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B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A-sizes: ISO standard paper sizes, halving in area as number rises. From A10 to A0. A5 (148 x 210mm),
A4 (210 x 297mm), A3 (420 x 297mm), etc
Animated GIF: A single GIF file that contains a series of images that are displayed sequentially to give the illusion
of movement or change over time.
B
Bleed: Print that extends to the edge of the page must extend beyond the edge (usually 3mm) to compensate for
irregularities in the trimming of the printed document.
Blog: Short for 'web log'. A type of web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal (log).
Bromides: High quality black/white photographic prints for reproducing.
C
CMYK: Four colour process or 'full colour' print (cyan, magenta, yellow, kyan (black)).
Cookie: A message from a web server computer stored by your browser. When your computer consults the server
computer, the cookie is sent back to the server, allowing it to respond to you according to the cookie's contents and
allows the web page to appear to 'know' you.
Crawler or webcrawler: Same as Spider.
Custom Search Engine (CSEs): A Google service in which individuals can create a Google account (free) and create
a search engine directed to search within up to 5,000 URLs or websites they select.
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Domain Name, Domain Name Server (DNS) entry: The initial part of a URL (to the first /) where the domain and name
of the host or SERVER computer are listed (most often in reversed order, name first, then domain). The domain name
gives you who "published" a page. A domain name is translated in huge tables standardized across the Internet into
a numeric IP address unique the host computer sought. These tables are maintained on computers called "Domain
Name Servers". Whenever you ask the browser to find a URL, the browser must consult the table on the domain
name server that particular computer is networked to consult. "Domain Name Server entry" frequently appears a
browser error message when you try to enter a URL. If this lookup fails for any reason, the "lacks DNS entry" error
occurs. The most common remedy is simply to try the URL again, when the domain name server is less busy, and it
will find the entry (the corresponding numeric IP address).
Dpi: Resolution (dots per inch). Minimum 300 for print and 72 for web.
Duotones: As halftones but using two colours.
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Font: Typeface.
Frames: A format for web documents that divides the screen into segments, each with a scroll bar as if it were
a window within the window. Usually, selecting a category of documents in one frame shows the contents of the
category in another frame. You can adjust frame dimensions by positioning the cursor over the border between
frames and dragging the border up/down or right/left holding the mouse button down over the border.
Freshness: How up-to-date a search engine database is, based primarily on how often its spiders recirculate around
the Web and update their copies of the web pages they hold, and discover new ones. Also determined by how quickly
they integrate new sites that web authors send to them. Two weeks is about as good as most search engines do,
but some update certain selected web sites more frequently, even daily.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol. Ability to transfer rapidly entire files from one computer to another, intact for viewing
or other purposes.
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Groups: Discussion forums one can participate in, share ideas with, and form community. Most are free
and some are open to new members. Yahoo Groups and Google Groups are both popular. Google Groups
includes the former Usenet Newsgroups. Blogs are replacing some of the need for these communities.
Gsm: Standard measurement of paper density or weight (grammes per square metre).
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Halftones: Photographs or drawings with graduated tones. Produced with high resolution dot pattern for printing.
Host: Computer that provides web-documents to clients or users. See also server.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. A standardized language of computer code, imbedded in "source" documents
behind all Web documents, containing the textual content, images, links to other documents (and possibly other
applications such as sound or motion), and formatting instructions for display on the screen. When you view a
Web page, you are looking at the product of this code working behind the scenes in conjunction with your browser.
Browsers are programmed to interpret HTML for display. HTML often imbeds within it other programming languages
and applications such as SGML, XML, Javascript, CGI-script and more.
Hypertext: On the Web, the feature, built into HTML, that makes a text area, image, or other object a 'link' that
retrieves another computer file (Web page, image, sound file, or other document) on the Internet. The range of
possibilities is limited by the ability of the computer retrieving the outside file to view, play, or otherwise open the
incoming file. It needs to have software that can interact with the imported file. Many software capabilities of this
type are built into browsers or can be added as "plug-ins".
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Intranet: 'Private' or internal Internet with pages and links that can be used by anyone who is directly connected
to the organisation's computer network.
IP Address or IP Number: (Internet Protocol number or address) A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated
by dots (e.g. 165.113.245.2). Every machine on the Internet has a unique IP address. Most machines also have
one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.
ISP: (Internet Service Provider) The company/organisation who provide a connection.
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Java: Programming language for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the
Internet and immediately run without viruses or other harm to our computer. Using small Java programs (called
"Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations, calculators, etc. You can write a Java program
to do almost anything a computer program can do and then include the Java program in a Web page.
Javascript: Simple programming language developed by Netscape to enable greater interactivity in Web pages. It
shares some characteristics with JAVA but is independent. It interacts with HTML, giving dynamic content and motion.
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Keyword(s): Keywords are searched in any order. Use spaces to separate keywords in simple keyword searching.
To search keywords exactly as keyed (in the same order), see PHRASE.
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Link rot: A frequent problem caused by the constant changing in URLs. A Web page or search tool offers a link and
when you click on it, you get an error message (e.g., "not available") or a page saying the site has moved to a new
URL. Search engine spiders cannot keep up with the changes. URLs change frequently because the documents are
moved to new computers, the file structure on the computer is reorganized, or sites are discontinued. If there is no
referring link to the new URL, there is little you can do but try to search for the same or an equivalent site from scratch.
