GLOSSARY

BRIGHTNESS

The lightness or darkness of the image.

CHANNEL

The component of an image. Your scanned image has three

 

channels: red, green, and blue (RGB).

CONTRAST

The gradation of shades in an image. A high contrast image

 

has very dark areas and bright areas without many middle

 

shades. A low contrast image has many tones that are close to

 

the same brightness. Low contrast images are often described

 

as looking ‘flat’.

CROP

To trim and delete the unwanted edges of the image.

DPI

Dots (pixels) per inch.

EMULSION SIDE

The side of the film coated with the photographic material.

GAMMA

The contrast of only the middle tones.

HIGHLIGHTS

The lighter areas of the image.

HISTOGRAM

A graph showing the amount of each level of the 256

 

brightness levels.

INTERPOLATION

A form of adding new pixels in an image when resampling up.

JPEG

The JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) compression

 

standard is capable of producing a high compression ratio

 

while maintaining image quality. JPEG is a widely supported

 

image file format.

MIDTONE

The middle shades of an image, in between light and dark.

NEUTRAL

Having no colour cast, such as black, white, or gray.

PICT

(Macintosh operating system only) The PICT graphic file format

 

uses a lossless compression scheme and is compatible with

 

many Macintosh applications.

PIXEL

Abbreviation for picture element. The dots that make up an

 

electronic image.

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