Learn The Language Of Design

     To be successful in the design industry, you need to know the language.  As with any industry, design has its own meanings for certain words. Here is some helpful vocabulary. This will probably become a series of posts, but for now here is 100 helpful vocab.

1. Pixel- A pixel is the most basic component of digital color. Pixel is a combination of the words picture and element. Pixels are two dimensional, they only have a height and dept. They are square-shaped bits of light that have no specific size. The size of a pixel is determined by their function and use. Pixels are lined up in rows, called rasters, rows and rows of rasters form the actual image.
2. Color Space- Color space is a color, and all its hues, values, and saturations.
3. RGB- RGB stands for red, green, and blue. This is a color mode that is used primarily for designs that will not be printed. There are 16M colors in the RGB color mode.
4. CMYK- CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. This is the color mode used for printed designs.There are 16K colors int he CMYK color mode.
5. LAB- LAB stands for Luminescence Alpha Beta. LAB is a device- independent color model created in 1931 as a international standard for measuring color.
6. Dynamic range- Dynamic range refers to the ratio between the maximum and minimum  measurable light intensities.
7. Curves- Curves is a adjustment in Photoshop. The curves tool can take tones and selectively stretch or compress them. Curves affects the tones and contrast.
8. Levels- Levels is a adjustment in Photoshop, it can move and stretch the brightness, contrast and tonal ranges by specifying what is complete black, complete white and the mid tones in a histogram.
9. Exposure- Exposure is a adjustment in Photoshop, it adjusts the amount of light that is seen in a image.
10. Tonal Range- Tonal range refers to the range of tones between the lightest and darkest areas of a  image.
11.  White Balance- White balance is the process of removing color casts. This makes objects that appear white in person, appear white in your photo.
12. Color Balance- Color balance is the global adjustment of the of the colors. Usually of the red, green and blues.
13. Channels- Channels are divisions of color data within a digital image. The data is separated into prime and secondary colors.
14. Photo Filter- Photo filter is a feature in Photoshop the allows a user to adjust the color balance and apply a hue adjustment to a image
15. Shadows/Highlights- Shadows/Highlights is a tool in Photoshop that allows you to bring out details in the shadow and highlight areas of an image that were too dark or light to see.
16. High Dynamic Range Photography- High dynamic range is a picture type that is capable of storing 32 bits per color channel. This makes a photo with a much bigger possible brightness range than found in 16- or 8- bit per channel photos. You can create a HDR image in Photoshop with the merge to HDR feature.
17. Saturation- Saturation is the intensity or purity of a hue. Another way to think of it is as the brightness or dullness of a color.
18. Contrast- Contrast is the difference in the brightness between the darkest and lightest areas of the image.
19. Clarity- Clarity is a tool in Photoshop that allows you to boost the local and mid tone contrast.
20. Vibrance- Vibrance is a tool used to adjust saturation in all lower-saturated colors with less effect on higher-saturated colors, so that clipping is minimized as colors reach full saturation. Vibrance also prevents skin-tones from becoming over saturated.
21. Hue- A hue is the name of a color. (For example: red, green, or blue.)
22. Brightness- Brightness is a adjustment tool used to brighten images.
23. Spot Color- Spot color is any color generated by a ink (pure or mixed) that is printed using a single run in offset printing.
24. Pantone Color- Pantone color is a proprietary formula of inks or pigments used in printing and manufacturing to insure accuracy and consistency.
25. Complimentary Color- Complimentary colors are colors that are opposite hues of each other. The would be located directly across from each other on a color wheel.
26. Triadic Color Scheme- Triadic color scheme is where you use three colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel.
27. Rule of Thirds- The rule of thirds is where you imagine that your image has 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines on it that creates nine equal segments of the image, than you place the most important object of the image along those lines.
28. Golden Ratio- The golden ratio is when you have the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one.
29. Golden Spiral- The golden spiral is a spiral that as it grows get wider by a factor of Phi for every quarter turn it makes.
30. Fibonacci Series- Fibonacci Series is a pattern of numbers where the next number is found bu adding the two numbers before it.
31. Blending Modes- Blending modes is a formula used for defining the mixing of a layer with those beneath it.
32. Multiply- Multiply is mode in Photoshop that takes all the color information in each channel and multiplies the base color by blend color.
33. Color Burn- Color burn is one of Photoshop's blending modes, it burns the color of the upper layer with the lower layer.
34. Burn- Burn is a tool in Photoshop that allows you to darken pixels that you paint.
35. Dodge- Dodge is a tool in Photoshop that allows you to lighten pixels that you paint.
36. Screen- Screen is a blending tool in Photoshop that allows you to lighten images.
37. Color Dodge- Color dodge is a blending mode in Photoshop that allows you to create light effects,
38. Overlay- Overlay is a blending mode that multiplies or screens the colors based on the base color. The base color is not replaced but mixed with the blend color to reflect the lightness or darkness of the original color.
39. Soft Light- Soft light is a blending mode in Photoshop that blends the base color and the blend colors and darkens or lightens the resulting color in relation to the tonality of the blend color.
40. Luminosity- Luminosity is the appearance of light in a color.
41. Color Blending Mode- Color blend mode is used to colorize black and white images. This allows you to add color to the image without affecting the lightness values
42. Opacity- Opacity is the degree of non-transparency.
43. Fill- Fill is a tool in Photoshop that allows you to fill a selected object, area, or layer with color.
44. Layer Styles- Layer styles is the The combination of effects on any given layer in Photoshop.
45. Bevel/Emboss- Bevel and emboss are tools that allow you to create contour and texture by adding highlights and shadows to create a 3-D look.
