Here at Media DynamX we know how overwhelming technology can be for those who don't deal with it everyday. PHP, ASP, Databases... What does it all mean? We've put together a glossary of some commonly used industry terms that might help clarify things a bit. If need more information on anyting, don't hesitate to contact us.
| Term | Definition |
| ASP | Active Server Pages - A server-side programming language developed my Microsoft for use in web applications. Most common use is to connect a website to a database for dynamic pages. |
| CMYK | Cyan Magenta Yellow BlacK. A system used for reproducing color in print, which creates the color spectrum using cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Used in four-color printing. |
| Color Correction | The process of altering colors as they appear in a digital image or in print to ensure they accurately represent the work depicted. Media DynamX does this to ensure optimal image quality in all of it's projects. |
| Database | A collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval. Can be connected to a website for dynamic pages. |
| Digitizing | To convert a source into binary code readable by the computer. Examples would be scanning of photographs to produce digital images, or recording of VHS tapes to produce digital video files. |
| DPI | Dots Per Inch. A measurement of the scanning resolution of an image or the quality of an output device. Expresses the number of dots a printer can print per inch, or a monitor can display, both horizontally and vertically. A 600-dpi printer can print 360,000 (600 X 600) dots on one square inch of paper. |
| Dynamic Page | A dynamic page on a website is one in which the information is pulled from an outside source, such as a databse. Dynamic pages are useful for things such as product catalogs. See also Static Page |
| GIF File | Graphic Interchange Format. A widely supported image-storage format promoted by CompuServe that gained early widespread use on on-line services and the Internet. Due to it's limited color range, GIFs are used primarily for lineart, cartoons, and background graphics. GIF is generally not suitable for photographs |
| HTML | HyperText Markup Language. An encoding format for identifying and linking electronic documents used to deliver information on the World Wide Web. This is the default file format for webpages. |
| JPEG file | Joint Photographic Experts Group. Used to refer to the standard they developed for still-image compression, which is sanctioned by the International Standards Organization (ISO). By far, the most common type of image file found on the web today. JPEG (or just JPG) files allow high quality image files, such as photographs, to be compressed into smaller file sizes while still retaining a quality image. |
| MPEG | Motion Picture Experts Group. Used to refer to an image-compression scheme for full-motion video they developed, which is ISO-sanctioned. MPEG takes advantage of the fact that full-motion video is made up of manly successive frames, often consisting of large areas that don't change, such as a blue sky background. MPEG "differencing" notes differences, or lack of them, from one frame to the next resulting in a smaller file size. Variations of this format include MPEG-2 which is used for DVDs and MP3 which is a popular format for music files. |
| Photoshop | A sophisticated software program, produced by Adobe Systems, for editing and processing of images. |
| PHP | PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. |
| PICT File | Macintosh Picture. A storage format for digital images designed primarily for the Macintosh. |
| Pixel | The picture elements that make up an image, similar to grains in a photograph or dots in a half-tone. Each pixel can represent a number of different shades or colors, depending upon how much storage space is allocated for it. A typical digital photo is made up of thousands of tiny pixels. |
| QuickTime | A compression scheme for moving and still images. Originally designed for Macintosh computers but now available for Windows as well. Typical file formats are .MOV and .QT |
| Resolution (image) | Number of pixels (in both height and width) making up an image. The higher the resolution of an image, the greater its clarity and definition. |
| Resolution (output) | The number of dots per inch (DPI), used to display an image on a display device (monitor) or in print. |
| RGB | Red Green Blue. An additive system for representing the color spectrum using combinations of red, green, and blue. Used in video display devices such as televisions and computer monitors. |
| Static Page | A static page on a website is one in which all information is hard-coded into the page and does not change. See also Dynamic Page |
| Thumbnail Image | A small image (usually derived from a larger one). Thumbnail images (sometimes called "Browse images") permit a user to view a dozen or more images on a single screen. |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator. A standard addressing scheme used to locate or reference files on the Internet. Used in World Wide Web documents to locate other files. A URL gives the type of resource (scheme) being accessed and the path to the file. The syntax used is: scheme://host.domain[:port]/path filename http://www.mdxonline.com is an example of a Website URL |
| World Wide Web | WWW. An interconnected network of electronic hypermedia documents available on the Internet. WWW documents are created using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Cross references between documents are recorded in the form of URLs. This page you're looking at is one small part of the World Wide Web. |
| WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get |
