Graphic Terms- The Basics Part I

You're almost set. The content of your website, e-book, or software is complete. Ready to put together your e-book or software on the market. In order to turn your prospect into buyer, the look of your e-cover is just as important as the content. What to do? If you're adventurous and seeking the how-to's of self-design below is a short list of terms you'll need to know. If you're conidering having your e-cover professionally designed (smart move) the terms below will help you talk intelligently about your project.

Aliasing
Aliasing happens when a computer monitor printer, or graphics file does not have a high enough resolution to represent a graphic image or text. An aliased image has the "jaggies."

Anti-Aliasing
Anti-Aliasing is smoothing or blending the transition of pixels in an image thus making the edges appear smooth, not jagged.

Banner
A banner is a graphic image placed on a web site as an advertisement. Banners are commonly used for brand awareness and generating sales.

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

Bitmap Image (bmp)
A graphic defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels that make up the picture. Common types of bitmap graphics are GIF and JPEG

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

CMYK
CMYK stands for the colors Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black. In print design colors are defined as a percentage of each of these 4 colors. For example, the color black would be 0-0-0-100. Display devices usually define colors using RGB.

Color Cast
Using a color cast will change the hue of a selected part of an image, while keeping the saturation and brightness intact. Looking at an image with a color is like looking at it through colored glasses.

Dithering
Dithering is combining pixels from a 256-color palette into patterns that approximate other colors. At a distance the eye merges the pixels into a single color. To display a full-color graphic on a 256-color monitor, computers must simulate the colors it cannot display.

DPI
DPI stands for dots per inch. DPI specifies the resolution of an output device, such as a printer.

Drop Shadow
A drop shadow gives an image depth by creating shading offset behind the image.

Duotone
The application of two colors to provide richer tones than a single-color image.

Emboss
Embossing a graphic image adds dimension by making the image appear as if it were carved as a projection from a flat background.

Feathering
Feathering the edge of a graphic gradually diffuses the edge, making the edge look blurry.

Font
A font is a complete set of characters in a specific size and style of type. Some examples are Times New Roman, Arial, and Century.

GIF
GIF stand for graphic Interchange Format. GIF images are the most widely used graphic format on the web. GIF images displays up to 256 colors.

Glow
A glow creates a surrounding highlight of an image. A high radiance creates a soft, subtle, glow and a low radiance creates a hard, bright glow. An example of a bright glow is neon.

Gradient
A gradual transition of colors.

Graphic Backgrounds
The bottom layer on a web page, usually with either a design or color that highlights the copy above.

Grayscale
An application of the color black that simulates a range of tones. Grayscale images have no hue.

Hexadecimal
A numbering system using a base of 16. The first 10 digits are 0-9. The next 6 are A-F. Hexadecimal numbers are used to define colors on the web. For example the color white is hexadecimal #FFFFFF.

Hue
Hue is the actual color of an object. It is measured as a location on a color wheel, expressed in degrees.

JPEG
JPEG is the abbreviation for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG images allow for more colors than GIF images and are usually smaller in size.

Kerning
Kerning is the horizontal spacing between the letters in a word.

Leading
The vertical spacing between lines of text.

For more graphic design terms see Graphic Terms - The Basics Part II

Andy Eaton has created a 10 day ecourse, which includes informative articles, training videos, special offer discounts, plus lots more - finally learn to create your own amazing ecover graphics. simply send a blank email to [email protected] or visit http://www.graphicsecretsexposed.com

