen a term related to graphic/web design, and not known what it meant? Browse for it here, and if it isn't, go look it up at www.dictionary.com or a similar site and report your findings here for everyone to share. Or if you have some knowledge that you think would be useful to others, post it here. Lets try and build up a nice big database of terms here!

Other sites to take a look at (where most of these definitions came from):
Grantastic Designs
Graphic Design Dictionary

A

Alias - When the curves and other lines in a graphic becomes jagged, the resolution of the computer monitor, printer graphics file is too low. The graphic is then referred to as "aliased".

Alignment - The positioning of a body of text. Text can be positioned to the left, right, or "center" of a page. For the best, consistent alignment, web site designers use tables and Cascading Style Sheets.

Alpha - A fourth color component in the RGB color model that represents opacity. By changing Alpha values, images can be rendered completely transparent to completely opaque.

Anti-alias - Softening of the jagged edges in images that have become aliased.

B

Bevel - Adding a beveled effect to a graphic image gives the image a raised appearance by applying highlight colors and shadow colors to the inside and outside edges.

Bezier - The bezier (or Pen) tool draws curved line segments that can be reshaped by changing its anchor points and/or direction lines.

Bitmap Image (bmp) - A graphic image stored as a specific arrangement of pixels. Also known as raster graphics. Common types of bitmap graphics are GIF, JPEG, Photoshop, PCX, TIFF, Macintosh Paint, Microsoft Paint, PNG, FAX formats, and TGA.

Bleeding - When an image or printed color extends beyond the trimmed edge of a page, it is called a "bleed". Bleeding ensures that the print extends to the edges of the paper. The paper is usually trimmed to the desired size after printing.

Burn - A tool used (in Adobe Photoshop) to darken an area of an image.

C

Cast Shadow - Similar to a drop shadow with added emphasis on perspective. Cast shadows can be rotated, stretched, and skewed to create a realistic 3D effect.

CG - Computer Graphics/Computer Generated, usually referring to digitally made artwork or digital effects.

Clipping Path - A function that allows a shape to mask part of an image. The masked part of the image can be edited but won't let you work past the borders of the clipping path.

CMYK - Stands for the colors Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black (B was already used for blue in RGB), also known as process colors. In print design, colors are defined as a percentage of each of these 4 colors. For example, the CMYK abbreviation for the color black would be 0-0-0-100. In contrast, display devices (i.e. computer monitors) typically define colors using RGB.

Comp (comprehensive) - Made to see what a prospective design project will look like; for example the layout of the image, use of color, the size and the paper that will be used.

Compression - A method of packing data in order to save disk storage space or download time. JPEGs are generally compressed graphics files.

CSS - Abbreviation for Cascading Style Sheet, a feature of HTML developed by the W3C. With Cascading Style sheets, both web designers and end users can create style templates (sheet) that specifies how different text elements (paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, etc.) appear on a web page. Currently, not all browsers express CSS formatting in the same manner.

D

Dithered/Dithering - In order to display a full-color graphic image on a 256-color monitor, computers must simulate the colors it cannot display. They do this by dithering, which is combining pixels from a 256-color palette into patterns that approximate other colors. At a distance, the human eye merges the pixels into a single color. Up close, the graphic image will appear pixelated and speckled.

DPI - Stands for dots per inch. DPI specifies the resolution of an output device, such as a printer or printing press machine. Print resolution usually runs from 300-1200 dots per inch on a Laser Printer and 125-225 dots per inch for photographic images on a print brochure. (For information on input device measurements see ppi.)

Drop Shadow - A drop shadow gives an image depth by creating a shading offset behind a selected image.

Duotone - The application of two colors to provide richer tones than a monotone (single-color image, usually grayscale) can provide. A good duotone image can simulate a wider range of the color spectrum than two colors used separately. Duotones also use a hue (color) to set the mood for a photo in a more stunning way than a full-color image can.

E

Emboss - Adds dimension to a graphic image by making the image appear as if it were carved as a projection from a flat background.

Export - To save a file in a different format (that of another program). For example, many Adobe Photoshop files are exported to become GIF or JPEG files.

F

Feathering - Feathering the edge of a graphic image gradually dissipates the edge, making the edge look blurry.

Fill - A graphic software tool used to fill selected parts of images or their backgrounds with a color.

Filter - A filter is applied to images or art works to easily create special effects or to achieve a look that would be too difficult to create manually.

Flash - Vector graphic animation software from Macromedia that allows Flash graphics to look the same across all browsers, as long as the plug-in is installed. One of the advantages of Flash animations is their relatively fast download time.

