Digital Media Vocabulary

Alignment: The positioning of objects in an illustration.

Alternate Layout: A feature used to create layouts in various orientations and screen sizes within the same document to prepare for multiscreen use.

Anchor Point: A point on a specific path that indicates a change of direction.

Animation Panel: A panel is used to control the animation settings applied to individual objects.

Background: Elements that are placed behind the foreground of a document.

Balance: A design principle that often refers to the visual weight being shown

Bitmap: The way a computer builds up an image on a screen using building blocks of dots, or pixels.

Bleed: A part of an image that runs off the edge of the printing area of a document before the document is trimmed to size.

Button: A symbol that has actions applied to it in order to become interactive.

Buttons and Forms Panel: A panel that is used to apply actions to buttons and forms used in interactive files.

Caption: Descriptive text that is usually positioned below an image.

CMYK: Cyan Magenta Yellow Black (CMYK) is a color model where cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are mixed together to create and reproduce different colors in the color printing medium.

Column Guides: Guides that can be placed on an InDesign page or Parent Page to define space within the page.

Content Collector Tool: An InDesign tool that allows designers to take multiple objects and content to be used in different ways throughout a document.

Contrast: A term used to define contrast in art using color, design, or other subject matter that contrast or are opposite of each other.

Copyright: An original work whose creator has the sole license to create, copy, or distribute it.

Creative Commons- BY: A Creative Commons license allows others to use the artist's work, provided they credit the artist for the original work.

Creative Commons- NoDerivs: A Creative Commons license that allows others to use the artist's work, unaltered, for commercial and non-commercial uses, provided that the artist is credited.

Creative Commons- Non-Commercial: A Creative Commons license allows others to use the artist's work non-commercially and build upon the artist's work, provided that the artist is credited

.Creative Commons- ShareAlike: A Creative Commons license is similar to the Attribution CC but includes the provision that any work created from the artist's original work must have the same license.

Crop Marks: Marks that are part of an object as an effect.

Character Styles: An InDesign panel that saves character style effects changes for consistency throughout a document.

Depth of Field: The distance between the nearest and furthest objects in a document.

Derivative Work: A work based on one or more works that already exist.

Document Size: The height and width of a page in InDesign.

Drop Shadow: An InDesign effect option that adds depth to an object by creating a shadow behind the object.

ePub: The file format native to iPads; is the initial format used by InDesign to create a file intended for any mobile device and can be converted later to a more appropriate format, such as MOBI.

Export: The act of sending or transferring a saved file to another application.

Fair Use: A part of the US Copyright Law that indicates excerpts of copyrighted materials may be used under certain circumstances such as news reports, teaching, and research.

Feathers: A tool used to create a uniform, subtle gradient around the edges of an object.

Fill: The inside color of a shape.

Find/Change: A tool in InDesign that can be utilized to find and make changes to text, objects, or other elements.

Footer: An area at the bottom of a document, separate from the main body, which can contain text and images that are displayed on all corresponding documents.

Foreground: Elements that are placed in the focus of a document.

Frame: A box that is used to hold the content of a document.

Gamut: The range of colors that can be displayed or printed on a device.

GIF: Graphic interchange format (GIF) is a common image file format that can have frames used in animation.

Gradient: A design technique used to gradually transition from one color to another.

Gradient Panel: The panel in InDesign that is used for gradient management.

Graphic: A broad term used to explain objects placed in InDesign such as images.

Guides: Nonprinting lines are used to create guidelines in a drawing.

Gutter: Spacing between two columns of text.

Harmony: Creating appealing color combinations.

Header: An area at the top of a document, separate from the main body, that can contain text and images that are displayed on all corresponding documents.

Hue: A color principle that refers to pure color.

Hyperlink: An element on a page that links to another page, webpage, or area on the same page.

Image File Format: A standardized method of organizing and storing digital images.

Image Resolution: The detail that a digital, film, or other type of image holds.

Image Size: The product of the height and width of a digital image using pixels.

Import: The act of opening and editing data created in other applications.

Inline Graphic: A graphic that is permanently placed at the position of the cursor.

Inset Spacing: An option within the Text Frame Options allows designers to inset the spacing of an object.

Intellectual Property: A work or invention which is the result of creativity. The creator has rights to the work or the invention by applying a patent, copyright, or trademark.

Kerning: Altering the distance between two characters. Kerning can make text more readable by increasing or decreasing the spacing.

Leading: The vertical space between lines of type.

Library: A productivity feature designed to store objects for use in other InDesign documents, maintaining scalable attributes and placement on the page.

Licensing: Obtaining written permission from a work's copyright holder will dictate what an artist can and cannot do with the copyrighted work.

Line: A basic component in art and geometry that is used to define shape.

Liquid Layout Panel: A panel that controls rules for page layout conversion.

Liquid Page Rule: A rule that is set in the Liquid Layout panel to control the way certain elements convert from one layout to another, such as vertical to horizontal

Live Preflight: A productivity feature that alerts the user of potential production errors in real-time, automatically identifying text and image errors as previously defined in the document profile.

