Applied Information Technology (AIT) Comprehensive Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering design elements and principles, typography, media file formats, digital ethics, hardware architecture, project management, and computer networking from the Applied Information Technology curriculum.

Line

Any actual or implied line within an image used to create various visual design principles.

Leading Lines

Lines used in design and photography to draw the viewer's eye to specific locations on an image.

Implied Line

A line created within an image by aligning the outer edges of shapes rather than drawing a continuous stroke.

Space

The arrangement of elements in an image and their visual relationship with one another and the boundary of the image, including the use of alignment and negative space.

Tone

Often called contrast, this describes the variation between the dark and light areas of an image.

Balance

The arrangement of elements in an image used to distribute visual weight, preventing one area from feeling disproportionately heavy.

Emphasis

A design principle where various elements are combined using tone, contrast, size, proportion, or colour to make a specific part of an image stand out visually.

Dominance

The use of design elements to make one part of an image overpower other parts, such as using scale to distinguish different values in pictographs.

Unity

The tendency of an image to look consistent and cohesive through the repeated use of shapes, colours, spacing, or sizing.

Elements of Design

The physical additions or components placed on a page that provide basic structure and communicate design intentions.

Principles of Design

Abstract visual concepts (such as balance, unity, and movement) that are constructed using the physical elements of design.

Typeface

The actual physical shape and design of letters used to create text.

Font

A complete styling specification of text that includes typeface, colour, size, and styling options such as bold or italic.

Leading

The vertical spacing placed between lines of text.

Kerning and Tracking

The horizontal space adjustments applied between letters in typography.

Reading Gravity

A compositional rule based on Western reading habits where the eye naturally scans diagonally from top-left to bottom-right, placing the most important information along that diagonal.

Rule of Thirds

A compositional rule where an image is divided into thirds horizontally and vertically, placing focal points on the dividing lines or at their intersections.

Form of Content

A design concept considering whether the aesthetic style (form) in which the copy or media (content) is presented is appropriate and non-distracting.

Vector Graphics

Digital graphics stored as mathematical formulas consisting of points and lines, allowing infinite scaling without pixelation.

Raster Graphics

Digital graphics stored as a fixed grid of individual pixels, each assigned a numerical colour value, which pixelate when enlarged.

Scalable Vector Graphic (.svg)

A modern, open vector graphic format that stores 2D objects using an XML-based file structure supported by web browsers and capable of animation.

Bitmap Image File (.bmp)

A legacy Microsoft raster image format describing an uncompressed or RLE-compressed grid of pixels, typically utilizing a $24\text{-bit}$ colour depth.

Graphical Interchange Format (.gif)

A raster format using an indexed palette of up to $256$ colours that supports indexed transparency and frame-by-frame animation.

Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg/.jpeg)

A widely used photographic raster format employing lossy compression by standardizing similar colours before RLE encoding.

Portable Network Graphics (.png)

A web-friendly raster format supporting a full $24\text{-bit}$ colour palette, lossless compression, and an $8\text{-bit}$ Alpha transparency channel ($256$ levels).

Moving Pictures Experts Group Layer 3 (.mp3)

An audio compression format derived from layer 3 of the .mpeg video format, utilizing efficient lossy compression.

Waveform Audio File Format (.wav)

The standard uncompressed or lossless audio format for Windows systems, developed as the audio stream for the .avi video container.

Windows Media Audio (.wma)

Microsoft's proprietary audio format that supports lossy and lossless compression, high-definition audio, and Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Copyright Act 1968 (Australia)

Australian legislation granting creators automatic legal protection against unauthorized reproduction or use of original intellectual property without required registration.

Fair Dealing

A copyright provision permitting the lawful use of protected material without permission for specific purposes such as study ($10\%$ or one chapter), review, satire, or research.

Moral Rights

Legal rights ensuring that an author is always attributed for their original work and preventing unfair restrictions, such as Australian prohibitions against region-locking codes (GeoLocking).

Netiquette

The code of polite, respectful conduct and conventions observed when communicating online.

Cyberbullying

A repeated pattern of harmful behavior conducted using digital devices and online resources intended to cause emotional distress.

