Graphic Terms Glossary

 Okay, it’s vocab-time! The following are some of the most common terms related to the graphics industry and what they all mean. A few techniques I do not use everyday but are still defined as they relate to the big picture.

A

Anti-aliasing: A process that enables a smooth transition between pixel colors; so as to eliminate the “jagged” look when different colors blend together.

Ascenders: A lower case letter in which the stem of the letter reaches up, such as b, d, and h.

B

Bitmap: A file format of, a picture, that consists of multitudes of tiny squares, also known as pixels. If you use a digital camera regularly, and you go in to do any modification, when you take a closeup look at your images they appear to be made up of tiny squares. They can be made changes to but overall, they do not resize well.

Bleed: The part of a finished product that extends out from the edge. Many printing experts factor in bleed when determining the elements of a good print job. The most commonly set bleed is 0.25” (one fourth of an inch)

C

CMYK: Color mode, stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. It is the recommended mode for printing projects due to its “subtractive” quality –in which the colors of the spectrum are subtracted from natural white light.

Color gamut: The range of colors available that can be reproduced faithfully within a certain output device, e.g. printers, computer monitors. When a certain color cannot be replicated within a certain color mode, it’s said to be “out of gamut”.

D

Descender: A lower-case letter in which the stem part extends below the baseline, for example: p, q

DPI: or “dots per inch”. When printing, the dpi refers to the resolution as it will appear in the finished page. In regard to computer monitors, the term “pixels per inch” is used. The more dots or pixels that can be distributed with each inch of space will determine its density, and ultimately, how sharp and detailed the picture will look. Lower-density images will appear to be sparser in detail. For example a 300 dpi image (the setting I use the most) is a higher resolution than 150.

Drop shadow: A strategically placed shadow on or near an object that gives it depth or the illusion of realism.

J

Jpeg: Most commonly recognized file format for Internet images, the acronym stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. As a lossy format, there is the chance that saved images that are later reopened may lose some image quality so it is best to save an editable .eps version as well. Alternate spelling: .jpg. The format supports up to 16 million colors in all the color modes.

L

Lossless (compression) A file format that can retain its original image quality upon compressing it and “unpacking” it at a later date. Gif is a good example of lossless compression. When you or another recipient opens the document, all the original data in the item has been preserved. Definitely important in the case of files involving artwork with lots of detail or detail-sensitive info like spreadsheets.

Lossy (compression) A file format that may have some image quality loss (how much may vary) upon compressing the file and unpacking it later. Jpeg is a good example of lossy compression. The way it works, is in order to reduce file size, certain bits of data may be eliminated, meaning that it’s chancy whether or not important data will remain or not. Some files, such as video or audio, are apropos to this as the compression tends to remove redundant elements.

N

Nodes: Little teeny dots that make up line art paths in vector illustrations.

O

Opacity: The quality of an image or element of an image that has a see-through appearance to it. It can be adjusted depending on which program you are using.

P

Paths: Also known as “outlines” or “curves”; the main component of vector illustration art. When I have drawn a complete shape element, I have created a closed path.

PNG: Portable Network Graphics. A great file format that can easily stand toe to toe with .jpg – they use a lossless form of compression and can handle 8 and 24 bit color ranges. I use this format a great deal for screengrabs. It is supported by most web browsers and compatible with the RGB color mode. It is very similar to the .gif format except for the fact that it does not easily support animation, e.g. video content.

R

Raster (images) Images made up primarily of bitmaps. Good examples of raster file formats are jpeg, .tiff, and .bmp. They are visually appealing, but do not scale well. When you try to enlarge them, they may appear blurred, when shrunk down, may lose clarity. Converting raster images into vectors may help get around this issue depending upon the image itself.

Resolution: A metric involving the distribution of color pixels by horizontal and vertical coordinates, as they appear on your computer monitor. One common example would be a screen resolution of 1024 by 768. With that measurement in mind, a given image that is close to 1024 by 768 will look sharp and in focus while an image that differs greatly in size will not look as clear.

RGB: Stands for Red, Green, and Black. The color mode most often used in graphic design; it has great staying power for graphics that will be shown on the Internet. When you start a new document you will see the option to select RGB among others. RGB is an “additive” model meaning that it derives its appearance from a color spectrum that light is projected onto.

T

TIFF: which stands for Tagged Image File Format. It is one of the more commonly used file formats for the exchange of bitmap images between applications. It is compatible in all color modes (RGB, CMYK, and grayscale) and useful in desktop publishing.

V

Vector (images) Images comprised primarily of paths connected by nodes. Vector images have the advantage of being scalable and ability to retain their image quality upon modifications. Vectors are my favorite mode of design creation. They are also used in flash animations.