MOBI: The file format used by Kindles.

Multiscreen Project: A file intended for various screen sizes, such as a mobile device or an app for an iPad.

Multistate Object: Multiple versions of an object are created but only one is viewed on the screen at a time. Multistate objects are viewable in SWF format and are often used to create slideshows.

Negative Space: The space surrounding an object.

Object: An element within InDesign that can be manipulated to create aesthetics or add purpose to a page.

Object States Panel: A panel used to create multistate objects.

Opacity: A color setting that affects the level of transparency an object has. The lower the value, the more transparent the paint will be. It may also refer to the transparency of the layer, mask, or gradient

Package: An InDesign feature that places all of the fonts and linked graphics into a single folder. This feature allows for easy transfer of files to printers.

Page Setup: An InDesign feature that allows designers a quick and easy way to format pages.

Paragraph Styles: An InDesign panel that saves paragraph style effects changes for consistency throughout a document.

Parent Page: A design tool that contains elements that are repeated through multiple pages or projects.

Path: A line that is created using one of the drawing or shape tools.

PDF: Portable Document File(PDF) is a file format designed by Adobe to enable the printing and viewing of documents. Any formatting used in the document will appear the same regardless of which operating system is used.

Pen Tool: An InDesign tool used to place anchor points in a drawing.

Pixel:A single dot in a digital image that is assigned a specific location and color value.

PNG: Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is an image file format that is absolutely lossless, which means it will not compress or change an image from how it appears.

Preview Spread: A feature on the Animation panel that allows the user to preview the animation.

Properties Panel: An InDesign panel that shows the properties of the entire document or a selected object.

Proximity: A design principle that defines the spatial relationship between objects.

Public Domain: Content or material that is free for use. Not subject to copyrights; free 50 to 100 years after an author's death.

Raster: An image that is made up of an array of bits within a rectangular grid of pixels.

Repetition: A design principle that defines the use of an object over and over in a repetitive fashion.

Resolution: The amount of detail an image holds. Also refers to how many pixels are contained on the screen.

RGB: Red Green Blue (RGB) is a color model in which red, green, and blue are mixed together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. This color model is typically used in webpages and PDF files which are displayed online.

Rotate Tool: A reshaping tool which rotates an object around a fixed point.

Rule of Thirds: A composition type that is defined as dividing an image into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, and placing the subject at one of the intersections of the dividing lines.

Ruler Guide: An InDesign tool used to set tabs and other guides.

Scale Tool: A reshaping tool that resizes an object around a fixed point.

Scope Creep: In project management, a subtle process in which changes or continuous and uncontrolled growth of a project's scope occur while the project is in progress.

Shape: A basic principle in art. Triangles and squares are examples of shapes. They are two-dimensional by nature.

Shear Tool: A reshaping tool that skews an object around a fixed point.

Skin: A style of video controls that displays as a transparent overlay.

Slug: Information on a document that is not printed.

Text Reflow: A feature that allows a story to automatically create new pages to keep the story flowing.

Special Characters: Characters which are found in the Glyphs menu. These characters can be used to denote the end of a story or article.

Spread: A set of pages viewed together.

Stock Images: Photos, illustrations, or icons that have already been created and are available for use by others; typically a fee is involved.

Story Editor: An InDesign tool which allows designers to open up the text of a story in a separate frame and make changes without having to worry about the rest of the document.

Story Jumps: An option within InDesign that gives the designer the ability to create an interactive PDF file which then allows users to jump to the continuation of a story on a different page in the document.

Stroke: The characteristics of the outline of an object, include its style, color, and weight.

Sublayer: A layer within a layer that has its own name and settings.

Swatches Panel: A panel used to control all document patterns, gradients, and colors.

Table of Contents: A table that has been created from the paragraph styles which were applied throughout the document. A table of contents then makes use of bookmarks in Acrobat.

Tables: A logical method of organizing and arranging data, text, or other objects by dividing them into separate rows and columns.

Text Wrap: A text feature that continues text to a new line when a line is full, so each line fits within the viewable window. This feature also wraps text around objects.

Texture: A term that refers to the visual or tactile surface of an object.

Timing: A feature on the Animation panel which allows the user to control the timing of the animation of each object by deciding what type of delay it might have before the animation starts.

Tint: This color principle refers to a color that white has been added to

Tools Panel: This panel within InDesign contains the tools for working within the program.

Tracking: Controls the uniform spacing between all the letters in a group of text.

Transparency: A condition of lowered opacity, transparent meshes, or drop shadow effects.

Type Tool: A design tool in which the user may manipulate text to produce a text-based design

Typography: The style and appearance of printed type and fonts

Vector: A graphic image type that defines an image using paths rather than pixels.

Web-Friendly Names: Object names that are short and without spaces or special characters.

White Space: The area that exists around the elements of a composition. It can be white or just a space that is not filled with a specific element

Work for Hire: Any created work that can be copyrighted. This applies if the created piece is part of a person's job or made by an independent contractor. The owner is a third party instead of the creator

Zoom Tool: This tool in InDesign is used to zoom in and out on a composition.