Glossary
A compilation of as many terms that I can find as possible. If I left out anything please do point it out so I can add it in. Thanks to Sasms for bundles of useful effort!
Also, "color" is spelt "colour".
A
Abstract: Art that "uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world".
Source
Alpha-Channel: A channel that measures the opacity of each pixel in a layer. Used for managing transparency in an image.
Aperture: A photography term referring to "a hole or an opening through which light travels." Often refers to the size of the hole that lets light in in a camera.
Source
Analogous Colour Scheme: Refers to a colour scheme where 3 colours next to each other on a 12-colour colour wheel are used as the dominant colour scheme in an image. See
Colour Wheel,
Colour Theory
Anti-Alias: Sometimes abbreviated as AA, it is basically smoothing out the lines to prevent the pixelated, grained out look. Often done automatically by the graphics program.
Avatar: A square or vertical rectangle image that appears next to a users posts in forums, and on their profile. Avatars are known for containing an abbreviation of their user name.
B
Background: The background of an image is the furthest back you could see. Generally the backdrop of an image, lying behind the focal and is the furthest visual cue. See
Depth and
Foreground
Blending Mode: A mode that allows you to blend in colors through manipulation, like dodge, multiply and inverting the colors.
Blurring: Blurring an image is making the shapes, lines and colours of the image less defined. Generally used to create depth perception.
Brush: The tool, primarily used for creating smooth edged strokes, that is used for just about everything in art. Brushes vary in shape, size, and purpose. Custom brushes are available by downloading from other sites. Some custom brushes act as "stamps" to imprint a shape or style on the image.
Burn:Burning is used to darken an image or a section of an image. May be used to create a charred feel to the image. See
Dodge.
C
Canvas: The working space of your graphics editor.
Character: This terms refers to text, but more specifically, the symbols (letters, numbers, punctuation, ect.) that make up text.
Cinema 4D (C4D): A rendering program that can be used to create abstract images often used in signatures. The term "C4D" can reference to either the program itself or the type of abstract images the program renders for signature work.
CMYK: Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key Black. The common colour scheme used for printing. See
RGB
CnC: Comment and Criticise/Critique
Composition: The art of placing components of a piece together to achieve a desired effect.
Colour Histogram: Refers to "a representation of the distribution of colors in an image."
Source
Colour Theory: Term refers to mixing of colours in visual arts. Often refers to the knowledge in mixing and matching colours. Greater information
here
Colour Wheel: A colour wheel is a wheel of colour used to assist in choosing colours for an image. See
Colour Theory
Complimentary Colours:Loosely defined as opposite colours in a colour wheel. See
Color wheel
Content Aware: Refers to the "Content Aware" feature of Photoshop CS5.
Contrast: Refers to "the difference in visual properties that makes an object (or its representation in an image) distinguishable from other objects and the background."
Source
Crop: Cropping an image is to select a region of the image and cut it out so that the section you chose becomes your canvas.
Curve: A curve is the "remapping of image tonality, specified as a function from input level to output level, used as a way to emphasize colours or other elements in a picture."
Source
D
Defringing: When Photoshop automatically detects and removes the
matting around a select group of pixels, generally after extracting it.
See
Extraction,
Matting (Sasms)
Depth: Refers to the creation of a perspective that has vanishing point or a definite feel of something fading into the distance.
Digipainting: Painting done digitally. Usually with a tablet.
Distort: Means to deform or vary the original appearance of something.
Dithering: It is the method of placing pixels of differing colors close together to make it look like a blended one when zoomed out. Used to get more color out of a limited palette or used in pixel art to create texture and depth.
Dodge: Dodging lightens out an area. This tool is used in conjunction with the burn tool to manage and emphasis lighting. See
Burn
E
Eraser: This tool is used for deleting part of an image or layer to make it completely transparent or “erased”. Must be done with an active alpha channel.
Eyedropper: Tool used to pick out a color from an image
Exposure: Photography term that refers to the length of time light is allowed through the lens.
Extraction: An extraction is the act of cutting out a certain portion of an image (that is desired), leaving behind a transparent background. (Sasms)
F
F-Number: Phtography term. Also known as focal ratio, it refers to the "focal length divided by the "effective" aperture diameter."
Source
Focal Length: Photography term. Utilised when describing magnification. More information
here
Focal Point: The main focus of an image.
Font: The style of the text.
Foreground: At the front of the image, where it is above everything else. Normally is the focal or in front of the focal. See
Depth and
Background.
Fractal: Refers to an image that has infinitely repeating geometric shapes. Often created through a tool like Apophysis. Frequently used as effects in
Tags. For example, the
Mandelbrot Set Fractal
Frame: A still image, often used in animation or Actionscript.
Filter: Filters are tools that replicate specific effects on an image in an image editing program. Filters are things like Gaussian Blur (GIMP).
Flow: Term referring to directional flow in an image.
G
Gradient: Gradual change of colors.
Gradient Map: Colours the image using the current gradient selected. Often used for colour adjustment.
Grunge: Texturised art style.
H
Histogram: See
Image Histogram and
Colour Histogram
Hue: Defined as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow (the unique hues)".
Source. See
Saturation
I
Image Histogram: Refers to “a graphical representation of the tonal distribution in a digital image.”
Source. See
Colour Histogram
Indexed Color: A GIMP image mode that uses a palette for colors. Only the colours of this palette will be used. This is a useful mode for many form of iconic images and emoticons.
