CADM Vocabulary Study Guide

Proximity

Grouping related items creates visual relationships. Items close together are perceived as connected—use space deliberately.

Alignment

Lining up elements creates order and organization. Even invisible grid lines guide the eye and create visual harmony.

Typography

The art of arranging type to make written language legible and appealing. It's not just choosing fonts—it's crafting readability and personality.

Kerning

The adjustment of space between individual letters. Fine-tuning these micro-spaces makes the difference between amateur and professional typography.

Leading

The vertical spacing between lines of text. Proper leading improves readability and creates breathing room for your words.

Whitespace

Empty space in a design that improves clarity and focus. Often called negative space, it's actually a powerful positive design element.

Raster Graphics

Images made of pixels, like photographs and Photoshop files. Every tiny colored square combines to create your image. Perfect for complex imagery with subtle gradients and photographic detail, but they lose quality when enlarged.

Vector Graphics

Graphics made of mathematical paths and shapes, like Illustrator files. Infinitely scalable without quality loss. Ideal for logos, icons, and designs that need to work at any size—from business cards to billboards.

Resolution

The amount of detail in an image, measured in DPI (dots per inch) or PPI (pixels per inch). Print needs 300 DPI for sharp quality, while web graphics work fine at 72 PPI.

CMYK Color Model

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black—the color mode for print. These ink colors combine to create the full spectrum you see in magazines, brochures, and posters.

RGB Color Model

Red, Green, Blue—the color mode for digital screens. Your monitor, phone, and TV create millions of colors by mixing these three light sources.

Hue

A specific shade or color on the color wheel. When someone says "make it more blue," they're talking about hue. It's the pure pigment—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet.

Saturation

The intensity or purity of a color. High saturation means vivid, bold color. Low saturation moves toward gray, creating muted, sophisticated tones.

Value

The lightness or darkness of a color. Adding white creates tints (lighter values), while adding black creates shades (darker values). Value creates depth and dimension.

Exposure

The amount of light allowed into a camera's sensor. Proper exposure creates balanced images—too much light washes out detail, too little creates muddy shadows.

Aperture

The lens opening that controls light and depth of field. Measured in f-stops (f/2.8, f/16), smaller numbers mean wider openings and blurrier backgrounds.

Shutter Speed

The amount of time the shutter remains open. Fast speeds (1/1000s) freeze action; slow speeds (1/30s) create motion blur and gather more light.

ISO

The camera's sensitivity to light. Low ISO (100-400) for bright conditions and sharp images; high ISO (1600+) for low light, but with added grain.

Depth of Field

The range of sharp focus in an image. Shallow depth of field isolates subjects with blurred backgrounds—perfect for portraits. Deep depth of field keeps everything sharp—ideal for landscapes and product photography where every detail matters.

Perspective

The illusion of depth and space in a two-dimensional image. Your shooting angle and lens choice dramatically affect how viewers perceive scale, distance, and relationships between objects. Low angles make subjects powerful; high angles make them vulnerable.

Pantone (PMS)

Standardized color matching system for print consistency. Each color has a unique number (like Pantone 186 C for Coca-Cola red), ensuring your brand colors print identically across all materials and printers worldwide.

Copyright

Legal protection for original creative work. Automatically applies when you create something—but registration strengthens your rights. Never use others' copyrighted work without permission, and always protect your own.

Brand Identity

The overall look, feel, and voice of a company's image. More than just a logo—it's colors, typography, imagery style, tone, and values unified into a consistent, recognizable presence across all touchpoints.

Trademark

A legally registered symbol, word, or logo identifying a brand. The ® symbol means federally registered; ™ indicates claimed trademark. Trademarks prevent others from using confusingly similar marks in your industry.

Target Audience

The specific group a design or advertisement is created for. Understanding your audience—their age, interests, values, and behaviors—is fundamental to creating effective commercial art that resonates and converts.

Storyboard

A visual plan showing the sequence of scenes or shots. Essential for video, animation, and multi-page layouts. It maps your narrative before production begins.

Mockup

A realistic model used to present a design concept. Shows clients how designs look on actual products—t-shirts, phone screens, billboards, packaging.

Proof

A test print to check accuracy before final production. Catches color shifts, typos, and layout issues. Never skip the proofing stage—it saves expensive mistakes.

Bleed

Extra area added around a design for trimming purposes. Typically 0.125 inches, bleed ensures background elements extend beyond the cut line, preventing white edges.