Outing/Doxing

A form of cyberbullying involving publicly revealing private, personal, or sensitive information about someone without their consent to cause humiliation.

Fraping

A cyberbullying act where an unauthorized user accesses someone else's social networking profile to post inappropriate content under their name.

Digital Divide

The social and economic inequality suffered by individuals or groups (such as the elderly, impoverished, or regional residents) who lack adequate access to digital technologies.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The silicon microprocessor or 'brain' of the computer responsible for booting, managing devices, executing operations, and allocating memory.

Algorithmic Logic Unit (ALU)

The internal component of the CPU that executes all mathematical calculations and logical evaluations.

Registers

Extremely fast, small memory locations integrated directly on the CPU chip.

Cache

High-speed memory located on the CPU chip that is larger and slower than registers, but faster and smaller than RAM.

Primary Memory (RAM)

Volatile short-term working memory used by the CPU to store executing data, which is completely erased when power is removed.

Secondary Memory

Non-volatile storage media (such as hard disks) designed for long-term retention and retrieval of data even when unpowered.

Operating System

System software running directly on computer hardware that manages system resources, handles input/output devices, provides a user interface, and executes applications.

Storyboard

A sequential series of illustrated panels with accompanying explanatory notes detailing the visual structure and narrative of a video or animation.

Wireframe

A skeletal layout sketch or structural diagram used to map out element placements and page architecture during digital design planning.

User Experience (UX)

The overall qualitative perception, feeling, and ease-of-use an individual experiences while interacting with a digital product.

VLOOKUP

A spreadsheet lookup function that searches vertically down the leftmost column of a table to retrieve data from a specified column in the matching row.

HLOOKUP

A spreadsheet lookup function that searches horizontally across the topmost row of a table to retrieve data from a specified row in the matching column.

Open Source Software

Software whose source code is released under a license permitting anyone to use, inspect, modify, and redistribute the program freely.

Proprietary Software

Commercial software where the developer reserves all legal rights, restricts modification of source code, and generally requires paid licensing.

Shareware

Software distributed freely on a trial basis ('try before you buy') that requires payment or an unlock code after a trial period or for full functionality.

Freeware

Closed-source software that the copyright owner makes available to users at no monetary cost in perpetuity.

Tweens

An animation method where intermediate frames between major artist-drawn keyframes are automatically generated by software.

Cascading Style Sheets (.css)

A web design file containing formatting and visual rules linked to HTML documents to standardize site-wide layouts and design consistency.

Lossless Compression

A data compression method (such as Run Length Encoding) that reduces file size without discarding any data, enabling identical reconstruction of the original file.

Lossy Compression

A data compression technique that achieves significantly smaller file sizes by permanently removing redundant or visually imperceptible data.

Disk Defragmentation

A maintenance process that consolidates fragmented, non-contiguous sectors of files on a magnetic disk into contiguous blocks to accelerate file access.

GANTT Chart

A project management tool that graphically displays horizontal bars representing project tasks, completion schedules, dependencies, and available slack time.

Privacy Act 1988 (Australia)

Australian federal law regulating how organizations and government bodies collect, use, store, disclose, and securely destroy personal information.

Router

A networking device that maintains an internal routing table to determine the optimal pathway for directing data packets across interconnected networks.

Network Switch

A networking bridge device that connects multiple local devices and directs incoming data packets specifically to the destination port rather than broadcasting to all ports.

Leading Lines

An element of design technique where actual or implied lines are used to draw the viewer's eye to specific locations on an image.

Implied Line

A visual line that is created in an image through the aligning edges of shapes rather than being drawn directly.

Space (Element of Design)

The arrangement of elements in an image and their visual relationship with one another and the boundary of the image, including the use of negative space.

Tone

Also referred to as contrast, an element of design describing the variation between the dark and light areas of an image.

Balance

A design principle where elements are arranged to distribute visual weight across an image; clustering elements in one area causes that area to appear heavy.

Emphasis

A design principle where various elements (such as tone, size, proportion, and colour) are combined to make a specific part of an image stand out visually.

