Visual Literacy Cards

Typography

The art and technique of arranging type—choosing and combining typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, spacing (leading, tracking, kerning), and layout—to make written language legible, readable, and visually engaging.

Legibility

The ease with which individual letterforms and characters can be distinguished and recognized in text, influenced by typeface design, spacing, weight, and contrast.

Photoshop

The raster-based image editing and compositing software developed by Adobe, used to create, retouch, and manipulate digital images through layers, masks, filters, and a wide array of design and correction tools.

Illustrator

The vector-based graphic design software developed by Adobe, used to create and edit scalable artwork, logos, icons, and typography through drawing tools, paths, and artboards, allowing for precise and infinitely resizable designs.

Raster

The pixel-based image format where visuals are composed of a grid of individual colored pixels; image quality depends on resolution and enlarging beyond its native size can cause loss of clarity.

Vector

The representation of graphics using mathematical equations to define points, lines, curves, and shapes, allowing images to be scaled indefinitely without any loss of clarity or resolution.

PNG

The raster image format that uses lossless compression to reduce file size without sacrificing image quality; supports millions of colors and an alpha channel for transparency, making it ideal for web graphics, icons, and images requiring clear backgrounds.

JPG

The raster image format that uses lossy compression to reduce file size while preserving visual quality, supporting millions of colors and commonly used for photographs and web graphics.

PSD

The native layered file format of Adobe Photoshop that preserves all editable elements—layers, masks, channels, and adjustment settings—enabling non-destructive editing and complex image compositions.

Font

The collection of letterforms, numbers, and symbols in a specific style, weight, and size within a typeface, used to apply consistent typography and text styling in a design.

Move Tool

The Photoshop Move Tool lets you select and reposition layers, groups, or active selections on the canvas, providing precise control over the placement and alignment of design elements.

Quick Selection

The Photoshop selection tool that uses brush strokes combined with edge detection to automatically expand the selection as you drag, enabling fast, intuitive selection of objects or regions based on color and texture.

Crop Tool

The Photoshop tool for trimming or expanding an image by defining a new canvas boundary, removing unwanted areas and adjusting composition and aspect ratio.

Slice Tool

The Photoshop tool used to partition an image into rectangular slices that can be exported and optimized individually, streamlining the creation of web graphics and interactive elements.

Zoom Tool

The Photoshop tool for dynamically changing the magnification of the canvas view—zooming in to focus on details or zooming out to evaluate overall layout—without altering the image’s actual resolution.

Eyedropper Tool

The Photoshop tool used to sample a specific color from any area of an image by clicking on it, loading that color into the foreground (or background) color picker for precise color matching and application.

Gradient

The Photoshop tool for creating smooth transitions between two or more colors by defining gradient type, direction, and color stops, enriching designs with depth and visual interest.

Ctrl+C

Keyboard shortcut for Copy

Ctrl+V

Keyboard shortcut for Paste

Ctrl+D

Deselect

Color

The visual attribute defined by hue, saturation, and brightness, used in graphic design to convey mood, create contrast, and establish visual hierarchy.

Form

The three-dimensional quality of design elements, implying depth, volume, and mass through shading, perspective, and spatial relationships.

Shape

The two-dimensional area defined by edges or contours, classified as geometric or organic, which establishes structure and visual interest in a design.

Hue

The attribute of color that identifies its pure form on the color wheel (such as red, yellow, or blue), independent of its lightness or saturation.

Saturation

The intensity or purity of a color, indicating how vivid or muted it appears based on the amount of gray mixed with its hue.