Glossary of key terminology used in web design and web animation

A

Alpha Channel

The alpha channel is the image’s channel carrying the transparency information. An image already has three channel: red, green. blue (RGB). The alpha channel is the fourth channel (RGBA). The matte or transparency information is stored in this fourth channel. An image without an Alpha Channel is always opaque.

Animation

A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames in rapid succession.

Applet

A Java program or application designed to be embedded in, and invoked from, a web page, or other application. It cannot be run by itself.

Aspect Ratio

The aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and height dimensions for any scene, frame or film format. The television ratio is 4:3 and the widescreen ratio is 16:9.

Authoring Tool

A software application used to create web pages and web sites.

Axis

An axis is an imaginary line around which an object rotates.

 For 2D graphics, there are two axes:

 X which is horizontal

 Y which is vertical

 For 3D graphics there are three axes:

 X which is horizontal

Y which is vertical

Z which is for the depth

B

Bitmap

A bitmap image is composed of pixels and has a single resolution (size); if it is enlarged too much, it will start losing definition and pixels will start to appear. This is known as pixelation.

Browser

The software on a computer that allows websites to be rendered so they can be "read" by users. This maybe a browser that renders things visually, in a manner confined to text only, or in any other manner that may be appropriate, such as voice output.

C

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Style sheets refer to a set of rules that allow you to control how you would like your document to be rendered. It is a mechanism to primarily separate presentation from content. With the HTML and style sheets approach, structured content goes into the HTML document, and the appearance, or presentation information goes into a style sheet. CSS allow you to control the rendering of elements on a web page without compromising its structure.

Cookie

A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is usually a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while a user is browsing a website. When the user browses the same website in the future, the data stored in the cookie can be retrieved by the website to notify the website of the user's previous activity

D

Dots Per Inch (DPI)

Dots Per Inch is a term that also refers to printing and the amount of ink that actually is placed upon the print medium. Dots Per Inch is a property of a print graphic and determines how it prints - its size and quality. Color printing isn't done in continuous color, it's done with individual dots of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK), lots of them, giving an impression of continuity. These are the dots in dpi. Dots per inch (number of pixels) also measures resolution on output devices such as monitors and printers. The horizontal and/or vertical density of the output device, is arrived at by dividing the resolution of the device by the physical dimensions of its imaging region.

E

Element

In XHTML , an element is of node in the document tree. A XHTML element is represented by a start tag like <h1> and an end tag like </h1>.

External Style Sheet

An external type of style sheet is a separate file apart from the HTML file(s). The external style sheet is given a .css extension. It is associated to the HTML document using a link element or an @ import directive in the head of the html document. Any html document associated to an external style sheet gets the styles, and that is where the maintenance power of CSS is found. Not only do external style sheets allow reuse of rules within one specific document. They allow the style sheet itself to be shared across multiple documents. Using external CSS allows you to maintain a single style sheet for an entire site.

Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML)

XHTML is a reformation of HTML as an XML vocabulary.

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

XML A language specification from the W3C that allows users to develop their own markup languages (often called vocabularies), and format their documents using stylesheets to be presented on a browser if desired. It is a syntax/format, establishing rules for XML -compliant languages with a very strict set of rules that must be adhered to, allowing lots of control over document format.

F

File Format

A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

File Transfer Protocol is a method to upload and download files over the Internet.

Frame

A frame is a single photographic image in a movie. In traditional animation, a second generally contains 24 frames in North America or 25 frames in Europe.

Frame Rate

Is the measurement of the frequency (rate) at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems.

G

GIF

GIF is an abbreviation for Graphics Interchange Format. It suited for flat color images and drawings. GIF images display up to 256 colors. The format was created by CompuServ and is often used for animated images.

H

HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

The markup language that is used on most of the World Wide Web to create web pages. The standards for HTML are controlled by the W3C .

I

Inline Style Sheet

An inline style controls the appearance of a single element. CSS rule(s) are placed in the HTML via the style attribute. With inline, style and content are intermingled in the body of the document.

J

JavaScript

JavaScript is a client-side scripting language that allows dynamic behavior to be specified within HTML documents. JavaScript is not Java. Java is a full programming language similar to C. JavaScript is similar to C, but is only a scripting language, and cannot be used to write full blown applications. For accessibility reasons, JavaScript should not be relied on. For more information consult  JavaScript Accessibility.

JPEG

JPEG is an abbreviation of "Joint Photographic Experts Group" and pronounced jay-peg. It is a a lossy compression file format used frequently for photographs.

K

Keyframe

Important positions in the action defining the starting and ending points of any smooth transition.

L

Language Attribute

An easy accessibility feature to add (and it is even AAA WCAG ) is the language attribute lang="en-us" to the HTML tag to identify the primary natural language of a document. For example:

<html lang="en-us">

M

Margin

In CSS , a margin is a property that allows the author to specify how much space will be inserted between other exterior elements and the current element border.

MySQL

MySQL is a database. The data in MySQL is stored in database objects called tables. A table is a collection of related data entries and it consists of columns and rows.

N

Navigation

Navigation is the process of finding things in large or complex information spaces, such as on websites. Its purpose is to a help users find the content they want quickly. There are many navigation methods to make a website easy to navigate.

P

Padding

In CSS , padding is a property that allows the author to specify how much space will be inserted between the element border and the element content. Negative values are not allowed.

PHP

PHP is an acronym for PHP hypertext Preprocessor. It is a server side scripting language for creating dynamic web pages.

Pixel

The word "pixel" is derived from "picture element". In graphics, it refers to smallest resolvable rectangular area of an image.

Pixels Per Inch (PPI)

Pixels Per Inch (PPI) is the resolution of an image file. Web graphics and screenshots are made up of dots called pixels, and they usually contain 72 pixels per inch, though other resolutions are common.

Plug-in

A module (either hardware or software) that adds a special feature to a larger system or program. For example, a program to allow a browser to play movies or to display Flash content.

Portable Network Graphics format (PNG)

PNG is an image format was developed as the successor to the GIF format. It has a more efficient compression algorithm than GIF.

S

Serif

Serif is a typeface, in which each character has small strokes at the ends of the lines that form it. Serifs are found in typestyles such as Times Roman, Palatino, Garamond, and Baskerville.

Stop motion

Stop motion (also known as stop frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own.

Storyboard

A Storyboard is a sequence of sketches showing major actions or outlining a process, such as the steps of interacting with a computer or website.

T

Tag

A tag is the markup characters that designate the start or end of an element , but not the element content itself.

Timeline

The timeline is a horizontal representation of the scene’s elements, timing and keyframes.

Typography

Typography is the balance and interplay of letterforms on a web page. It helps the user understand the form and absorb the substance of the page content. It is important in both visual and verbal communication.

U

URL

Uniform resource locator (URL) (originally called universal resource locator) is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource.

V

Vector

A vector-based image is composed of points and bezier curves

W

Web Standards

The term Web Standards refers to the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) specifications and guidelines. It means the support of W3C recommendations such as XHTML, CSS, and the DOM HTML.

Web Banner

A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server.

Website

A website is a related group of web pages published on the World Wide Web.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

An international consortium of companies and organizations involved with the Internet and the World Wide Web, responsible for maintaining web technology standards, such as HTML and CSS . It was "created in October 1994, to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability."