Terms

Two rows and three columns:

Differences between: Print Web
Color CMYK RGB
Measurements Inches Pixels
Resolution (dpi) High quality (150-300dpi) Low quality (72dpi)
Photoshop Illustrator
Pixel Based Vector Based
Dots Vector Based

Internet
Over the past forty years the Internet has evolved into a complex communications system. The US military (1960s-70s) originally intended to create a robust communications system that would function in spite of a nuclear war. With no physical beginning, middle or end, information is linked in a network of connections and can be explored in many different ways. By the 1980s this means of communication became known as the Internet and was mainly used by academics and researchers to share information and ideas across vast distances. Today we know it as a forum for, artistic, political and educational expression. It continues to evolve as a platform for business and knowledge.

TERMS AND STANDARDS

Browsers: Software used to preview web pages. (Firefox, Safari…)
The browser that triggered the WWW explosion was Mosaic, a public domain graphical user interface (GUI) from the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). Released in 1993, Mosaic made it possible to design documents containing images for display over the Internet. Up to that point, an Internet document was basically just a bunch of text on a server. In 1994, Mosaic ship-jumper Marc Andreessen released Netscape 1.1, following Mosaic’s successful lead, by distributing the browser free of charge on the Internet in order to establish a wide user base.

URL: (Universal resource locator) Web addresses

HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol: set of communications software standards that allow different kinds of computers to communicate with each other over the web.

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language: the programming language that specifies how a document will appear when it is viewed in a browser.

XHTML: Extensible hypertext markup language is a hybrid between HTML 4.0 and XML. The main goal of XHTML is to provide a way for authors to update their HTML documents so that they are compliant with the XML standard, thus allowing them to be viewed with the next generation of XML browsers.

Tags: Tags are commands written into a document that specifies how it should be formatted. In HTML, a tag is represented as <TAG>. For example, an HTML file can tell a browser to render text as boldfaced if in the text is written as <b>text</b>. Note how the slash in the second tag closes the book-ended tags.

Link: A link is a bit of highlighted text on a Web page that connects to another Web page or file. Clicking the link sends your browser in search of the address attached to the text. That address can refer to another place on the same page, another page within the same site, or just about anywhere on the Internet (hyperlink).

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): CSS is a style sheet language used to describe the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language (XHTML). CSS is designed to separate the content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from the presentation. This includes elements such as the layout, colors, and fonts. It provides more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enabling multiple pages to share formatting, and reducing complexity and repetition in the structural content.

Browsers: Program used to display HTML

  • Safari
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer

Cross Platform: Mac/PC
Limited Monitors (4 bit or 16 bit color)
Color Calibration –monitors display different colors
Gamma –dictates the brightness and contrast of computer display
(Macs typically brighter than PCs.)

Bit Depth: the number of colors in an image or number of colors on your screen
ex.: 1 bit = 2 colors
8 bit = 256 colors

Resolution: The resolution of an image describes how fine the dots are that make up that image. The more dots, the higher the resolution. A 300 dpi (dots per inch) printer is capable of printing 300 dots in a line 1 inch long. When displayed on a monitor, the dots are called pixels, 72dpi.

File formats/extensions recognized by all programs: .tiffs, .gifs, .eps, .jpegs, .PNG
Web File Formats: (compressed file formats) gifs, jpegs, PNG
K-size (measurement of how big files are)

  • Gifs: Graphics Interchange Format limit of 256 colors (8 bit, index color)
    Good for graphics, cartoons, illustrations, small photographs, logos
    (Compress solid color well)
  • Transparent gifs: regular gifs save images matted to a rectangular background,
    transparent gifs silhouette images. Allows images to be placed on top of background
    images or color.
  • Animated gifs: streaming animation. Allows each frame of animation to appear after the next. (Only animation on the web that requires no plug-in like flash.)
  • Jpegs: Joint Photographic Experts Group millions of color
    (24 bit as opposed to 8 bit)
    Good for large photographs
    Compress files at different levels (maximum, high, medium and low).
  • Progressive JPEG: same concept as the interlaced gif. (Slowly comes into focus.)