Digital Media Terminology

ARTS-2348-004 Digital Media General and Photoshop Terminology (San Antonio College)

Value

The lightness or darkness of a color

Conceptual

Relating to ideas or concepts rather than physical forms or objects.

Anesthetic Design

Design focused on creating a sensory experience that may evoke emotion or atmosphere.

Format

The physical size

Shape

The form of an object

Formal

Pertaining to the structure

Gestalt

A psychological theory that suggests we perceive objects as whole rather than the sum of their parts

Ambiguous Space

A space in design or art where the boundary or meaning is unclear or open to interpretation.

Reversible Figure/Ground

An image or design element where the figure (foreground) and ground (background) can be perceived in two different ways.

Bisociation

The process of combining two unrelated ideas or concepts in a way that creates a new meaning or perspective.

Analytical

Approaching a problem or design by breaking it down into its components for closer examination.

Scale

The relative size or proportion of an object

Nonrepresentational

Art or design that does not depict objects or scenes from the real world

Aesthetics

The principles governing the appreciation of beauty

Intuitive

Approaching design or problem-solving in a way that is instinctive or based on a gut feeling rather than formal reasoning.

Hierarchy

The organization of elements in a design or composition that indicates their relative importance or order.

Perception

The process of interpreting and understanding sensory information

Appropriation

The act of borrowing or taking elements from other cultures

Dialectic

A method of reasoning or argument that seeks to resolve contradictions by synthesizing opposing viewpoints or concepts.

Composition

The arrangement or organization of elements within a work of art or design to create harmony

Quick Selection Tool

A selection tool that lets you paint an area as Photoshop automatically detects and follows edges

Layer

Stacked transparent sheets where images are created and edited independently

Layer Group

Organizes layers into folders to reduce clutter in the Layers panel

Filters

Effects that modify or enhance an image such as blur sharpen distort noise and more

Liquify Filter

A filter that pushes pulls rotates reflects puckers or bloats pixels to warp the image

Vanishing Point Filter

Allows editing within perspective planes such as surfaces receding toward the horizon

Photomerge

Automatically combines multiple photos into a seamless panoramic image

High Dynamic Range

Combines photos of different exposures to create an image with greater tonal range

Auto Enhance

Improves the quality and accuracy of edges when using the Quick Selection Tool

Elliptical Marquee Tool

Selects ovals or perfect circles

Zoom Tool Shortcut

Press Z to activate the Zoom tool

Tolerance

Controls how similar selected pixels must be for selection tools

Anti-Aliasing

Smooths jagged edges by softening transitions between edge pixels and the background

Refine Edge

Options that soften and improve selection edges such as smooth feather and decontaminate colors

Blending

Adjusts how colors appear when one layer interacts visually with another

Feathering

Softens or blurs selection edges by creating gradual transitions

Watermark

A partially transparent mark identifying image ownership

Lasso Tool

Creates freehand selections

Polygonal Lasso Tool

Creates straight-edged selections using connected line segments

Magnetic Lasso Tool

Snap-to-edge freehand selection tool for high-contrast edges

Resolution

The number of pixels describing an image measured in ppi

Copy

Samples a portion of an image to apply elsewhere

Paste

Places a cut or copied selection into an image as a new layer

Clipping Mask

Uses the shape of one layer to reveal only specific areas of layers above

Shape Layer

A vector layer containing shapes pixels or paths with editable fill and stroke

Smart Object

A vector-based container allowing transformations without loss of quality

Contiguous (Selection)

Selects only touching pixels of similar color

Gradient Map

Applies colors based on the lightest and darkest areas of an image

Non-Destructive Editing

Editing with masks layers and smart objects so original pixels remain unchanged

Adjustment Layers

Apply tonal or color corrections without permanently altering pixel data

Blending Modes

Options determining how layers interact visually such as Lighten Darken and Hue

Retouching Tools

Tools like Spot Healing Brush Red Eye Patch and Content-Aware Move for correcting image flaws

History Panel

Allows returning to earlier states of the image up to 20 steps

Puppet Warp

Distorts specific parts of an image while keeping others intact

Workspace

The interface layout including menus panels and the document window

Image Retouching

Correcting imperfections or damage and enhancing image areas

Constrained Proportions

Maintains width-to-height ratio in the Image Size dialog when the chain icon is active

Crop

Removes parts of an image to improve composition or focus

Transform

Scales rotates skews distorts or warps an image or layer

Opacity

Controls how transparent a layer is

Tonal Range

The span of brightness levels from darkest to lightest

Stacking Order

The top-to-bottom arrangement of layers determining which appear in front

Resampling

Changes the total number of pixels in an image

Layer Filters

Sorts layers by type such as text pixel or adjustment

Composite Image

An image created by combining multiple images or elements into one