The Tribune

By Deidre Bastian

Have you ever had the honour of sitting among a group of graphic or web designers, listening to them speak? Puzzling isn’t it? The question marks would normally circle around your head because it sounded as if they were speaking an entirely different language, especially if you are not savvy.

Indeed, a friend mischievously asked me: “Do you all always talk like that, or is this another one of you’re ll code languages?” I laughed, and jokingly said: “Not really. It’s just another way we communicate when we feel like playing the game of chess, but the conversation ends quickly as soon as the king is checkmated.”

Designers are professional people, and their language is so technical that it connects Maths, English, Science and Art. At the end of the conversation, all the dots connect, as each geek understands one another’s lingo.

These people can sometimes get carried away, especially when they are among their peers. Often, some of their conversations can sound like this:

“I prefer to design my logos using vector image to avoid pixilation. Or: “That DPI resolution is a bit too low, which causes my image to pixilate”. And even: “Once this photo is completed, I would have to crop it,” or: “This file has to be zipped before you e-mail it to me.” The saga goes on, but to understand it a bit more, let us look at a few terminologies:

Pagination: The numbering of individual pages in a multi-page document.

Postscript: This language translates a digital file from an application into a language that a compatible printer or other device can use to create its output.

Zip file: Compress one or more files into a smaller archive. It takes up less hard drive space and less time to transfer across a network or the Internet.

Dithering: Scatters different coloured pixels in an image to make it appear as though there are intermediate colours in images with a limited colour palette.

Resolution: A measure of dots per inch (DPI) for printed works and pixels per inch (PPI) for digital work.

A watermark: A visible embedded overlay on a digital photo consisting of text, a logo, or a copyright notice. The purpose of a watermark is to identify the work and discourage unauthorised use.

Colour separation: This is a process of separating the primary colour components (CMYK) for printing.

Plug-in: A program used for viewing multimedia files that your web browser cannot handle internally. Files using a plug-in do not need to be moved to your computer before being shown or played. Contrast this to a helper application, which requires the file to first be moved to your computer. Example of plug-in: RealAudio (for streamed files over the Internet).

Anti-aliasing: The process of averaging between pixels of different colours. The result is a smoother, more blended transition between the edge of two areas rather than a distinctly jagged appearance.

TrueType: A technology for outline fonts that is built into all Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Outline fonts are scalable, enabling a display device to generate a character at any size based on a geometric description.

Clip art: These are Graphic images, designs and artwork in digital form that can be used in a digital document.

Crop: To reduce the size of an image.

EPS: Encapsulated Post Script. A standard file format used to transfer postscript formatting information between applications.

Font: The characters that make up a complete typeface and size.

Kerning: The narrowing of space between two letters so that they become closer and take up less space on the page.

Offset printing: The most commonly-used printing method, where the printed material does not receive ink directly from a printing plate but from an intermediary blanket, which receives the ink from the plate and then transfers it to the paper.

DPI: Dots per inch. This is a measure of a printer’s resolution. The higher the number, the better the print quality. A minimum of 300 dpi is usually required for professional-looking results.

Icon: A small picture or symbol that represents some object or function.

Raster image vs. vector image: There are two kinds of digital images. A raster image is made up of individual pixels and created in programs such as Photoshop, and has the extension .JPEG or .GIF. A vector image is made up of points connected along a curve (or vector), and is created in programs such as Illustrator. It has the file extension .EPS.

CMYK and RGB: One last thing you’ll want to know is the difference between CMYK and RGB. Both are abbreviations for the colours used in the final product. CMYK stands for ‘cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black)’, and is used to talk about the four main colours that printers use. RGB is short for “red, green and blue”, which are the three colorus of visual light used to display computer graphics.

Once you master these key words, you will have the vocabulary to harness your graphic designer’s expertise, and then together you can make something amazing. Until we meet again, fill your life with cherished memories rather than regrets. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game.

• NB: Columnist welcomes feedback at deedee21bastian@gmail.com

ABOUT COLUMNIST: Ms Bastian is a professionally-trained graphic designer who has qualifications of M.Sc., B.Sc., A.Sc. She has trained at institutions such as: Miami Lakes Technical Centre, Success Training College, College of the Bahamas, Nova Southeastern University, Learning Tree International, Langevine International and Synergy Bahamas.