Glossary

Align: Allows you to align layers or selections within an image. There are several ways to align objects: top, vertical center, left, horizontal center, and right.

Alpha channel: A spot color channel in the Channels palette that you create using the Color Range tool.

Anti-Aliased/Anti-aliasing: Anti-aliasing is the process of smoothing edges around a selection. It differs from feathering in that it does not blur the edges but instead softens them by blending the colors of the outer pixels with the background pixels. This results in no loss of detail. You must choose anti-aliasing before selecting; it cannot be added after a selection has been made.

Art History Brush: Allows you to change an image to make it look like some other type of artwork—artwork that is older, such as impressionist artwork, an oil painting, or a watercolor. These changes are unlike filters and similar tools because they allow you to brush over only part of the image to make the changes and do not apply the change to the entire image or layer.

Auto Color: Adjusts the colors in an image by searching the image for shadows, midtones, and highlights instead of basing those adjustments on the histogram settings. Auto Color is located at Image>Adjustments.

Auto Contrast: This command adjusts the contrast of an image but does not repair color-related problems such as colorcasts. By enhancing the contrast of the image, whites appear whiter and blacks appear blacker, and everything in between changes accordingly.

Auto Erase: Available with the Pencil tool, checking this box allows you to paint the background color over areas of foreground color. This, in essence, erases what has been previously drawn with the foreground color.

Auto Levels: A command in the Image>Adjustments menu that sets highlights and shadows in an image by defining a black point and a white point based on the majority of colors in the image and the lightest and darkest points. With the black and white points set, it configures the intermediate colors accordingly.

Auto Select Layer: Automatically selects the layer you intend to work with as determined by where you click with the mouse.

Background button: When printing, the Background button lets you select a color from the Color Picker that will be printed on the page outside the image area. For instance, if you are printing slides for a film projector, you might want the background to be a specific color.

Background color: The background color can be configured from the toolbox and is used when creating gradient fills, creating a new file using the background color, or filling in an erased area of the image.

Background Eraser tool: Lets you erase on a layer in such a way as to maintain the integrity of the foreground and other layers and works by dragging the mouse.

Baseline Shift: Baseline Shift is used to specify how much the text deviates from its normal baseline.

Batch Rename: Allows you to rename multiple files simultaneously.

Black Generation: This setting in the Color Settings dialog box determines the amount of black ink used in the CMYK separation. This value is used to determine how dense the darkest shadows in the image will appear. By keeping the values at light or medium, you are preventing loss of color intensity in the image at press time.

Bleed button: When printing, use this button to create crop marks inside (instead of outside) the image. This allows you to trim the image if needed inside the graphic instead of outside of it. You can specify the width of the bleed.

Blending modes: A layer’s blending mode determines how the layer’s colored pixels will mix (relate) with the underlying pixels in the image. By default, there is no blending of layers, but by choosing and applying a blending mode, you can change this. When the blending mode is changed, the order of the image’s composition is changed too. Blending modes are generally used to create special effects like adding soft light or hard light or to change the color, saturation, hue, luminosity, or other attributes of how the layers can be combined.

Blur tool: Blurs an area of the image using any brush you select.

BMP files: Bitmap files, which are pixel-based files usually considered standard Microsoft Windows files. Bitmap files only support RGB color spaces and 1, 4, 8, or 24 bits per channel.

Border button: When printing, use this button to create a border around the image’s printed area. The border is black and can be between 0.000 and 0.150 inches.

Bounding box: A square or rectangle around an image that allows it to be resized or distorted. When printing, check Show Bounding Box. Checking this option adds a bounding box around the image so it can be resized using the corner handles.

Brush tool: The Brush tool allows you to select a brush, choose its characteristics, including size, shape, spacing, roundness, hardness, angle, diameter, mode, opacity, and more, and then use the brush for various types of artwork

Brushes palette: Here you can create or access thousands of types of brushes and configure them to meet any drawing need.

Burn tool: The Burn tool is used to darken areas of an image or print.

Cache: An area of the hard drive where information is stored about the thumbnails, metadata, and ranking information in your images.

CAD cutter: CAD cutters use thermal film to produce full color prints at 600 dpi or higher. Resin ink cartridges are used, which can be similar to the ribbon cartridges you might have used with Alps and similar printers. The printer/cutter automatically prints and cuts out the design, you peel it off, and apply it to the substrate using a heat transfer machine. You’ll have to read your cutter’s documentation to purchase the correct inks and films.

Calibration: Brings a device like a monitor, scanner, or printer to an absolute standard that ensures consistency across devices. Calibrating is especially necessary when files are being passed from one person to another; what a client sees on their computer, compared to what you see on your computer, compared to what the service bureau sees on their computer can differ outrageously.

Calibration bars: When printing, check this option to print an 11-step grayscale step wedge moving from 0 percent black to 100 percent black in 10 percent increments.

Center crop marks: Prints marks where the image should be trimmed. These marks can also be useful if you are printing out an image for a demonstration using a slide projector, for package design work, or for any other type of work that requires CMYK printouts be aligned exactly.

Channels: Channels are located in the Channels palette and created automatically when a color mode is chosen and determined based on the colors in the image. In RGB mode, for instance, there are three channels: red, green, and blue.

Clear: This command enables you to delete a selection without placing that selection on the clipboard. It’s similar to the Cut command. Make sure if there are multiple layers in an image that you’ve selected the layer you want to work with from the layers palette.

Clone Stamp tool: Lets you duplicate any area in an image and “paint” that area over any other part of the image.

Clip art: Non-photographic graphic images that can be either vector or bitmap in form. Images in clip art collections are generally categorized by type, such as animals, vehicles, monuments, people, borders, edges, etc. These images can be edited, colored, and resized as required by the user.

CMYK mode: A color mode that uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to create its colors. CMYK mode assigns colors to pixels in percentages that are determined by the inks used (and have configured in the Color Settings). Color values range from 0 to 100 percent. For instance, a teal color might have 51 percent cyan, 4 percent magenta, 19 percent yellow, and 0 percent black. You can see these numbers in the Info palette. All zeroes produces a pure white.

Color gamut: The range of colors that a specific color mode can print in. The RGB color gamut can produce over 16 million colors, while the CMYK color gamut produces substantially less. A gamut is also the range of colors that a system can print or display.

Color models: Established models for creating and reproducing color. There are many color models, including RGB, CMYK, HSB, indexed, and more. As a screen printer, you’ll mainly be concerned with RGB and CMYK color modes, although indexed color can be useful as well, depending on your needs.

Color palette: Displays information on the current foreground and background colors and allows you to change the colors as desired and/or base the colors on different color models.

Color Sampler: Like the Eyedropper tool, this allows you to match a color exactly by clicking on an area of the image and then offers information about that color. The Color Sampler tool is located with the Eyedropper in the options bar. This tool lets you take a snapshot of up to four color samples in an image and lists them in the Info palette. This is useful when you need to compare one color to another or when you need to see the changes in colors after applying image transformations.

Color Table: When selecting indexed colors, the Color Table allows you to select custom indexed colors for separations.

Commit: The check mark on the options bar that is used to accept a recently made change to an image.

Contiguous: Used with tools such as the Magic Eraser, the Paint Bucket, and the Magic Wand to specify how colors will be selected, applied, or erased. When Contiguous is checked, the resulting selection only includes pixels that are adjacent to each other. Otherwise, all pixels of the preferred color are selected.

DCS: Desktop Color Separations format is a version of the standard EPS format that lets you save not only the file or image but also its CMYK or multichannel color separations you see in the Channels palette. DCS 2.0 allows you to save spot channels too. These files can then be exported to various other graphics programs, and their separations can be printed on PostScript printers.

Diameter: Controls the size of the brush and can be set using the slider or by typing in a number.

Direct Selection tool: Use this tool when you want to edit the paths that you’ve created. Paths allow you to create custom outlines of shapes for various uses, including creating a custom shape, using the shape or path as a mask to hide areas of a layer, or for using it as a clipping path.

Discontiguous: This is a Limits option that specifies that erasures are performed underneath the brush.

Distort: A Transform tool that allows you to move an image in any direction at all. Distort is also a filter that allows you to manipulate an image drastically, offering special effects.

Distribute: Allows you to distribute layers or selections within an image. There are several ways to distribute objects: top, vertical center, left, horizontal center, and right.

Dither: Reduces visible banding related to gradients when using the Gradient tool.

Docking: The Palette Well offers a place to dock palettes that you don’t want on the screen but you still want to have access to without having to use the Window menu. To dock a palette, simply drag it from its place in the workspace to the Palette Well.

Dodge tool: Used to darken areas of an image or print. The Dodge tool’s name comes from the traditional photographer’s method of reducing the amount of light made available when exposing the film to get the picture.

Dot gain: The inherent “growth” of a halftone dot when printed on paper, vellum, or film. A small dot can grow as much as 50 percent or more when printed. Dot gain can also occur when the ink is printed on the shirt.

dpi: Dots per inch. This describes how many dots per inch can be printed on a page and is a measure of how good a printer is. Generally, printers can print many more dots per inch than the pixels per inch that need to be printed.

Duplicate: Used to duplicate an entire image and is useful when you want to make changes to a file, such as a photograph, without applying any changes to the actual file that’s saved on the hard drive. Duplicate is a choice in the Image menu.

Edge Contrast: Use this option with the Lasso tools to define the Lasso’s sensitivity to the edges of the selection that you’re trying to lasso. Values can range from 1 percent to 100 percent. A lower value detects low-contrast edges (those that don’t have much contrast with their backgrounds), and a higher value detects edges that contrast sharply with their backgrounds. Configuring this prior to and during a selection can make selecting an object manually much more efficient (combine with the Zoom tool for best results).

Edit: From the Edit menu, you can undo the last step taken or “undo an undo” by choosing Step Forward. You can cut, copy, and paste a selection from the clipboard, fill a layer with a color or pattern, check the spelling of text, and transform images in any number of ways. The Edit menu is also the place to configure custom color settings or set preferences for file handling, cursors, the display, transparency and gamut, units and rulers, memory and image cache, and more.