46. Drop Shadow- Drop shadows are shadows that give you object depth and make it stand out. 
47. .jpg- .jpg is short for JPEG, which stands for Joint Photography Expert Group. A .jpg is a type of compressed file. It is the most universal image file.
48. .tiff- TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format. TIFF is a high quality format the supports colors from 1- 24 bit. TIFF is made to be a standard image format for storing high quality color images on multiple platforms. TIFF allows layering and transparency.
49. .raw- Raw doesn't stand for anything, it refers to being unaltered. .raw indicted that the file was read directly from a camera.
50. .gif- GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. GIF was one of the first two image formats for the Internet. It allows transparency but only 100% or 0%.
51. .png- PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. This is another file format that allows transparency like GIF, but you can pick what percent of transparency you would like. PNG is a compressed format.
52. File Compression- File compression is basically making a file smaller, it is commonly used when sending a file from one computer to another. The compression makes the file smaller there for sends quicker.
53. File Optimization- File optimization is the reduction of the file's size to improve compatibility with the Internet.
54. Meta File- A meta file is a file that can store multiple types of data. These files can contain raster, vector and type data.
55. Raster- Raster means that the graphic or image is constructed of pixels
56. Vector- Vector means that the graphic or image is a free form object or pixel free, it can therefore be resized without becoming blurry or pixelated
57. Color Temperature- Color temperature is a characteristic of visible light that has important applications in lighting, photography, videography, publishing, and other fields.
58. Color Management- Color management is controlled conversion between the color representations of various devices.
59. Rendering Intent- Rendering intent is how the color reproduction process should cope with colors and tones which are outside of, or near the edge of the device's color gamut, in order to achieve the desired color 'rendering'.
60. Out of Gamut- Out of Gamut means that a color is beyond the scope of colors that a particular device can create.
61. Half-tone- Half-tone is a system of reproducing the continuous tone of a photographic print by a pattern of dots printed by offset litho.
62. Histogram- A histogram is a graph representation of a digital image indicating the pixels allocated to each level.
63. Selection- Selection means to isolate one or more parts of a image.
64. Feathering- Feathering is the action of softening the edge of a digital selection.
65. Mask- Masks are are way to apply something to a very specific portion of a image.
66. Quick Mask- Quick mask is a temporary alpha channel used for refining or making selections.
67. Alpha Channel- Alpha channel is an additional channel used for storing masks and selections.
68. Adjustment Layer- A adjustment layer is an image adjustment placed on a layer.
69. Smart Object- A smart object is technology that was first introduced in Photoshop CS2 that maintains the original form of an embedded image but still allows it to be edited and enhanced. Smart objects are used in many non-destructive editing or enhancement techniques.
70. Crop- Cropping reduces the image size to enhance composition or limit information.
71. Resample- Resample is to alter the total number of pixels describing a digital image
72. Transform- Transform is used to scale, rotate, skew, and just distort the perspective of any graphic you’re working with in general.
73. Clone- Clone is a tool in Photoshop, its also known as a clone stamp tool. The clone tool selects and samples an area of your picture and then uses these pixels to paint over any marks.
74. Warp- Warp is a tool in  Photoshop that allows you to drag control points to manipulate the shape of images
75. Aspect Ratio- Aspect ratio is the ration of height to width. This usually refers to the light- sensitive area or format of a camera.
76. Anti-aliasing- Anti-aliasing is the process of smoothing the appearance of a curved line in a digital image.
77. Path- A path is the outline of a vector shape.
78. Clipping Path- Clipping path is used to omit part of a path
79. Font Face- Font face allows you to use real fonts in your web pages without resorting to workarounds that rely on image.
80. Font Family- Font Families are collections of fonts that share an overall appearance, and are designed to be used together
81. Depth of Field- Depth of Field is the zone of sharpness variable by aperture, focal length or subject distance.
82. Aperture- A circular opening in the lens the a controls light reaching the film.
83. Shutter Speed- Shutter speen is the length of time a camera's shutter is open.
84. CMOS- CMOS  stands for Complementary Metal Semiconductor. This is a chip used widely within he computer industry, and is now often used as a image sensor in digital cameras.
85. Mega Pixel- A mega pixel is equal to one million pixels. The higher the mega pixel the better the resolution.
86. Image Resolution- Image resolution is the detail an image holds.
87. Print Resolution- Print resolution is the average number of dots per square inch.
88. Screen Resolution- Screen resolution is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed.
89. Film Grain- Film grain is the tiny particles of silver medal or dye that make up the final image. Fast films have larger grain than slower films. Focus finders are used to magnify the projected image so that the grain can be seen and a accurate focus obtained.
90. Noise- Noise is the electronic interference producing white speckles in the image.
91. Film Speed / ISO- Film speed is a precise number or ISO rating given to a film or device indication its degree of light sensitivity. (ISO stands for International Standards Organization. ISO is a numerical system for rating the speed or relative sensitivity of a film or device.)
92. Moire'- Moire' is a repetitive pattern usually caused by the interference of overlapping symmetrical dots or lines.
93. Visual Hierarchy- Visual Hierarchy it the order that the human eye perceives what it sees.
94. Texture- Texture is the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface
95. Sample- Sample is to select a color value for analysis.
96. Unsharp Mask- Unsharp mask is used to sharpen a image by raising the contrast of a image.
97. Gaussian Blur-n Gaussian blur is a filter used for defocusing a digital image.
98. Vanishing Point- Vanishing point is a Photoshop feature designed to allow the manipulation of photos within a three-dimensional space.
99. Point of View- Point of view is a photography composition tool that means from what angle or position you take the photograph.
100. Magic Wand- The magic wand is a selection tool used in digital editing to assist in doing touch ups.