Font - A font is a complete set of characters in a particular size and style of type. This includes the letter set, the number set, and all of the special character and diacritical marks you get by pressing the shift, option, or command/control keys. For example, Times NewRoman Bold Italic is one font, and Times NewRoman Bold is another font. Times NewRoman is a single typeface.

Foreground Color - Color applied to objects in the foreground of the designed layout. You can fill in the color of these images with the painting tool, when the type is created or when the stroke command is applied.

Four-color Process - The printing process that reproduces colors by combining, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. If you look through a magnifying glass, you'll see that the printed image consists of dots in these four colors. These dots are printed on top of each other, next to each other or just close to each other, depending on the color and tonal values wanted. For example; by printing a blue dot over a yellow dot will give you green etc. To created the shadows in the image, all the colors (with or without black - depending on the intensity of the shadow) will be printed on top of each other to create a dark brownish color. The closer the colored dots are printed to each other, the darker it will appear. The further apart the colored dots are printed from each other, the lighter that part of the image will appear.

Freeware - Software distributed for free on the web.

FTP - Stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP allows you to copy or send files (HTML-documents, graphic images, spreadsheets) from one computer to another via the Internet.

G

Graphic Design - The practice or profession of designing print or electronic forms of visual information, as for an advertisement, publication, or website.

H

Hue - The property of colors by which they can be perceived as ranging from red through yellow, green, and blue, as determined by the dominant wavelength of the light. It basically means color.

I

J

K

Kerning - The process of reducing the spacing between certain
pairs of letters to improve their appearance.

L

Layers - Often used in graphics programs, rather like stacking transparent/semitransparent film one over another to show multidimensional images

Layer modes - Different ways layers are combined with layers underneath for interesting visual effects

Leading - space between lines of text (the measurement is specified from baseline to baseline)

M

N

Noob - Someone that's new to a particular thing.

O

P

Paint Shop Pro (PSP) - Graphics program made by Jasc; very similar to Photoshop, minus many high-end features.

Photoshop - An image manipulation program by Adobe Systems, Inc.

Php - Hypertext Preprocessor

Pixel art - one kind of art that's created pixel by pixel.

Process Color - Each color is printed using a blend of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black that are mixed before they are put on the page.

Q

R

RGB - Red, Green, Blue.

Rubylith - A separable two-layer acetate film of red or amber emulsion on a clear base. It has dozens of uses in graphics, most often for color separations by hand in the composition or stripping departments.

S

Sans Serif - without serifs (ex. Arial, Helvetica, Avant Garde, etc.)

Saturation - adjusts the vividness of the colours

SEO - Search Engine Optimization, a set of methodologies aimed at improving the visibility of a website in search engine listings.

Serif - the extra stroke found at the end of main vertical and horizontal strokes of letterforms (ex. Times New Roman, Garamond, Palatino Linotype, etc.)

Shade - adding black to the color.

Spot color - when the color is printed on in little dots that are layered to make new colors (think MC Donalds Happy meal Bags). Each color is printed on a seperate plate.

SSI Server Side Include

T

Tint - adding white to the color

Tracking - The spacing between characters in a line of text.

Typography - the art of creatively arranging letterforms on a page to be printed, usually using a recognised typeface, in order to achieve a combination of both aesthetic and functional goals.

U

V

Vector art - the representation of separate shapes such as lines, polygons and text, and groups of such objects, as opposed to bitmaps, making images able to be resized without loss of quality.

Vector based programs - programs used to create vector art, such as Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand.

W

WYSIWYG - (What you see is what you get)

X

Y

Z

Umm what about the word antialias *sp* its used in a lot of graphics program. you should add that ^__^

oh! I know some!

RGB - Red, Green, Blue.

CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and... blacK (b was used for Blue)

Spot color - when the color is printed on in little dots that are layered to make new colors (think MC Donalds Happy meal Bags). Each color is printed on a seperate plate.

Process Color - Each color is printed using a blend of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black that are mixed before they are put on the page.

p.s. if anyone has corel draw, it has a list of words and what they mean in the help index.

Layers -- often used in graphics programs, rather like stacking transparent/semitransparent film one over another to show multidimensional images (not sure of the exact definition)

Layer modes -- Different ways layers are combined with layers underneath for interesting visual effects

Paint Shop Pro (PSP) -- Graphics program made by Jasc; very similar to Photoshop, minus many high-end features.

Php: Hypertext Preprocessor
SSI: Server Side Include

I updated the glossary. I believe that I have all of the terms that were posted.

Ooh, what a handy idea! ^_^