MORE RESOURCES

People Locator find anyone in the USA

RELATED WEB SITE DESIGN ARTICLES: How To Create A Stunning Drop Capital Effect On Your Web Pages Drop Capitals are frequently used in many newspapers, books and magazines in the offline world.  You will frequently see the large capital letter sinking down into the first paragraph of articles, stories and chapters in the majority of publication you come across. Be Friendly to Search Engines The object of search engines is to give their visitors a list of web pages relevant to the search words, in the order of relevance to the search words. So what do they want from websites? Relevance to a search: The frequency of the search word on a web page is an indicator of its relevance. Designing Your Web Site For ALL Browsers Let's face it. Building a web site that browses consistently on multiple platforms and multiple browsers is not always as easy as we would like. To Hire or Not to Hire a Website Designer In the early years of the internet the actual design of a website was either very basic or had to be done using a software package that needed a specialist to use it. Not surprisingly, website designers were in short supply and could command huge fees for their services. Content is Crucial! Content is undoubtedly the most important element of a website. It is the defining factor for a website, that which catches the interest of your visitors and keeps them hooked to your site. Winning Websites Customers will form an opinion of your business as soon as they look at your website. Therefore the same basic rules apply that you use in the production of your brochure and your business card - It needs to grab attention, be easy to read, have a benefit statement, be friendly and make a statement about your business. Save Time and Boost Profits with Free Content Public domain gives you a head start creating ebooks, ecourses, newsletters, teleconferences, website content and email registration incentives you need to keep in contant touch with clients and prospects.Public domain refers to information free from copyright protection. Website Design Info - Part 1 What Will My Site Do?This is the first of eight articles about website design. Our discussion will deal with some of the issues which need to be conidered when developing a new online presence. Creating a Favicon Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic in the URL address box) for this Web site, but never did finish the work until now. I used a free program that allowed me to copy and paste an image to create an icon, but I believe it has spyware so I won't share its name. How to Make Your Site Attractive to Potential Link Partners Every now and then, I receive a link exchange request from someone who wants a link from my directory (my high-ranking directory directly accessible from the index page), and in exchange, they're willing to link to my page from one of their zillion of link pages about 18 jumps away from the home page. Needless to say, the proffered page has a Google PageRank of 0, and chances are it's not even indexed by any search engines. Your Web Site Is A Wonderland: What Picassos Art Taught Me About Persuasive Design Whenever singer John Mayer sings his romantic song, "Your Body is a Wonderland", I can't help but think of web sites and usability. As a usability consultant, I see the devotion to his lover, and the time he spent uncovering every detail of her being, as the way most web site designers think we approach their web sites. 4 Things That Make A Web Site Great First you need original content. Content is the heart beat of any exceptional Web site. Speed Up Or Lose Out! How To Improve Your Websites Download Speed So your web site's online and you've got high rankings in the search engines attracting lots of visitors. But the statistics tell you most of them are leaving after viewing just one page, what's gone wrong?One possible cause could be a slow download speed of your web site's homepage or the web site as a whole. Cascading Style Sheets for Better Web Design In cascading style sheets you can specify how your web pages will be presented on the screen by simply predefining page elements such as fonts, headers and links.You can add these predefined elements in the head-section of your pages, but more interesting is to use them in a single . Browser Compatibility Internet Explorer, created by microsoft has been the most popular web browser for many years. But the gap is shrinking with the release of Mozilla Firefox, by an open source community. Web Crimes: how to avoid common website design mistakes Thinking about designing your own website? Think again about adding any of these "features"?1. Animated gifs. Choosing A Color Scheme When you begin the design of your Web site, one of the first things you need to do is decide on a color scheme. Although choosing colors seems like a relatively easy proposition, it's not easy at all. Free Website Design Tips In this article I will give a few tips of where to find a low cost web design company and also about the best ways of producing a quality website. How many people or companies are advertising their services for website design? The answer is a great deal. How To Boost Your Chances at Having a Successful Web Site New Web sites are springing up online by the million. However, when they don't reach a level of success, the Web site owners assume that they can't make money off the Internet. When Your Graphic Designer Costs You Money So how do you know when your graphic designer costs you financially and emotionally? When a file is not prepared correctly? When you go to press and have your media material produced in prints, and find out that the file was built incorrectly, then that's the time when your graphic designer will cost you money. Many pre-press operators have complained about having to correct graphic designers work.