Tech Terms you Must Know : Graphic Design

Image Source : University of New Hampshire

Graphic Design

COLOR VALUE

Color value is a color’s shade. Value can be defined in HTML by name (black), hexadecimal color code (#000000), or RGB code (0, 0, 0).

COLORY THEORY

Color theory is the study of color mixing and the visual effects of specific color combinations (complimentary colors, color harmony, how to achieve specific tints and shades, etc).

GRID SYSTEM

Grids are a set of columns and rows that can be used as guidelines to arrange content on a web page. Grid systems help provide a solid base of uniformity and consistency in your design, making it more legible for the viewer.

PIXELS PER INCH (PPI)

PPI—also known as “density”—describes the amount of pixels (small dots of light that combine to create an image) per inch on a device display. The higher the PPI count, the sharper images and text will appear.

RASTER IMAGES

Raster images are computer graphics made of pixels that can be edited pixel-by-pixel with programs like Painter and Photoshop. Raster image are stored in familiar image file types like GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs.

RESOLUTION

Resolution is the number of pixels that can be shown on a device’s display. As with PPI, the higher the resolution on a display the more pixels can be shown, making images and texts sharper.

RETINA DISPLAY

Retina display is a term trademarked by Apple for an electronic device display with density so high (usually over 300 ppi) that people can’t see the individual pixels. Apple uses these high density displays in Apple Watches, iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs.

VECTOR IMAGES

Vector images are made up of lines that are calculated mathematically. Because of the images’ line composition (instead of being composed by individual pixels), they can’t be styled to the same degree as raster images, but they don’t lose lose quality when they’re magnified (pixel-based raster images start to look like a collection of squares when zoomed-in too closely), whereas vector images can be infinitely scaled up. You can use programs like Adobe Photoshop to work with vectors.