Graphic Design, Web Design, Corporate Video and Marketing Communications
Glossary
Other Services
Glossary
A
Acrobat
Acrobat is part of a set of applications developed by Adobe to create and view PDF files. Acrobat is used to create the PDF files, and the freeware Acrobat Reader is used to read the PDF files.
Animated GIF
A GIF graphic file, which consists of two or more images shown in a timed sequence to give the effect of motion.
Animation
Animation is the creating a timed sequence or series of graphic images or frames together to give the appearance of continuous movement.
ASP (Active Server Page)
A dynamically generated web page, generally using ActiveX scripting. When a browser or a search engine spider requests an ASP page from a server, the server generates the web page with HTML code and gives it to the browser or spider.
B
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of information your connection to the Internet can carry. On average, typical telephone lines can carry 1K of information per second.
Banner
A banner is a graphic image (static, animated, or rich media) that is placed on web sites as an advertisement. Banners are commonly used for brand awareness and generating sales.
Bitmap Graphic
A graphic imange which is composed of a pattern of dots. The individual dots are stored as data on a computer. An example of an animation that is a bitmap graphic is a GIF animation.
Bitmap Image (.bmp)
A graphic image stored as a specific arrangement of screen dots, or pixels. Web graphics are bitmap images. A graphic which is defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels which make up the picture. 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.
Bleed
When a page or a cover design extends to and off the edge of the paper it is called a "bleed". In print design, the artwork or block of color must extend off the edge of the page. The artwork or block of color is then printed on larger-size paper. Then the printed page is trimmed to the desired size.
Bookmark
Just as a paper bookmark is used as a reminder of the page you are on in a book, electronic bookmarks are used to bring you back to a web site or other site you may want to return to. The Netscape browser lets you bookmark any site and save the bookmarks in a file you can recall at any time. Microsoft Internet Explorer uses the term "favorite" instead of bookmark for the same concept.
Browser
The software used to view, manage, and access web pages by interpreting hypertext and hyperlinks. The two most common browsers are Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Web pages often appear differently depending on the brand and version of the browser intended to view them in.
C
Check Box
A check box is normally found on online forms where there are different options for the viewer to choose and use a box to signify choice.
CMYK
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are the four colours that are used in the printing process. Every colour can be made by using percentages of these four colours.
Compression
A method of packing data in order to save disk storage space or download time. JPEGs are generally compressed graphics files. Compression is a technique to make a file or a data stream smaller for faster transmission or to take up less storage space.
CSS
Casecading Style Sheets are used within web design to style elements within a web page, e.g titles, paragraphs etc.
D
Directory
A directory (such as Yahoo, commonly mistaken for a search engine) depends on people for listings. The main difference between a search engine and a directory is that a directory does not make use of a spider or robot. One of the defining characteristics of a directory is that it is usually divided into categories.
DPI (dots per inch)
The unit of measurement used to describe the resolution of print output. The higher the dpi, the higher the quality of print.
Drop-Down Menu
In an online form, a drop-down menu allows viewers to make a choice from a list.
Drop Shadow
A drop shadow gives an image depth by creating a shadow behind an object.
E
eDM
Electronic Direct Marketing uses e-mails to communicate with a target audience.
Error 404
This message is displayed when a web page cannot be found.
Export
Saving a file in a different format than the prescribed choice of the software.
F
Findability
A term used in online marketing that describes a web site's ability to be found easily via the search engines, directories, and other online resources.
Flash
Vector graphic animation software from Macromedia.
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.
Forms
HTML tags that define and label text-entry boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, and/or drop-down menus to create simple on-screen forms for collecting information from the viewer.
Freeware
Software disrtibuted for free on the web.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol allows files to be sent from one computer to another via the internet.
G
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format images are mostly used within web design. They can contain up to 256 colours within the image.
Gradient
A gradient is a gradual transition of colors. Many metallic images are gradients. Web images that use gradient fills as a special effect should be saved in a JPEG rather than a GIF format.
Grayscale
An application of black ink (for print) or the color black (for the screen) that simulates a range of tones. Grayscale images have no hue (color). In print design, a grayscale graphic image appears to be black, white, and shades of gray, but it only uses a single color ink.
