PawPrint.net Glossary of Terms

A technology that allows content (digital media, music, video etc) owners to determine and control who and how users can view access and/or content such as media files.

RAM is a type of computer storage whose contents can be accessed in any order. This is in contrast to sequential memory devices such as magnetic tapes, discs and drums, in which the mechanical movement of the storage medium forces the computer to access data in a fixed order. It is usually implied that RAM can be both written to and read from, in contrast to read-only memory or ROM.

Computers use RAM to hold the program code and data during execution. In the first electronic computers, RAM wa...

An image format that records pixel information using the additive colour model of combining amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to create a wide gamut of colours. This is based on the way standard web offset printing (SWOP) inks are combines on a press to create most printed colour documents.

In Graphic design when the final goal is to send something for SWOP printing it is oftin a good idea to work in CMYK as opposed to RGB to ensure a better colour match and to avoid problems when c...

ln [options] sourcename [destname]

ln [options] sourcenames destdirectory



Create pseudonyms (links) for files, allowing them to be accessed by different names. In the first form, Link sourcename to destname, where destname is usually a new filename, or (by default) the current directory. If destname is an existing file, it is overwritten; if destname is an existing directory, a Link named sourcename is created in that directory. In the second form, create links in destdirectory, each l...

Making several exposures, using different settings (initially this was restricted to exposure but with digital photography can also include white balance and quality). Bracketing allows for error and permits selection of the best exposure after development.

Most professional photographers will always bracket photos where you only have one chance to capture the moment - weddings for example.

A compressed graphics format specifically designed for photographs. It´s name an acronym that stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. It works by changing the images data from colours to frequencies (that represent detail) using a FFT and then discarding some of the high detail data - the resulting image is slightly blurry but this is barely noticable by the human eye and represents a significant saving of space.