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GLOSSARY OF TERMSGlossary of web page and graphic design terms
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.
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 graphic designers use tables and embedded tables.
ALT-attribute
Part of the image source tag in HTML. A good web designer will always include text in all of your image sources for three reasons: (1) if any of your visitors choose not to view graphic images on your web pages, the alternative text will be shown; (2) search engines index the text in the ALT-attribute; and (3) if your visitors use Internet Explorer as their browser and they leave the mouse over any graphic image, they will view the text in your ALT-attribute.
Animated GIF
A GIF graphic file, which consists of two or more images shown in a timed sequence to give the effect of motion.
GIFs can be made up of several different GIFs, or frames. Only the first frame of the GIF is displayed on older browsers that don't support animated GIFs; the first frame is also displayed until the entire GIF has been loaded.
Once the entire GIF has been loaded, the frames are "looped" through to give the appearance of animation. You can set how long each frame is displayed, and how many times the entire GIF is looped through.
Only the GIF89a format supports the display of frames.
Anti-Aliasing
Smoothing or blending the transition of pixels in an image. Anti-aliasing the edges on a graphic image makes the edges appear smooth, not jagged.
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.
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.
Bitmap Image
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, BMP, PNG, FAX formats, and TGA. See vector graphics for a different type of graphic and metafiles for a combination of the two types.
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 website 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 Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Web pages often appear differently depending on the brand and version of the browser intended to view them in.
Cast Shadow
A cast shadow is similar to a drop shadow with added emphasis on perspective. Cast shadows can be rotated, stretched, and skewed to create a realistic 3-D effect.
CGI
Stands for Common Gateway Interface. CGI is a programming language that enables you to use forms on your website.
Color Cast
A color cast changes the hue (color) of a selected part of an image while keeping the saturation and brightness intact. Viewing an image with a color cast can be similar to viewing it through colored lenses on eyeglasses. A commonly known color cast (in graphic design) is a duotone.
Check Box
In an online form, check boxes looks like the following:
If you click your mouse on the boxes, you will be able to select multiple services. A check box is different from a radio button, which can only accept one checked item at a time.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.
Cookie
A cookie is a message given to a web browser (such as Netscape or Explorer) by a web server. The purpose of cookies is to identify website users/visitors and possibly prepare customized web pages for them.
Dedicated Line
A dedicated line is a permanent connection to the Internet using an individual, separate phone line.
Directory
A directory 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. In other words, a directory will not list your web page if you do not register it with them. Directories are usually divided into categories and you must submit your URL under the most appropriate categories.
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.
DNS
Stands for Domain Name System. The DNS translates URL text addresses into a numeric Internet address.
Domain Name
A domain name is the name that identifies an IP address. For instance, the domain name www.yourwebsite.com might really be the IP address 987.654.321
There are some common "top level domains": these are suffixes to the domain name that indicate what type of site you're at. Some of the common top level domains:
.com (commercial business)
.org (nonprofit organization)
.edu (educational institutions)
.net (network organizations)
.mil (military)
.gov (government agencies
DPI
Stands for dots per inch. DPI specifies the resolution of an output device, such as a computer screen or a printer, or an input device, such as a scanner. Web page resolution ranges from 72-86 dots per inch. Print resolution usually runs from 300-600 dots per inch on a Laser Printer and 125-200 dots per inch for photographic images on a print brochure.
Drop Shadow
A drop shadow gives an image depth by creating a shading offset behind a selected image.
Dynamic HTML
Dynamic HTML are Web pages that change each time they are viewed. This interactivity is accomplished with HTML and without calls to the server.
An element defines the purpose of a block of text in HTML. Examples of elements:
Headings
Paragraphs
Lists
Links
Emboss
Embossing a graphic image adds dimension to it 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.
E-Zine
Stands for electronic magazine and is a name for a website which is modeled after a print magazine or for a magazine that is only available online or through e-mail.
Feathering the edge of a graphic image gradually dissipates the edge, making the edge look blurry. The image shown below has feathered edges.
Flash
Flash is a software program from Macromedia that allows you to create small animations. The viewer must install the Flash plugin to play these files.
Forms
HTML tags that define and label text-entry boxes, check boxes, and radio buttons to create simple on-screen forms for collecting information from the viewer.
Frames
In HTML, providing the ability to break the Web page into multiple, separately scrollable areas. Because some search engines cannot follow links in a framed website, a good web designer will contain text in a NOFRAMES-tag and provide a link for search engines to index your site.
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 on the Internet.
GIF
Stands for graphics interchange format. GIF images are the most widely used graphic format on the Internet. GIF images display up to 256 colors.
Glow
A glow is the opposite of a shadow in that it creates a surrounding highlight of an image. A high radiance creates a soft, subtle glow and a low radiance creates a hard, bright glow.
Gradient
A gradient is a gradual transition of colors. Many metallic images are gradients, and the image shown below is a 2-color gradient. Web images that use gradient fills as a special effect should be saved as a JPEG rather than a GIF.
Graphic Backgrounds
The bottom-most layer on a web page, usually with either a design or color that highlights the above copy. A small graphic can be tiled to create a background texture for a web page.
Home Page
The home page is usually the "first" page of a Website (some Websites have Splash pages).
It's best to be aware that viewers can enter your Website from any page — you do not have control over how someone navigates your site.
That's why it's important to have links to the other pages at your site on all your pages. At the very least, you should have a link to your home page on every page.
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 White is #FFFFFF.