H
Hexadecimal
A numbering system which uses a base of 16. The first ten digits are 0-9 and the next six are A-F. Hexadecimal numbers are used to color web pages. For example, the hexadecimal equivalent for the color white is #FFFFFF.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is a cross-platform text-formatting system for creating web pages, including copy, images, sounds, frames, animation and more.
Hyperlink
A hyperlink, more commonly called a link, is an electronic connection between one web page to either (1) other web pages on the same web site, or (2) web pages located on another web site. More specifically, a hyperlink is a connection between one page of a hypertext document to another.
Hypertext
Hypertext is any text that can be chosen by a reader and which causes another document to be retrieved and displayed.
I
Italic
Slanted or leaning letter designed to complement or be comaptible with a typeface.
J
Java
ava is a programming language, created by Sun Microsystems, which allows small applications to be downloaded into your computer for playback. Java can be used for such simple applications as animation to more complex applications such as a calculator.
Javascript
JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape. JavaScript can make web pages more animated and dynamic in terms of graphics and navigation. One of the most common graphic JavaScript effects is called a mouseover, and Javascript navigation is commonly created using drop-down menus.
JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group images allow more colours than GIF images and are usually smaller in file size.
K
Kilobyte
A kilobyte is a storage unit capable of storing 1,024 bytes of information.
L
Landscape
A page layout that is wider than tall.
List
Text that is categorized, be it bulleted, numbered, or unnumbered. The default list bullets and numbers are black with no special effects. To make a bulleted list using graphic images as bullets, web graphic designers use a table format.
Logotype
A symbol, mark or identifying name.
M
Meta-tag
Meta-tags are HTML tags that can be used to identify the creator of a web page, what HTML specifications a web page follows, the keywords and description of the page, etc. The most common use of a meta-tag in online marketing is the keyword and description tags, which tell the search engines that index meta-tags what description to use in their search query results.
Mouseover
A popular special effect for web graphics, generally programmed in JavaScript, that changes switches color or a graphic image when you place your cursor over it. Mouseovers can also be used to trigger navigation changes and pop-up windows.
N
Netiquette
Accepted, proper behaviour on the Internet.
O
Online Marketing
Online advertising is done exclusively on the web or through e-mail.
Opt-in
An email marketing term in which the email recipient specifically requests receiving email related to a specific topic of interest.
P
PDF
Portable Document Format allows people to download files and view page by page using Adobe Acrobat.
Portrait
A page layout that is taller than it is wide.
Post
A post is a single message sent to a newsgroup or message board.
Q
Query
A search request submitted to a database (such as the search engine and directory databases) to find a particular piece of information or all records that meet the search criteria.
Quick Time Video
Quick Time Video is the Apple technology that allows video, digitized sound and music, 3D, and virtual reality to be viewed on your web site. It's available for Macintosh and Windows-based computers.
R
RGB
Red, Green and Blue are used for design for the web or for work that will be viewed on or through a computer.
S
Search Engine
A search engines is a program that searches documents (i.e. web pages, which are HTML-documents) for specified keywords and returns the list of documents. A search engine has two parts, a spider and an indexer. The spider is the program that fetches the documents, and the indexer reads the documents and creates an index based on the words or ideas contained in each document.
Spider / Robot
A software program that search engines use which visits every site on the web, follows all of the links, and catalogs all of the text of every web page that (a) contains text, and (b) it is able to visit or crawl.
T
Thumbnail
A small version of an image.
Typeface
A typeface contains a series of fonts. For example, the typeface Arial contains the fonts Arial, Arial Bold, Arial Italic and Arial Bold Italic.
U
URL
Uniform Resource Locator is an address referring to a document on the Internet; it is the address of the web page.
V
Vector Graphic
A graphic image drawn in shapes and lines, called paths. Images created in Illustrator and Freehand (graphic design software) are vector graphics. They are usually exported to be bitmap images.
Video
A series of framed images put together, one after another, to simulate motion and interactivity. A video can be transmitted by number of frames per second and/or the amount of time between switching frames. The difference between video and animation is that video is broken down into individual frames.
W
Website
A web site is a collection of electronic pages generally formatted in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that can contain text, graphic images, and multimedia effects such as sound files, video and/or animation files, and other programming elements such as Java and JavaScript.
X
XHTML
Extensible HyperText Mark-up Language is a hybrid of XML and HTML.
