MWD 2.01 Graphic Image Design

Vector Graphics

Composed of mathematical formulas that define lines, nodes (drawing points) and curves of digital images; can be 2D or 3D; edited in draw programs

Cloning

Copying part of an image and using it to replace unwanted parts of an image.

Art Work

computer created drawing or painting; may be either raster or vector.

DPI

dots per inch. Used to describe the resolution of printed images.

Gradients

filling an object with a smooth transition from one color to another.

Aspect Ratio

relationship of an object's width to its height

Cropping

removing a part of ann image

Transparency

removing the background color of a raster image making it "see-through" in order to allow the image to blend in with its background.

Resolution

the amount of detail stored for an image. Measured in pixels per inch or dots per inch.

TIFF

Available in compressed and uncompressed formats, Compressed is advised; To store raw bitmap data by some programs and devices such as scanners; High resolution printing. Does not support animation or transparency.

BMP

Bitmap: Lossless (uncompressed); Large file size; not well suited for transfer across the Internet or print publications. Used for creating icons, wallpaper.

Layering

compiling multiple pictures of objects together into one image

Raster Graphics

Also called bitmap graphics, images composed of grids of pixels that have a fixed resolution (number of pixels per inch) and cannot be resized without losing image quality

Graphics

Anything on a page that is not actual text, from simple line drawings to fully active images found on the World Wide Web.

Commons Vector File Formats

AI-Adobe Illustrator; CDR-Corel Draw; DXF-AutoCAD; EPS-Encapsulated Postscript (meta graphic); SVG-Scalable Vector Grpahics; WMF-Windows Metafile (common for clipart)

Transparency

Allows the background color of an image to be replaced or changed so that the graphic can blend into the background without having a white box around it.

Portability

Ease at which files are opened, modified, and viewed across operating systems, software and browsers

GIF

Graphic Interchange Format: Standard format on web for animation. Lossless compression. Supports transparency. Supports up to 256 colors.

Adobe Illustrator

Industry standard used by developers of vector graphics; Used to create, save, and archive original artwork. *.AI file extension.

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group: Lossy compression; 16 M colors; High quality; large file size. Destop Publishing images, scanned images, emailing photos, digital camera photos.

Encapsulated Postscript

Meta format; Can be used on raster or vector graphics. *EPS extension.

Lossless

No data is lost during compression.

PNG

Portable Network Graphics: Supports streaming; Supports transparency; Lossless compression; Not suited for photographs; Widely supported by web browsers and image viewers/editors. Replace GIF and TIFF images; Online viewing of images and websites

Clip Art

Premade graphics that are available online and in may software packages; can be either vector or raster.

Compression

Refers to how an image is stored (saved) in order to reduce the file size.

Color Depth

Refers to the number of colors (bits) per pixel that can be displayed on a computer screen (1-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit)

Resolution independent

Regardless of how much the image is enlarged or reduced, the image definition and quality remain the same

Lossy

Some data is lost during compression.

Rotating

pivoting an object around its center point

PPI

pixels per inch. Used to describe the resolution of images on a computer monitor.

Paint Program

raster graphics are edited in these programs

Patterns and Textures

raster graphics used to fill a background of an image

Photographs

raster images that contain millions of colors

Filters

used to apply special effects to an image