study guide

rule of thirds

A composition rule that divides the screen into thirds horizontally and vertically, like a tic-tac toe grid placed over the picture on a television set. Almost all of the important information included in every shot is located at one of the four intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines

unity

A feeling that all parts of a design are working together as a team

sans serif

A font that does not have the small line extensions on its characters.

serif

A font that has small lines at the beginning and end of characters and that is usually used with large amounts of text.

logotype

A graphic symbol for a company, brand, or organization; logo.

contrast

A large difference between two things (rough/smooth, yellow/purple, light/shadow).

background color

The color that you will be revealed if you erase or delete portions of an image

foreground color

The color you will paint onto the background when using shapes and brushes

Typography

The style and appearance of printed materials, specific identifiers include style, font, typeface, etc.

rhythm

a type of visual or actual movement in an artwork. it is created by intentionally repeating visual elements. it is often described as regular, alternating, flowing, or progressive

Movement

a way of combining visual elements to produce a sense of action. this combination of elements helps the viewers eye to sweep over the work in a definite manner

emphasis

area of a design that catches and holds the viewers attention. this area usually has contrasting sizes, shapes, colors or other distinctive features.

white space

areas on a page with no text or graphics; designed to provide a visual break and to give other elements on the page a greater impact; also known as negative space

complementary colors

colors opposite each other on the color wheel

analogous color

colors that are next to each other on the color wheel

pixels

dots that combine to create an image on a computer monitor.

leading

refers to the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type.

hue

refers to the name of a color

tracking

spacing between letters in a whole line of text

balance

the arrangement of parts of a design so that it creates equilibrium.

resolution

the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in a display device

Harmony

the principle of design that combines elements in a graphic design to emphasize the similarities of separate but related parts

symmetry

used to add balance and create a sense of harmony in a design

alignment

way that the different elements in a design are arranged usually in relation to a page or document

RGB color

Red Green Blue, and is the color mode which should be used when designing for digital applications.

vector

A quantity that has both size and direction.

hexadecimal

A six-digit number that represents an RGB color. Each color (red, green and blue) are given a two digit value.

pattern

a choice of lines, colors or shapes, repeated over and over in a planned way.

CMYK color

a color method used to print color on paper. Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are combined to created the desired colors.

raster

is an image made up of a certain number of pixels

kerning

kern is the space between two specific letters or characters , and the process of adjusting the space between letters or characters. kerning can increase the legibility of a word or an entire block of text.

hierarchy

one of the five basic principles of typography design, hierarchy creates organization and direction in a design-it helps to give order to the text elements