Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Web/Graphic Design Glossary

by Creative Public

Alpha Channel: An eight bit grayscale channel within some image processing software programs which is used for masking objects, making them transparent or adding specific color instructions.

Anti-Aliasing: The process of elimination of jagged or-"stair stepped" pixel edges or single pixels by a software algorithm, which blends the contrasting colors and shapes.

Binary: The basis for all digital computer information. Relates to the coding of data in terms of either a 1 or 0.

Bit: A shortened form of the term "binary digit," the smallest unit of information that can be stored in a computer. One digit of binary information can be either a mark or a space.

Bit Depth: A measure of a computer monitor's ability to display different colors at the same time. While a monitor with a bit depth of 1 can only display monochrome information, a monitor with a bit depth of 4 can display 16 colors; an 8-bit monitor can display 256 colors and a 24-bit monitor can display 16.7 million colors. A 32-bit monitor has an additional 8-bits for transparency effects or masking as in the case of an Alpha channel.

Bitmap: A pixel-by-pixel description of an image. Each pixel is a separate element. Also referred to as a raster image.

Bitmapped: An image, which is formed by a collection of square pixels in a rectangular format. The more bits per pixel the smoother the final image will be.

Byte: The computer standard of measure for file size, which is made up of 8-bits of information. One megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes. One gigabyte is 1,024 megabytes or about one million bytes. One kilobyte is 1,024 bytes.

Cache: Storage within the computer, which processes data very quickly. Often in RAM or can be a supplemental board. Increases operating speed and efficiency.

READ THE FULL GLOSSARY HERE

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