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4x5 - an aspect ratio commonly used in large format photography emulsion rip ph etching serigraph lithograph - a method for printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface

adobe 1998 - a profile that is mainly used in the printing industry

.ai - the file extension used for adobe illustrator

alpha channel - gives the ability to store a matte or transparency

AP - Artists proof

aperture - in optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light is admitted. more specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane

archival - term used in framing and materials science to describe materials that do not degrade with time
pigment chemical colorant that is usually insoluble in the vechicle that carries it therefor it must have extremely small particles to stay in suspension. Because pigments are insoluble they generally stay on the surface of the substrate when the vehicle evaporates. Pigments are generally opaque

artifacting - loss of image quality due to lossy compression techniques. deterioration can either be clearly visible or even subtle in the fine details of an image

aspect ratio - the aspect ratio or proportions of a two-dimensional shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension

BAT - bon à tirer means "good to pull" used in printmaking for final proof

bellows - a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location. basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle

byte - a unit of measurement of information storage, most often consisting of eight bits. in many computer architectures it is a unit of memory addressing

camera - a device used to capture images, either as still photographs or as sequences of moving images. the term comes from the latin camera obscura for dark chamber for an early mechanism of projecting images where an entire room functioned as a real-time imaging system; the modern camera evolved from the camera obscura

camera shutter - camera
in photography, a shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period of time, for the purpose of exposing photographic film or a light-sensitive electronic sensor to light to capture a permanent image of a scene

CCD - a Charge-Coupled Device (ccd) is an analog shift register, enabling analog signals (electric charges) to be transported through successive stages (capacitors) controlled by a clock signal

CCD scanner - a solid state scanner using a charge coupled device

chromatic aberration - in optics, chromatic aberration is caused by a lens having a different refractive index for different wavelengths of light

CMYK - cyan, magenta, yellow, black. A four color process used for printing

collotype - a dichromate based photographic printing process capable of reproducing extremely fine detail

color acuity - your ability to see and discern colors at their true hue and values

colormatch icc profile - a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the international color consortium (icc)

compression - a way to reduce file size by sacrificing image quality

constant proportions - in printing, the term is primarily used when you alter the size of a image

CRT - a vacuum tube containing an electron gun (a source of electrons) and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to form images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen. the image may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictures (television, computer monitor), radar targets and others

depth of field - in optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, the depth of field (dof) is the portion of a scene that appears sharp in the image

dmax - darkest value a printer can produce

dmin - lightest value a printer can produce

dot gain - dot gain is a phenomenon in printing and graphic arts whereby printed dots are perceived and actually printed bigger than intended. this causes a darkening of the screened images or textures, especially in the mid tones and shadows

dot matrix - a 2-dimensional array of dots used to generate characters, symbols and images

DPI - Dots Per Inch

dye - colored substance which has an affinity to the substrate and is soluble in the vehicle. The color therfore is in the vehicle and can soak into the substrate. This gives pigments the ability to increase saturation with multiple applications. Most dyes are organic and therefore breakdown or degrade more readily when exposed to light, ozone and or humidity

dynamic range - the difference between dmax and dmin

EA - Epreuve d Artiste Artist proof in French

EC - Epreuve d'commerce supposed to be used by as salesmens samples but often sold

embellish - To add to a painting by adding texture with acrylics gels or medium with or without color, gold or silver leaf, beads, sand etc

exposure - in photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium (photographic film or image sensor) during the process of taking a photograph. exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value (ev) and scene luminance

focal length - a measure of how strongly it converges (focuses) or diverges (diffuses) light. a system with a shorter focal length has greater optical power than one with a long focal length

gallery wrap - gallery wrap is a method of stretching an artist s canvas so that the canvas wraps around the sides (stretcher bar or strainer bars) and is secured to the back of the wooden frame. the result is the hardware (staples or tacks) used for securing the canvas is not visible on the sides. the sides of the canvas are prepared and primed in the same manner as the face, which may then be painted a solid color or painted to continue the image appearing on the face

gamut - in color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut, is a certain complete subset of colors. the most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as within a given color space or by a certain output device

giclée - is an invented name for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. the word giclée is derived from the french language word le gicleur meaning nozzle , or more specifically gicler meaning to squirt, spurt, or spray

gif - graphics interchange format. uses a palette of 256 colors. commonly used for web graphics

gigabyte - 1024 megabytes

grayscale - images of this sort are composed exclusively of shades of neutral gray, varying from black at the weakest intensity to white at the strongest

halftone - halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of equally spaced dots of varying size

