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Alphas
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Alphabet letters to help you create titles for your layouts. Each letter is a separate element. Some alphas are all in one file and must be “cut” out.
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Background
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The part of the scene that appears behind the principal subject of the picture or photo.
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Bevel
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A raised effect created by applying highlight and shadow colours to the inside and outside edges of the border of an image or text area in order to create the illusion that the image or text area has three dimensions.
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Blend Mode
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When you create a layer in Photoshop, blend modes determine how it interacts with layers that are beneath it. By default, the blend mode is “Normal”, which means the object on your new layer simply covers whatever is beneath it. If you change the blend mode, the layer now reacts with what’s beneath it (rather than just covering it) and can “blend” into it using a variety of colours, screens, etc. Paint tools and the Gradient tool in Photoshop also have blend modes, accessible from their Options palette.
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BMP
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Acronym for bit map, an image made up of dots or pixels. The downside of BMPs: When you scale the image, that is make it larger or smaller, it typically becomes distorted.
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Brush
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In terms of graphic software a brush is a tool that allows you to create a wide variety of effects. It is similar to a painting tool that allows you to paint with images of varying colour, size, transparency and more. Brushes are available in propriety formats depending on the type of program. Photoshop brushes are .abr format, PSP brushes are .jbr format. Both formats can be converted for use in other programs.
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Burn
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In the graphics World, to burn an image is to darken it selectively. Although, it comes from a technique used in traditional photography, to control exposure on a specific part of a photographic print, this technique is nowadays usually performed using a digital image editor such as Photoshop.
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Channel
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A piece of information stored with an image. True colour images, for example, have three channels -- red, green and blue.
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Cloning Tool
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The cloning stamp tool is used to duplicate one section of an image to another part.
There are various uses for this, the most common is to cover up unwanted artefacts in a photograph. This can vary from scratches and smudges, to undesirable figures, lampposts, dustbins and so on.
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Colour Blocking
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the technique of using different forms of blocks and coloured paper to create layouts backgrounds.
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DigiAlpha
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Decorative alphabet letters to create titles for your layouts. Each letter is a separate digital element.
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DigiElement
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Objects added to a scrapbook page to enhance it, such as digital ribbons, digital tags, digital charms etc.
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Digiscrap
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Compound term for Digital Scrapbooking.
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Digital Collage
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The process of electronically simulating traditional collage techniques by pasting together disparate images into a cohesive visual whole, resulting in a new image.
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Dodge Tool
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The Dodge tool is another digital version of a technique that is used in traditional photographic development. The Dodge tool selectively lightens an area of a photographic image. It essentially does the opposite of the Burn tool, in Photoshop or another image editor.
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dpi
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300 ppi, dpi: 300 pixels per inch. Refers to the resolution, or quality, of a graphic image. 300 ppi is considered professional quality, produces a high quality print and is the standard in digital scrapbooking.
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Element
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Digital file to support your layouts, also known as embellishments.
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Fill Colour
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A colour used by a rendering application when filling a closed area.
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Filter
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A specialized mini-application to extend or offer unique expansions of a software package. Usually through the use of plug-in architecture. This is a key component of many imaging software packages.
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Filters
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(also plugins) Filters, or plugins, are tools for a scrappers graphics software that help to add special effects to images.
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Freebies
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Digital elements, kits, papers, templates or anything given for free as a promotional downloadable item. This lets you get a taste of the designer's work, quality, and style. Always read the "Terms of Use" that accompany the download because copyright and other terms do apply. It is considered digital piracy to share these items with others. Always give the designer's blog link instead when you wish others to know about the freebie. Designers like to keep track of how many people have downloaded the item, among other things.
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Gaussian Blur
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An image-softening effect used in digital imagery. Named after French Mathematician Carl Friedrich Gausse.
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GIF
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Short for graphic interchange format. Usually pronounced "jiff," GIF is widely used to format images that appear on Web pages because they contain compressed data, so they'll download onto your computer faster. Because GIFs allow for only 256 colours, they're used to format illustrations rather than color photos, which require a larger palette.
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Gift Album
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A compilation of photos and mementos created with a person or event in mind.
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Gradient Fill
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An elaboration on a fill colour consisting of two colours placed at opposite ends of a closed area of an image element. The area is filled with a continuous blend of colour intermediate to the two colours and between the two ends.
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Highlight
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(Also Selected) A highlighted item is the item with which you are currently working. When an item is "highlighted" the tab or title bar is usually marked by a different shade of colour.
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Hybrid Scrapbooking
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Utilizing both printed digital images and traditional paper products to create scrapbook layouts/pages.
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Jaggies
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Slang term for the stair-stepped appearance of a curved or angled line in digital imaging. The smaller the pixels, and the greater their number the less apparent the "jaggies". Also known as pixelization.
