Bandwidth: data transfer speed, measured in bits per second, determines how fast your connection is to the web or other transfer device.

Browser: software used to locate and view web documents (i.e. Netscape, Microsoft Explorer). Sometimes referred to as the client.

Camera Ready Art: Before digital files, a printed piece was laid out on a board and physically photographed to prepare for printing. Today most camera ready art is supplied in the form of digital files.

Color: does so much for a design piece, yet it is so subjective. The light on the color, the substrate under the color and the eyes that see the color are all variables in viewing color. A graphic designer needs to address these variables as well as those that exist in reproducing color:
Photographic / Additive Color (rgb) Red, Green and Blue phosphers are what make up the colors on your tv screen and computer monitor. Red, Green and Blue dyes are used in photographic paper to yield fulll color photographs. Red, Green and Blue yield a beautiful range of color, but is expensive to print in large quantities.
4 Color Process / Subtractive Color (cmyk) Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are the 4 colored inks used to reproduce color photographs and images on press. They are also used in your color printer. It is a cost effective way to print full color, but does not reproduce as much of the spectrum as Red, Green and Blue.
Web Safe Color Originally there were only 216 colors that could be successfully displayed over the web. HOWEVER as technology moves forward more and more browsers can display additional colors. The cast of those colors is determined by the monitor and system they appear on.
Pantone Matching System: color matching system for inks devised by Pantone, Inc. to maintain color consistency in printed reproduction. Pantone colors can be used as a less expensive alternative to 4 color process. Pantone colored inks can also be used as a 5th and 6th color to maintain control and gain more latitude in process printing.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface): interface that defines how data is processed from the web to other software and databases.

Cookies: information provided by the user during the first visit to a web site. The web site's server records this information in a text file and stores it on the visitor's hard drive. The server looks for the cookie when the visitor accesses the same web site again, and configures itself based on the information in the cookie.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): a means of adding style (ie fonts and spacing) to web documents. Using css, designers can specify with more control how elements such as text will be displayed on a web page.

Data Base: an organized collection of data containing pertinent information such as inventory and purchases. Data bases are essential for e-commerce.

Digital Files: Files created, stored, transferred or processed on a computer.

Domain Name: the text name that brings you to the numeric IP address of a computer on the Internet. Domain Name Lookup is the process of converting a text name into a numeric IP address.

EPS (Encapsulated Postscript): the most widely used file format for graphics which are to be included in page-layout and text files.

Forms: HTML pages which pass variable information back to the server or through e-mail. These pages are used to gather information from users.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): protocol used to correctly send files between computers over the Internet.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format): graphic image file format used on the web, may be a static image or a simple animation.

HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol): the protocol used by the www servers to transfer data between a web server and a web browser.

Hyperlink (or hypertext link): a link in a given document to information within another (or even the same) document. These links are usually represented by highlighted words or images.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language): language used to create documents for the web and to specify links between related objects and documents.

Image Maps: hypertext links that appear on a graphic element of a page.

IP (Internet Protocol) Address: address identifying a computer connected to the Internet.

ISP (Internet Service Provider): company that provides access to the Internet, usually for a fee.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group): generally a photographic or tonal image in digital format, viewable on any platform

Log File: file created by a server which contains all of the access information regarding the activity on that server.

Metatags: sections of HTML that provide direction and information for search engine robots.

pdf (Portable Document Format) an electronic image that preserves all the original graphic elements of a printed document - including fonts. You can view, navigate, print, or forward pdf documents electronically without compromising the original design. PDF files are perfect for the Web because the document doesn't change from platform to platform and the text is rendered before graphic images and hypertext links -yielding faster download times. Links, forms and navigation aids can be added to pdf files making them more interactive. Their small file size and simplicity also make them the perfect choice for e-mailing proofs or finished documents as well as for delivering documentation on a cd. Acrobat Reader, needed to view pdf documents can be downloaded FREE from Adobe Systems Inc. - just click on the logo below.

Pixel (Picture Element): the smallest unit (square or dot) of color used to build an image on a monitor. The more pixels an image contains, the higher its resolution and file size will be.

Platform: the computer operating system (i.e. Windows NT, Mac OS X etc.) and its associated hardware.

Postscript: a page description language that translates text and graphic images into instructions for the printer. Postscript developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. was a major turning point in computer imaging. Not to be confused with encapsulated postscript (eps).

Protocol: an established method of exchanging data over the Internet (i.e. ftp, http).

Raster Graphics: graphic file made up of tiny dots called pixels. A larger number of pixels in an image yields a higher resolution. Tiff, jpeg and bmp images are raster graphics.

Resolution: determines the quality of the image. A computer image's resolution is measured in dpi (dots per inch). The resoluion of traditional film for print is measured in lines per inch or line screen. A 150 line screen is equivalent to 300 dpi.

Rollovers: a hypertext link that visually changes on mouseover and/or click.

Server Based Scripting: programming languages such as perl and coldfusion that are used to gather pertinent information from the data base and take action based on that information.

Server: computer that hosts information available on the internet.

Shopping Cart: tool used to make on-line purchases

Spiders: automated program commonly used by search engines to search the internet.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer): protocol for transmitting confidential information securely over the Internet. It encrypts data that's transferred over the SSL connection so only the viewer the data is intended for can read it. You know you have an SSL connection when the URL of the web page begins with https - instead of http.

TIFF (Tag Image File Format): file format used to store large non-compressed image files, generally used for high resolution print.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator): means of identifying an exact location or page on the Internet. (i.e. the url of this page is:
http://www.rbsystems-design.com/html/gloss.htm)

User Session: all activity for one user of a web site. By default, a user session is terminated when a user is inactive for more than 30 minutes.

Vector Graphics: a mathematical means of representing pictures by drawing lines and shapes in relationship to designated coordinates. The saved file contains instructions for drawing the image, which can be enlarged or reduced without losing quality. Eps, svg and dxf files are examples of vector graphics.

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) describes viewing your file the way it is going to look when printed as opposed to viewing the programming code that supports it.