HTML
Stands for Hypertext Markup Language; a cross-platform text-formatting system for creating web pages, including copy, images, sounds, frames, animation and more.
HTML Editor
An HTML editor is software that is used to write HTML.
You don't need an HTML editor to write HTML, however. You can do it by hand in any ASCII text editor, such as Notepad (Windows) or SimpleText (Mac). Many purists argue that this is the only way HTML should be written.
Others prefer HTML editors because they can save you time.
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 website, or (2) web pages located on another website. 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.
Image Map
Graphic images containing multiple, clickable links.
IP Address
An IP address is the numerical address of a computer on the Internet. Each IP address consists of four numbers separated by periods.
Java
Java 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 programming language based on the JAVA language. It's used for rollovers, and to lend the "dynamic" to dynamic HTML, among other things.
JPEG
Stands for joint photographic experts group. File format for full-color and black-and-white graphic images. JPEG images allow for more colors than GIF images and are usually smaller in size.
Kerning
The horizontal spacing between the letters in a word.
Leading
The vertical spacing between lines of text.
Link
A link is an HTML element that points to another location within the Web page, or another Web page altogether — possibly even a different Website altogether. The default display mode for links is blue text with an underline.
When your mouse is over the link, it will change to a hand pointing, indicating that you can click the link. When you click the link, you're taken to the location it specifies.
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.
The following is an unordered, or bulleted, list:
Logo design services
Web graphics services
Banner design services
The following is an ordered, or numbered, list:
Logo design services
Web graphics services
Banner design services
Lossy Compression
A term coined by graphics programmers to refer to a technique of shrinking file sizes by giving away some precision of detail. JPEG is the most common of these. By reducing the so-called quality of a picture when you save it, you can make the file size smaller. Many pictures can take a lot of loss of fine detail before it becomes noticeable on a web page.
Marquee
Text that scrolls across the browser window, or in the status bar of the browser.
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.
Modem
A modem (modulator/demodulator) is the hardware required to connect telephone lines and is essential for dial-up connections to the Internet.
Moderated Discussion List/Newsgroup
The person who categorizes the topics and selects posts is the moderator. Thus, a moderation discussion list or newsgroup is a service in which the moderator organizes participants' comments or suggestions are organized into topics or categories.
Mouseover
A rollover causes a different graphic to appear in place of the graphic your mouse "rolls over". Also know as a rollover.
Multimedia
A form of communication combining text with graphics, page layout, video, audio, animation, and so forth.
Accepted, proper behavior on the Internet. The term especially applies to e-mail and newsgroup posts.
Newbie
Someone who is new to the web, a newsgroup or e-mail, or any other application.
If you are connected to the Internet, you are online. Online advertising is done exclusively on the web or through e-mail.
Stands for Portable Document Format. Created by Adobe Systems in its software program Adobe Acrobat as a universal browser. Files can be downloaded via the web and viewed page by page, provided the user is computer has installed the necessary plug-in which can be downloaded from Adobe's own website.
Plug-In
A software extension that provides added capabilities to the browser, for purposes such as viewing, hearing, or saving specially formatted files. Most plug-ins are available via the creator's web page for downloading.
PNG
PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. It's a promising graphic file format, because it has better color, compression, and transparency capabilities than GIF. Unfortunately, browser support for PNG is still spotty at best. PNGs use lossless compression.
Post
A post is a single message sent to a newsgroup or message board.
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 website. It's available for Macintosh and Windows-based computers.
Radio Button
In an online form, radio buttons looks like the following:
If you click your mouse on the radio buttons above, you will only be able to select one answer. A radio button is different from a check box, which can accept multiple checked items at a time.Rollover
A rollover causes a different graphic to appear in place of the graphic your mouse "rolls over". Also know as a mouseover.
Rules
These HTML-tags enable you to insert horizontal lines as separators or dividers. Web graphic designers will vary the length and color of horizontal rules to add emphasis and flair. The following line is a horizontal rule set at a width of 50 percent.
A part of the font suitcase (of Adobe Type 1 fonts), describes the shape of each character to the operating system so that the font can be seen onscreen.
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.
Source Code
The source code is just the HTML that makes up your Web page. The cool thing about the Web is that you can view the HTML of any Web page, simply by viewing the source code.
In Netscape, select View|Page Source.
In Internet Explorer, select View|Source.
Spider/Robot
A software program that search engines use which visit every site on the web, following all of the links and cataloguing all of the text of every web page.
Splash Page
A splash page is the page that sets the "mood" for your Website. Typically, it's just a graphic, sometimes animated, which automatically takes you to the real home page.
Tag
HTML elements use tags. Tags are the code that identify elements; a paragraph uses the <P> tag.
All elements have a starting tag, and most have an ending tag which is indicated by a slash; </P>. Paragraphs, actually, are one of those tags that don't require a closing tag, but can take one.
Often when your page isn't displaying correctly, it's because you've forgotten a closing tag.
Thread
A series of messages related to the same topic in a discussion group or newsgroup, such as an original post and related follow-ups.
URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and is an address referring to an HTML document on the Internet. In other words, it is the address of your website on the Internet.
The syntax of a URL consists of three elements:Vector Graphic
the protocol, or the communication language, that the URL uses;
the domain name, or the exclusive name that identifies a website; and
the pathname of the file to be retrieved, usually an HTML document.
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.
A website is a collection of electronic pages 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.
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How to contact us...
Project Information Services Tel: 888-986-2727 Fax: 425-984-9440 projinfo@direct.ca
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