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JPEG or JPG
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Joint Photographic Experts Group, a file extension supporting a wide range of colours specifically for photographs. Smaller file size due to image compression. Degrades your image the more you ‘play’ with it.
Pixels not present will be rendered in white, there is no transparency.
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Kit
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The digital term for a collection of co-ordinating papers and elements.
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Layers
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Layers are like digital 'sheets.' A new, transparent image has one sheet. Each layer added is like a "new image" layered on top of the original. A scrapper may use the bottom layer as the paper background, then paste their photos and elements on new layers. This gives them the advantage of manipulating those photos and elements without disturbing items on separate layers.
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Layout
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Perhaps the most used term, this describes the arrangement of photos, journaling, and embellishments that make up your completed page.
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Marquee
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A selection marquee is a visible dashed line that indicates a selected area of an image. The dashed line is usually animated, which is why the marquee is commonly referred to as "marching ants". When a selection is made in an image editing program, all commands and actions are only applied to the areas within the selection marquee. The areas outside of the selection marquee are masked, or protected.
Also Known As: marching ants, selection
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Mask
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A defined area used to limit the effect of image-editing operations to certain regions of the image.
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Palette
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Most graphics software organizes information, materials and commands in palettes. Some common palettes are Layers Palette (which lists your layers), History Palette (which lists the command history), Materials (which allows you to choose colours, patterns, and fills), Brush Variance (which allows you to manipulate the ways in which your brushes work.)
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Plugins
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(also filters) Filters, or plugins, are tools for a scrappers graphics software that help to add special effects to images.
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PNG
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This is a special type of file in that if there are no pixels present, that area will remain transparent. This is the format almost all high quality embellishments and alphas will be in, to allow them to be layered within your layouts.
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PS or PSE
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Photo Shop or Photoshop Elements graphic programs. PSE is more for home users.
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PSD
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File format for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements
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PSP
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Paint Shop Pro, powerful graphics program by JASC software (Corel)
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Raster Graphic
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A raster graphic is a data file or structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of colour, on a computer monitor, paper, or other display device. The quality of a raster image is determined by the total number of pixels (resolution), and the amount of information in each pixel (often called colour depth). Raster graphics cannot be scaled to a higher resolution without loss of apparent quality.
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Raster Layer
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When you draw, paint, or paste an image as a new layer, you are working with raster layers. These layers are pixel based. The background layer is always a raster layer.
A raster layer is simply a grid of coloured dots and when you zoom in it gets blocky and distorted.
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Scalable
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An image, such as that stored as vector data, which can be scaled (increased or decreased in size) without causing the image to become misshapen.
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Scanner
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Operates much the same as a photocopier, except the images are captured not on paper but in pixels on your computer screen. The images are digitized, which allows you to manipulate them with an image editing program such as Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. You can scan a photograph, then crop it, erase unwanted elements, change a background, change the colour scheme, change the size, and so on. Scanners make it easy to reproduce your original photographs and memorabilia so you can preserve the original.
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SMART Pages
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Pre-made page for you to “drop” your photos onto. Usually in jpg format that you would place your photos on top of, however some are PNG with holes for your photos so you can place them underneath.
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Template
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(also Sketch, Blueprint): A basic foundation for a scrapbook page. Gives scrappers a base for their layout. Usually is a full-size layered .psd file that you can replace layer contents with papers/elements.
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Unsharp Mask
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A sharpening process that first blurs the edges then subtracts the image from the blurred areas to yield an image of apparent enhanced sharpness.
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Unzip
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Using an extractor software like WinZip or WinRAR, extract or unzip the items from their compressed format so you can use them.
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Vector Graphic
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Describes the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons to represent images in computer graphics. Vector graphics can be resized with minimal distortion and are subject to minimal image degradation. Vectors are suitable for simple or composite drawings.
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Vector Layer
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Holds scalable vector objects. If you draw a circle on a raster layer, you are pretty much stuck with it as you have drawn it. However, if you draw a circle on a vector layer, it is a vector object. At any time in the future, you can change its size, position, and colours.
Vector objects are lines, shapes, and other figures that are saved in a way that is not tied to fixed pixels. When adding arrows, lines, shapes, etc., always think first of vector objects, because they give you the most future flexibility.
A vector layer is one where the program can reproduce the image at any size with no loss of quality. It can do this because the image is described mathematically.
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Vignette
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A photograph that has a vignette applied has had its edges faded out, or feathered. This used to be applied a lot to portraits. In essence it is similar to the feathering technique that can be achieved with photo editing software.
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Word Art
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Usually refers to a phrase or quote arranged in a unique way that scrappers can copy and paste on their layouts. Quotes and titles using 1 or more decorative fonts to create an artistic overlay for your layouts.
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