XML
Extensible Mark-up Language.
Y
Z
Acrobat
Acrobat is part of a set of applications developed by Adobe to create and view PDF files. Acrobat is used to create the PDF files, and the freeware Acrobat Reader is used to read the PDF files.
Animated GIF
A GIF graphic file, which consists of two or more images shown in a timed sequence to give the effect of motion.
Animation
Animation is the creating a timed sequence or series of graphic images or frames together to give the appearance of continuous movement.
ASP (Active Server Page)
A dynamically generated web page, generally using ActiveX scripting. When a browser or a search engine spider requests an ASP page from a server, the server generates the web page with HTML code and gives it to the browser or spider.
B
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of information your connection to the Internet can carry. On average, typical telephone lines can carry 1K of information per second.
Banner
A banner is a graphic image (static, animated, or rich media) that is placed on web sites as an advertisement. Banners are commonly used for brand awareness and generating sales.
Bitmap Graphic
A graphic imange which is composed of a pattern of dots. The individual dots are stored as data on a computer. An example of an animation that is a bitmap graphic is a GIF animation.
Bitmap Image (.bmp)
A graphic image stored as a specific arrangement of screen dots, or pixels. Web graphics are bitmap images. A graphic which is defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels which make up the picture. 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.
Bleed
When a page or a cover design extends to and off the edge of the paper it is called a "bleed". In print design, the artwork or block of color must extend off the edge of the page. The artwork or block of color is then printed on larger-size paper. Then the printed page is trimmed to the desired size.
Bookmark
Just as a paper bookmark is used as a reminder of the page you are on in a book, electronic bookmarks are used to bring you back to a web site or other site you may want to return to. The Netscape browser lets you bookmark any site and save the bookmarks in a file you can recall at any time. Microsoft Internet Explorer uses the term "favorite" instead of bookmark for the same concept.
Browser
The software used to view, manage, and access web pages by interpreting hypertext and hyperlinks. The two most common browsers are Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Web pages often appear differently depending on the brand and version of the browser intended to view them in.
C
Check Box
A check box is normally found on online forms where there are different options for the viewer to choose and use a box to signify choice.
CMYK
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are the four colours that are used in the printing process. Every colour can be made by using percentages of these four colours.
Compression
A method of packing data in order to save disk storage space or download time. JPEGs are generally compressed graphics files. Compression is a technique to make a file or a data stream smaller for faster transmission or to take up less storage space.
CSS
Casecading Style Sheets are used within web design to style elements within a web page, e.g titles, paragraphs etc.
D
Directory
A directory (such as Yahoo, commonly mistaken for a search engine) depends on people for listings. The main difference between a search engine and a directory is that a directory does not make use of a spider or robot. One of the defining characteristics of a directory is that it is usually divided into categories.
DPI (dots per inch)
The unit of measurement used to describe the resolution of print output. The higher the dpi, the higher the quality of print.
Drop-Down Menu
In an online form, a drop-down menu allows viewers to make a choice from a list.
Drop Shadow
A drop shadow gives an image depth by creating a shadow behind an object.
E
eDM
Electronic Direct Marketing uses e-mails to communicate with a target audience.
Error 404
This message is displayed when a web page cannot be found.
Export
Saving a file in a different format than the prescribed choice of the software.
F
Findability
A term used in online marketing that describes a web site's ability to be found easily via the search engines, directories, and other online resources.
Flash
Vector graphic animation software from Macromedia.
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.
Forms
HTML tags that define and label text-entry boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, and/or drop-down menus to create simple on-screen forms for collecting information from the viewer.
Freeware
Software disrtibuted for free on the web.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol allows files to be sent from one computer to another via the internet.
G
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format images are mostly used within web design. They can contain up to 256 colours within the image.
Gradient
A gradient is a gradual transition of colors. Many metallic images are gradients. Web images that use gradient fills as a special effect should be saved in a JPEG rather than a GIF format.
Grayscale
An application of black ink (for print) or the color black (for the screen) that simulates a range of tones. Grayscale images have no hue (color). In print design, a grayscale graphic image appears to be black, white, and shades of gray, but it only uses a single color ink.