Dominance

The use of visual elements to make one part of an image overpower other parts, such as using scale in pictographs to differentiate values.

Unity

The tendency of an image to appear consistent and harmonious through the repetition of shape, colour, size, or spatial arrangement.

Elements of Design

The physical parts and additions placed on a page that can be individually defined and used to construct the principles of design.

Principles of Design

Abstract aesthetic concepts constructed using elements of design to communicate design intentions and structure.

Typeface

The specific physical shape and design of letters used to create text.

Font

The complete collection of visual adjustments applied to a typeface, encompassing size, colour, spacing, and styling options like bold or italic.

Reading Gravity

A compositional rule reflecting Western reading habits where the eye scans along a diagonal from the top left corner down to the bottom right corner.

Rule of Thirds

A photographic compositional rule where an image is divided horizontally and vertically into thirds, positioning important elements along the dividing lines or their intersection points.

Form of Content

A design concept assessing whether the visual style and appearance (form) is appropriate for the copy and information (content) being conveyed.

Scalable Vector Graphic (.svg)

An open vector graphic storage format that stores $2\text{D}$ objects using an XML-based file structure, supporting animation and complex visual elements.

Bitmap Image File (.bmp)

An early raster file format originating on Microsoft operating systems that represents images as a grid of pixels using numbers for colour, typically uncompressed or using lossless RLE compression.

Graphical Interchange Format (.gif)

A raster image format using an indexed palette of up to $256$ colours that supports indexed transparency and multi-frame animation.

Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg/.jpeg)

A widely portable raster graphic file format utilizing lossy compression to reduce file sizes by standardising similar colours before RLE encoding.

Alpha Transparency

A feature in formats such as PNG that adds $8\text{ bits}$ to the colour depth to define $256$ levels of transparency independently of the colour palette.

Lossy Compression

A data compression scheme that discards unrecoverable data—often by standardizing similar colours or audio tones—to achieve significantly smaller file sizes.

Lossless Compression

A compression technique (such as Run Length Encoding) that reduces file size while allowing the exact original data to be reconstructed without degradation.

The Copyright Act 1968

Australian legislation that automatically protects original works of intellectual property against unauthorized copying and use without the author's permission.

Fair Dealing

An exception in copyright law permitting the reasonable use of copyrighted material without permission for purposes such as review, satire, research, or study (such as using $10\%$ or one chapter with attribution).

Moral Rights

Legal rights ensuring that an author or IP creator retains the right to attribution and cannot be forced into a use of their work contrary to its original intent.

GeoLocking

The practice of embedding digital codes into a work to lock it to a specific geographical region, which is restricted under Australian legislation.

Netiquette

The established conventions of polite and responsible behavior when interacting in online communities.

Cyberbullying

The act of repeatedly using digital resources to cause emotional distress to an individual.

Doxing (Outing)

A form of cyberbullying involving the unauthorized public disclosure of sensitive or personal information about an individual to cause embarrassment or humiliation.

Fraping

The act of a cyberbully gaining unauthorized access to another person's social networking account to post inappropriate content under their name.

Work-Life Balance

The overall impact that professional work has on personal life, which digital technologies can either facilitate through flexibility or disrupt via constant availability.

Digital Divide

The socioeconomic gap and disadvantage experienced by segments of society that lack access to modern digital technologies and web-based applications.

Capital Resources

Project assets that are owned or acquired by a developer which do not get consumed during the execution of a project, such as tools and machinery.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The primary silicon chip that serves as the 'brain' of the computer, executing operations, booting the system, and managing memory and devices.

Algorithmic Logic Unit (ALU)

The internal sub-component of a CPU that performs mathematical calculations and logical evaluations.

Registers

Extremely fast, small memory locations situated directly on the CPU chip used for immediate operations.

Primary Memory (RAM)

Fast, volatile short-term system memory used by the CPU to store data actively in use while power is supplied.

Volatile Memory

Any type of memory storage that completely loses its stored data when electrical power is disconnected.

Secondary Memory

Non-volatile storage hardware (such as hard disks) used for long-term retention of data that persists when power is removed.