Graphic Design Services - London, UK

A

Accessibility

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.

Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities

Acrobat

Acrobat is part of a set of applications developed by Adobe to create and view PDF files. Acrobat is used to create the PDF files, and the freeware Acrobat Reader is used to read the PDF files.

ActiveX

ActiveX is propriety Microsoft technology, based upon an earlier technology called Component Object Model (COM), which enables the deployment of Windows programs over the internet. With the Internet Explorer browser, under Windows, ActiveX controls can be downloaded alongside a web page. ActiveX adds interactive functionality, for Windows users, in a similar way to Java applets or animation in a similar way to Flash.

Anonymous FTP

Allows a web site owner to set up antonymous ftp access for external users to upload, or download, files over the internet. Usually a special folder on the web server is reserved for this so that the wrest of the web server remains secure.

Apache server

Apache is a freely available web server application. It is also probably the most widely used web serving application in use on the internet, with about 50% of all web sites using it to serve their HTML pages.

Although it is an open source package and started its days as a unix only program it is now available for a number of operating systems, including Windows, OS/2 and Mac OS X.

Applet

An applet is a kind of mini application that can be downloaded over the internet and launched on the user's computer.

ASP (Active Server Page)

A dynamically generated web page, generally using ActiveX scripting. When a browser or a search engine spider requests an ASP page from a server, the server generates the web page with HTML code and gives it to the browser or spider.

B

Back-end

In web design, back-end is the term applied to the software and/or database technology that sits on a server and 'drives' the interactive activity that is displayed to web surfer using a web browser. The later being the front-end.

Bandwidth

This is a method of measuring the amount of digital information that can be transported over a network within a period of time. The wider the bandwidth, the faster the connection. Hence the use of the term 'broadband' for a fast internet connection.

Banner

A banner is a graphic image (static, animated, or rich media) that is placed on web sites as an advertisement. Banners are commonly used for brand awareness and generating sales.

Bitmap graphic

A graphic imange which is composed of a pattern of dots. The individual dots are stored as data on a computer. An example of an animation that is a bitmap graphic is a GIF animation.

Bitmap Image (bmp)

A graphic image stored as a specific arrangement of screen dots, or pixels. Web graphics are bitmap images. A graphic which is defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels which make up the picture. Also known as raster graphics. Common types of bitmap graphics are GIF, JPEG, Photoshop, PCX, TIFF, Macintosh Paint, Microsoft Paint, PNG, FAX formats, and TGA.

Bleed or Bleeding Edge

When a page or a cover design extends to and off the edge of the paper it is called a "bleed". In print design, the artwork or block of color must extend off the edge of the page. The artwork or block of color is then printed on larger-size paper. Then the printed page is trimmed to the desired size. (add an illustration)

Brand

A brand is a customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a form of web site navigation that displays information to the user as to the depth that they have navigated to within a web site, or section of a web site.

Breadcrumb navigation can be either static, or dynamic. Static breadcrumb navigation links would be pre-designed by the web designer – usually to represent the directory level depth of each web page. Dynamic breadcrumb navigation links might be built up as the user navigated their way through an interactive web site, such as a database or whilst using as search facility.

Browser

A program for viewing web pages on the World Wide Web (like the one you are using now). The default browser for Windows operating systems is Micrisoft's Internet Explorer, on an Apple Mac - running OS X - it is Safari. Other popular browsers include Firefox, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape.

C

Common Gateway Interface (CGI)

From a web design point of view, a CGI is a program that can take data from a web server and perform an action with it - for example turning a submitted web form into an email.

CGI scripts can be written by web developers to perform a number of interactive actions. These are usually written in languages such as Perl, C or C++, but there are many others.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Cascading Style Sheets are a (HTML) specification that allows the web developer to use codes to describe how a page’s content should look. In particular it is used for styling and laying out text, paragraphs and headings.

One useful feature of CSS is that the styles themselves can be defined in an external document and simply referred to in the actual HTML page. This allows for a faster download and display of formatted text.

Cookie

A cookie is a message given to a web browser (such as Netscape or Explorer) by a web server. The purpose of cookies is to identify web site users/visitors and possibly prepare customized web pages for them.

Cross Browser Compatibility

Cross-browser compatibility is the aim of most web developers. The aim is to ensue that the look and functionality of the web site is as similar as possible across as many web browsers as possible

This is often an easier concept to aim for than it is to achieve as the number of browsers grows across different operating systems. In practice, many web designers will agree with the client beforehand as to which browsers the web site must be compatible with.

D

Domain

A domain is an internet metaphor for a virtual home or office. These domains have been given identifiable names such as designprintweb.co.uk. They have been sub-divided into various categories, such as .com (for commercial), .gov, (for governmental), .org, (for non-profit organisations), .edu (for educational establishments) and so on. These are known as domain names.

Domain names are also available on a country specific basis, such as .co.uk (for the United Kingdom) and .com.au (for Australia). Some of these have become very sought after (and expensive) as they have very memorable or useful extensions - for example .tv and .cc. There are a whole range of other domain name categories and many more are being added every year.

Downloads

Simply means the copying of data from a remote computer to your local computer. Viewing a web page involves downloading it to your computer, as does downloading a piece of software or an image.

Dynamic web pages

Dynamic web pages are web documents that are generated automatically, usually using information from a database and utilising server or scripting technology, for example PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion, .NET.

E

Encryption

Encryption is the term applied to the various methods of encoding data so that it cannot be read by third parties. Web based credit card transactions are generally encrypted

E-Commerce

E-commerce, or electronic commerce, is a catch all term to describe the many web based or online methods of conducting business.

E-Zine or Ezine

Stands for electronic magazine and is a name for a web site which is either (a) modeled after a print magazine or (b) a magazine that is only available online or through email.

F

Flash

Flash is a multimedia program developed by software developer Macromedia. Its initial primary purpose was to enable animated images to be small enough in file size, so as to download quickly over the internet. Flash achieved this by using vector graphics to build its animations, as opposed to bitmap animation.

Flash has quickly developed into a full-blown vector animation program. With the growth of broadband, some web designers are using Flash to create whole web sites, with embedded video graphics, games and other complicated interactive features. Interactivity is built into Flash, by web developers, using a form of scripting called ActionScript.

Forms

HTML tags that define and label text-entry boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, and/or drop-down menus to create simple on-screen forms for collecting information from the viewer.

Forums

An internet-based forum for users to discuss any number of subjects with other members

Front end

The front end of a web site is the visual design, look and feel of the web site. It can also, arguably, be applied to the technology that runs directly from the web page itself, such as javascript or HTML, as opposed to back-end technology that runs behind the scenes on the web server.