H
Hexadecimal
A numbering system which uses a base of 16. The first ten digits are 0-9 and the next six are A-F. Hexadecimal numbers are used to color web pages. For example, the hexadecimal equivalent for the color white is #FFFFFF.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is a cross-platform text-formatting system for creating web pages, including copy, images, sounds, frames, animation and more.
Hyperlink
A hyperlink, more commonly called a link, is an electronic connection between one web page to either (1) other web pages on the same web site, or (2) web pages located on another web site. More specifically, a hyperlink is a connection between one page of a hypertext document to another.
Hypertext
Hypertext is any text that can be chosen by a reader and which causes another document to be retrieved and displayed.
I
Italic
Slanted or leaning letter designed to complement or be comaptible with a typeface.
J
Java
ava is a programming language, created by Sun Microsystems, which allows small applications to be downloaded into your computer for playback. Java can be used for such simple applications as animation to more complex applications such as a calculator.
Javascript
JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape. JavaScript can make web pages more animated and dynamic in terms of graphics and navigation. One of the most common graphic JavaScript effects is called a mouseover, and Javascript navigation is commonly created using drop-down menus.
JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group images allow more colours than GIF images and are usually smaller in file size.
K
Kilobyte
A kilobyte is a storage unit capable of storing 1,024 bytes of information.
L
Landscape
A page layout that is wider than tall.
List
Text that is categorized, be it bulleted, numbered, or unnumbered. The default list bullets and numbers are black with no special effects. To make a bulleted list using graphic images as bullets, web graphic designers use a table format.
Logotype
A symbol, mark or identifying name.
M
Meta-tag
Meta-tags are HTML tags that can be used to identify the creator of a web page, what HTML specifications a web page follows, the keywords and description of the page, etc. The most common use of a meta-tag in online marketing is the keyword and description tags, which tell the search engines that index meta-tags what description to use in their search query results.
Mouseover
A popular special effect for web graphics, generally programmed in JavaScript, that changes switches color or a graphic image when you place your cursor over it. Mouseovers can also be used to trigger navigation changes and pop-up windows.
N
Netiquette
Accepted, proper behaviour on the Internet.
O
Online Marketing
Online advertising is done exclusively on the web or through e-mail.
Opt-in
An email marketing term in which the email recipient specifically requests receiving email related to a specific topic of interest.
P
Portable Document Format allows people to download files and view page by page using Adobe Acrobat.
Portrait
A page layout that is taller than it is wide.
Post
A post is a single message sent to a newsgroup or message board.
Q
Query
A search request submitted to a database (such as the search engine and directory databases) to find a particular piece of information or all records that meet the search criteria.
Quick Time Video
Quick Time Video is the Apple technology that allows video, digitized sound and music, 3D, and virtual reality to be viewed on your web site. It's available for Macintosh and Windows-based computers.
R
RGB
Red, Green and Blue are used for design for the web or for work that will be viewed on or through a computer.
S
Search Engine
A search engines is a program that searches documents (i.e. web pages, which are HTML-documents) for specified keywords and returns the list of documents. A search engine has two parts, a spider and an indexer. The spider is the program that fetches the documents, and the indexer reads the documents and creates an index based on the words or ideas contained in each document.
Spider / Robot
A software program that search engines use which visits every site on the web, follows all of the links, and catalogs all of the text of every web page that (a) contains text, and (b) it is able to visit or crawl.
T
Thumbnail
A small version of an image.
Typeface
A typeface contains a series of fonts. For example, the typeface Arial contains the fonts Arial, Arial Bold, Arial Italic and Arial Bold Italic.
U
URL
Uniform Resource Locator is an address referring to a document on the Internet; it is the address of the web page.
V
Vector Graphic
A graphic image drawn in shapes and lines, called paths. Images created in Illustrator and Freehand (graphic design software) are vector graphics. They are usually exported to be bitmap images.
Video
A series of framed images put together, one after another, to simulate motion and interactivity. A video can be transmitted by number of frames per second and/or the amount of time between switching frames. The difference between video and animation is that video is broken down into individual frames.
W
Website
A web site is a collection of electronic pages generally formatted in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that can contain text, graphic images, and multimedia effects such as sound files, video and/or animation files, and other programming elements such as Java and JavaScript.
X
XHTML
Extensible HyperText Mark-up Language is a hybrid of XML and HTML.
XML
Extensible Mark-up Language.
Y
Z