Listservers: A discussion group mechanism that permits you to subscribe and receive and participate in discussions
via e-mail. Blogs and RSS feeds provide some of the communication functionality of listservers.
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Meta-Search Engine: Search engines that automatically submit your keyword search to several other search tools,
and retrieve results from all their databases. Convenient time-savers for relatively simple keyword searches (one or
two keywords or phrases in " "). See Meta-Search Engines page for complete descriptions and examples.
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Newsgroup: A discussion group operated through the Internet. Not to be confused with LISTSERVERS which
operate through e-mail.
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Open line work: Black and white artwork with no grey areas.
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Pantone: International printing colour system. Accurate method of matching and controlling colours.
PDF: Abbreviation for Portable Document Format, a file format developed by Adobe Systems, that is used to
capture almost any kind of document with the formatting in the original. Viewing a PDF file requires Acrobat Reader,
which is built into most browsers and can be downloaded free from Adobe.
Plug-in: An application built into a browser or added to a browser to enable it to interact with a special file type
(such as a movie, sound file, Word document, etc).
Podcasting: Publishing audio broadcasts via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed of new files
(usually MP3s). Podcasting is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its use of subscription
websites. Available podcasts can be searched for using an aggregator like iTunes but also specialist podcast search
engines like Podzinger.com.
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RSS or RSS feeds: Short for "Really Simple Synication" (a.k.a. Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary), refers
to a group of XML based web-content distribution and republication (Web syndication) formats primarily used by
news sites and weblogs (blogs). Any website can issue an RSS feed. By subscribing to an RSS feed, you are
alerted to new additions to the feed since you last read it. In order to read RSS feeds, you must use a "feed reader,"
which formats the XML code into an easily readable format (feed readers are to XML and RSS feeds as web browsers
are to HTML and web pages.
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Scamp: Rough pencil drawing/layout.
Server-side: Something that operates on the "server" computer (providing the Web page), as opposed to the "client"
computer (which is you or someone else viewing the Web page). Usually it is a program or command or procedure
or other application causes dynamic pages or animation or other interaction.
SHTML: Usually seen as .shtml. Identifies web pages containing SSI commands.
Spiders: Computer robot programs (also 'crawlers', 'knowledge-bots' or 'knowbots') used by search engines to roam
the Web, visit sites and databases, and keep the search engine database of web pages up to date. They obtain
new pages, update known pages, and delete obsolete ones. Most large search engines operate several robots all
the time but the Web is so enormous that it can take six months for spiders to cover it, resulting in a certain degree
of "out-of-datedness" (link rot).
Spot colour: Colours other than those produced in 4 colour process (eg. pantone).
Spyware: Software that secretly gathers user information through their Internet connection without their knowledge,
usually for advertising purposes. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses, passwords or even
Credit card details and then transmit that information in the background to a third party. A common way to become
a victim of spyware is to download Freeware or Shareware software and certain peer-to-peer file swapping systems.
SSI commands: SSI stands for "server-side include," a type of HTML instruction telling a computer that serves
Web pages to dynamically generate data, usually by inserting certain variable contents into a fixed template or
boilerplate Web page. Used especially in database searches.
Stemming: In keyword searching, word endings are automatically removed (lines > line); searches are done on the
stem + common endings (line or lines retrieves line, lines, line's, lines', lining, lined). Not common and not always
disclosed. Can usually be avoided by placing a term in " ".
Stock: Paper or board for printing.
Stop Words: In database searching, "stop words" are small and frequently occurring words like and, or, in, of that
are often ignored when keyed as search terms. Sometimes putting them in quotes " " will allow you to search them.
Strapline/tagline: Signature line under a logo.
Streaming Technology: Signature line under a logo.Enables the viewer to watch events through their browser in real
time without having to wait for the entire video to be downloaded. This creates the opportunity to web cast live events,
such as e-classrooms and conferences.
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TCP/IP: (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) The set of protocols that defines the Internet.
See also IP Address.
TELNET: Internet service allowing one computer to log onto another, connecting as if not remote.
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Uncoated paper: Papers whose surface has no mineral coating. Often more textured than coated papers and much
more absorbent so colours print differently. Uncoated papers are good for writing/lazer printing onto and so are used
for stationery, forms, etc.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator. The unique address of any Web documents.
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WiFi: (Wireless Fidelity) and is meant to be used generically when referring to any type of Wireless network based
on the international IEEE 802.11x standard.
World Wide Web: Often referred to as WWW or the Web. As the name implies, the World Wide Web is a worldwide
collection of web pages connected together through links.
WPA: Acronym for Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless security standard that has been designed to improve upon
the security features of WEP. Not all access points and network cards, especially older ones, are capable of
implementing this newer protocol.
WYSIWYG: “What you see is what you get”. A way of describing the presentation of a text editor producing material
for a VLE or a website. In reality what you are creating is code in a programming language, such as HTML. What the
WYSIWYG part of the editor does is allow you to see how the typed information will look when published rather than
the code itself. Software like MS Frontpage, Dreamweaver and Moodle all use WYSIWYG.
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XML: (eXtensible Markup Language) a multi purpose file format which allows developers to create standard files to
allow data sharing. The files contain a description of the data and often the data itself.
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