L
Large Piece (LP): Refers to large images, often used as screen wallpapers or as large digital poster work.
Layer: Image buffer that separates part of an image from everything else.
Lighting: Refers to the addition of "light" in an art piece to give the illusion of shadows and depth.
Liquefy/Liquify: Refers to the Liquefy feature in recent Adobe Photoshop versions, which has a range of tools to distort a bitmap image; including swirling, bloating and extracting different parts of the image. See
extraction (Sasms)
M
Matting: Refers to the thin border of pixels left around an image with a transparent background, generally after extraction. See
extraction (Sasms)
N
Noise: Adding noise to images give your image the appearance of static. Generally undesirable in photographs.
O
Opacity: Refers to how hard it is to see through something. The higher the opacity, the harder to see through.
Outline: A line that surrounds an image. Often used to make text sharper.
Oversaturation: Oversaturation occurs when the colours in an image are very bright. One of the biggest problems in choosing colour palettes in Pixel art.
P
Palette: Refers to a finite choice of colours for an image. Colour palettes are more commonly used in painting and pixel art. Can also refer to a physical palette, which is used for mixing paint in traditional media.
Path:Often refers to the Path Tool in GIMP which is used to draw bezier curves. The GIMP equivalent of the Pentool.
Pencil: Refers to a graphite pencil in traditional media, or the Pencil tool in digital programs. The latter often renders a digital brush's translucent areas opaque.
Pentool:Photoshop equivalent of the path tool in GIMP.
Photomanipulation: Manipulation of a taken photograph in a graphics program.
Pixel: A pixel is a single point on a raster image. Generally rendered as little squares. May also refer to the style of pixel art.
Pixelise: When you pixel-ise an image you make it so that it is pixel art, or a style much similar to it.
Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR):A mathematical ratio that describes how the width of a pixel in a digital image compares to the height of that pixel. (Sasms)
Pixel Art: An art style where the art work is done pixel by pixel.
Plug-in: An add-on(extension) that can be downloaded to perform a specific task in the host application.
Puppet Warp: Refers to the feature in Photoshop which “you map a 2D Grid or Mesh over your shape and then define pivot points. Using these pivot points you can 'click and drag' to create some type of spline-interpreted rubbery shapes, or create more rigid transforms with wheel-type controls on each pivot.”
Source (Sasms)
R
Raster: Refers to working with individual pixels of an image. Contrast against
vector.
Render: Generally a term referring to a rendered image. Can be (erroneously) referring to an "extraction" of an image. See
Extraction,
Rendering (Sasms)
Rendering: Generating an image with the use of models or algorithms with a specific computer program. Common applications to generate 3D renders include Cinema 4D, 3D’s Max and Blender. (Sasms)
RGB Mode: Color image mode using Red, Green and Blue color channels. See
CMYK
Rule of Thirds: A rule of thumb where if you divide a picture into thirds both horizontally and vertically, the intersections will form the main points of interest.
An example.
S
Saturation: Refers to "the colorfulness of a color relative to its own brightness."
Source. See
Hue.
Shade: Refers to a mixture of a colour with black. See
Tint
Sharpen: Sharpening an image makes it more crisp and less blurred. Over-usage of a sharpen filter may result in oversaturated or oversharpened images.
Signature: Often shortened as "sig", a signature is refers to the space below an user's forum post to literally sign a signature. Can also refer to images posted in this space.
Sketch: A rough outline of how a picture would look like. It may also refer to a picture done in the style of a sketch, like
this. May also refer to the filter/plug-in that causes this effect.
Sprite: Small image often done by pixel art.
Smudging: The blending of colours or shapes together. Often results in indefinite shapes and lines. In digital art, it refers to the smudge tool or the act of smudging paint in a painting program. In traditional art, it refers to the usage of tools to smudge colour.
Stock: From "Stock Picture". A source image used to assist in the creation of another image.
Swatch: A custom color palette used in Photoshop. More information
here and
here.
T
Tag: Refers to an unique graphic that is posted in a forum post's signature area. Tends to have specific sizes and shapes.
Tablet: Hardware which recognises pen strokes and directly translates it into the computer. Digital version of pen and paper.
Texture: A texture is the perception of an image having physical feel. Often used to create more realistic effects of an image.
Tint: Refers to mixture of a colour with white. See
Shade
Tone (Lightness/Value/Tonal): Tone refers to the subjective perception of the brightness of a colour.
Read more here
Transparency: Refers to how easy something is to see through. The less transparent, the harder to see through.
Typography: An art form that looks at the placement of text and using text instead of brushes and filters to create an art piece.
U
Userbar: A thin rectangle often used to show that someone is part of a certain group.
V
Vanishing Point: Refers to "a point in a perspective drawing to which parallel lines not parallel to the image plane appear to converge." In other words, a point whereby perspective lines meet.
Source
Vector: It refers to the usage of geometrical lines, curves and shapes in a piece of artwork. Done in a Vector editor like Inkscape. Lines are infinitely scalable.
Vexel: Vexel is a term that refers to vector-styled artwork done in a Raster editor rather than a Vector editor. See
Raster,
Vector
W
Watermark: Term used to describe text or logo faintly imprinted onto an image. May or may not be visible.
If you want to make an addition or make any changes, please do make a note
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