GRAPHICS TERMINOLOGY

Graphics jargon can be confusing, especially for those who are just learning how to edit digital photographs or work with images for printing or Web pages.  There are countless graphics software packages available, each with its own options and even different names for the basic functions you can use to manipulate images (also called image enhancement). To help you better grasp graphics software, we take a look at the genre and define the common terminology to help you better maneuver your way through the basic s of working with your digital images Image Dimensions Image dimensions are the length and width of your image, measured in pixels. Some graphics programs will allow you to view and work with your image in the equivalent inches or centimeters. Depending on what you plan to use your image for, you may want to change the image size. For example, if you are using a high-resolution digital photograph, you may want to make the image smaller for publishing to a Web page. You will have a couple choices: resize or resample. Resize / Resample When you resize or resample an image, you're basically specifying a new pixel dimension (length and width) for that image.  The resize algorithm duplicates or deletes pixels and if you choose resample it will smooth out edges and fill in missing pixels with the appropriate color. Because of the difference between resize and resample, it is generally best to use resize on computer graphics and resample on more realistic photo images, and images with more than 256 colors