Hexachrome - the addition of green and orange to the traditional 4 color CMYK process.
offset- Offset printing term used in printing when the image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket then to a substrate

high key - a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene

hvlp - high-volume low-pressure (hvlp) spray guns, are designed to deliver the same high volumes of paint without requiring such high pressures. rollcoat

image size - size of the actual artwork

image wrap - continuing parts of an image onto the stretcher or strainer bars

jpeg - Joint Photographic Experts Group. a commonly used compression method mainly used for photographs. jpeg s only support 8 bit files and do not support layers or alpha channels

kelvin - the kelvin (symbol: k) is a unit increment of temperature and is one of the seven si base units. the kelvin scale is a thermodynamic (absolute) temperature scale where absolute zero, the theoretical absence of all thermal energy, is zero (0 k). calibration

kilabyte - 1024 bytes

lab - a color-opponent space with dimension l for lightness and a and b for the color-opponent dimensions, based on nonlinearly-compressed cie xyz color space coordinates

laser printer - a laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. dye sub solid ink bat print proofing deckle - definition: the ragged edge of the paper as it comes from the papermaking machine is the deckle edge. handmade paper normally has 4 deckle edges while machine made paper has two

LCD - a liquid crystal display (lcd) is a thin, flat display device made up of any number of color or monochrome pixels arrayed in front of a light source or reflector. it is often utilized in battery-powered electronic devices because it uses very small amounts of electric power

lens - a lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate axial symmetry which transmits and refracts light, converging or diverging the beam

light map - a map of the illumination source This is very important to achieving a good image for reproduction. Small differences in the illumination change the values of colors and a solid color may appear to be a gradient which is virtually impossible to edit out

low key - a style of lighting for photography, film or television. it attempts to create a chiaroscuro effect

media size - size of the material the image is printed on. for example, if your image size is 8x10 and you want a inch border around the entire piece, then 10x12 would be the appropriate media size

megabyte - 1024 kilabytes

megapixel - a megapixel is 1 million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays

munsell test - a simple, effective method for determining color vision abnormalities and testing color discrimination. provides reliable data which can be applied to many psychological and industrial color vision problems

negative image - a positive image is a normal image. a negative image is a tonal inversion of a positive image, in which light areas appear dark and vice versa. a negative color image is additionally color reversed, with red areas appearing cyan, greens appearing magenta and blues appearing yellow

offset printing - a widely used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or offset ) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. when used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat (planographic) image carrier on which the image to be printed obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area attracts a film of water, keeping the non-printing areas ink-free

petabyte - 1024 terabytes

pica - A unit for measuring type. 1 pica is 1/6 of a inch

pixel - a pixel is the smallest piece of information in an image. Each pixel has a unique color composed from 3 colors (RGB) or 4 colors (CMYK)

pixelization - enlargement of pixels to the point that they are readlly definable with the naked eye

PMT scanner - photo multiplier tube scanner. Old scanning technology that would use a light amplifier and lens system that would scan transparencies one pixel at a time. This technology was extremely expensive and both in equipment and maintenance but does deliver excellent results which ccd scanner are only now able to rival

png - Portable Network Graphics (png) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. png was created to improve upon and replace the gif format

point - A point is the smallest unit of measure in type. There are 12 points in one pica

PP - Printers proof Used by printers to verify color and quality of an edition They are generally excluded from the numbering of the edition and usually gifted to the printer or destroyed when the edition is closed

PPI - Pixels Per Inch

print resolution - 300 dpi

pro photo - a profile used for high quality printing. It has a wider gamut then adobe 1998

RAW - a RAW image file (sometimes written raw image file[1]) contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of a digital camera or image scanner. raw files are so named because they are not yet processed and ready to be used with a bitmap graphics editor or printed

resample - is the digital process of changing the sample rate or dimensions of digital imagery or audio by temporally analyzing and sampling the original data

RGB - red green blue. the rgb color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors

rich black - in printing, is an ink mixture of solid black over one or more of the other (cmyk) colors. [1], resulting in a darker tone than black ink alone generates in a printing process

shutter speed - in photography, shutter speed is the length of time a shutter is open; the total exposure is proportional to this exposure time, or duration of light reaching the film or image sensor

side staple - mounting the canvas onto the stretcher or strainer bars by stapling to the edge of the bar

silk screen - a wire mesh or fabric screen which is filled with emulsion in non printed areas and "open" in areas to be printed. ink is a placed inside the screen and a squeege is drawn across the surface forcing ink through the openings and onto the substrate

SLR - Single Lens Reflex

SRGB - is a standard rgb (red green blue) color space created cooperatively by hp and microsoft for use on monitors, printers, and the internet. It s primary use is for viewing images on the internet

strainer bar - a strainer bar is used to construct a wooden stretcher frame used by artists to mount their canvases. they are traditionally a wooden framework support on which an artist fastens a piece of canvas

stretcher bar - a stretcher bar is used to construct a wooden stretcher frame used by artists to mount their canvases

substrate - substrate is a term used in printing (mainly industrial printing) to describe the base material onto which images will be printed

terabyte - 1024 gigabyte

tiff - Tagged Image File Format. allows for files to be storage in a lossless format. supports 8-bit or 16-bit and allows you to embed alpha channels in the document

web resolution - 72 dpi

white balance - in photography and image processing, color balance refers to the adjustment of the relative amounts of red, green, and blue primary colors in an image such that neutral colors are reproduced correctly. color balance changes the overall mixture of colors in an image and is used for generalized color correction

white point - a white point is a set of tristimulus values or chromaticity coordinates that serve to define the color white in image capture, encoding, or reproduction