Emulsion Down: When printing, check this box to denote that the paper used is emulsion side down and must be printed the opposite of what is shown on the screen. If this is checked, Photoshop flips the image around so it’ll print correctly.

EPS DCS2: These files are variations of EPS files. DCS stands for Desktop Color Separations file. This file type allows you to save color separations as CMYK files. The DCS2 format also allows you to export images containing spot channels, which regular EPS doesn’t support. To print DCS files, you must have a PostScript printer.

EPS File Format: EPS files are Encapsulated PostScript files and contain both raster- and vector-based images. EPS files can be edited in Adobe Illustrator as well as Photoshop, and some EPS files from third-party clip art companies can be edited in other programs such as CorelDRAW and Arts & Letters.

Eraser tool: Erases to the background layer by dragging the mouse.

EXIF: Information obtained from a digital camera such as date and time, resolution, ISO speed rating, f-stop, compression, and exposure time.

Extract: From the Filter menu, this lets you remove an object or objects from an image and works when other options don’t (like the Background Eraser tool or the Magic Eraser tool). With the Extract option, you can trace around an image to select it for removal, using a large highlighter-type pen, fill that area with color, and extract it from the image

Eyedropper tool: Like the Color Sampler tool, this allows you to match a color exactly by clicking on an area of the image and then offers information about that color.

Fade: The Fade command appears in the Edit menu after a filter has been applied and allows you to change the blending options for that filter. The Fade command also appears after using a painting tool, using an eraser, or making a color adjustment. The Fade dialog box has two options: changing the opacity and changing the blending mode.

Feather: Feathering is the process of blurring edges around a selection. Blurring the edges helps the selection blend into another object, file, or selection when it is moved, cut, copied, and/or pasted.

File: From the File menu, you can choose to open a file, save a file, and browse for a file, and you can print, print one copy, or print with a preview. You can import or export files too or save a file for the web. Files contain the image and all data.

File browser: Allows you to search your physical drives (hard drive, CD-ROM drive, DVD drives, digital camera drives, floppy drives, and zip drives) for files that you’ve either previously created or need to open.

Film: Films enable printers to produce high-quality film positives using a printer. Inkjet films require inkjet printers, and other types of films can be used for laser printers. Films create extremely dense positives, where the black is really black, thus it creates a wonderfully perfect screen.

Filters: Filters allow you to change the look of an image or layer simply by choosing the desired look from the menu options and configuring any dialog boxes that appear.

Flattening: Like merging, flattening an image combines all of the layers into a single layer.

Flow: Used to specify how quickly paint is applied when using a Brush tool like the Airbrush. A heavier flow lays on more paint more quickly; a lower flow lays on less.

Font: Used to create text. Fonts are categorized by family, style, size, and other attributes.

Foreground color: The foreground color can be configured from the toolbox. The foreground color is used when paint tools are chosen and when Fill and Stroke tools are selected. When using a brush or the Paint Bucket tool, the foreground color will be applied. The foreground color is also used by some of the special effect filters.

Frequency: Use this option with the Lasso tools to determine at what frequency or how often anchor points are added as you trace around the object. Values from 0 to 100 can be used, and higher values add more anchor (fastening) points. Frequency is available when using the Pen tool too, with values ranging from 5 to 40.

GCR: Gray Component Replacement is an extension of UCR in that it replaces the neutral colors in the image as well as the colored areas with equal amounts of cyan, magenta, and yellow throughout the tonal range of the image. The gray component is replaced with black ink. GCR is a better option for most high-quality print work, thus the reasoning behind choosing it for our CMYK custom settings.

Generation: Each stage of a reproduction as it is changed from its original state.

Ghosting: During the print process, a shadow that appears in the print that is generally undesirable.

GIF: Stands for Graphics Interchange Format and is generally used for files that are considered line art or have only a few colors. GIF images are good for images containing less than 256 colors, so they’re not good for photographs. The GIF format supports grayscale and RGB color spaces.

Gigabyte: A term applied to the size of an image, hard drive, or storage unit. A gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes of data (or one million bytes).

Gradient tool: Fills a closed object with a range of colors that fade into each other.

Gray Balance: How cyan, magenta, and yellow are combined to produce gray, often called a neutral gray.

Halftones: Halftones are dots of a specific shape, such as an ellipse or a circle. Halftones dictate how much of each color goes on the material at press time. Varying how large or small the dots are determines the actual color printed on the shirt. Because halftone dots are so small, they fool us into thinking that we are seeing the real image, when in reality we are just looking at a combination of dots.

Hand tool: Allows you to scroll through an image that doesn’t fit completely in the viewing window. It’s like using the scroll bars at the bottom and right side of the window, except you do the moving with the mouse by dragging. When the Hand tool is chosen, the cursor becomes a hand.

Handle: Small squares that appear around an object when transforming it that allow you to move, resize, reshape, or distort the image.

Hardness: Controls a brush’s hard center and can be set using the slider or by typing in a number. Hardness can be compared to using a pencil by pressing hard to create a darker and more forceful print; lower this number for a softer effect.

Healing Brush tool: The Healing Brush let you correct imperfections in images such as dirt, smudges, and even dark circles under a subject’s eyes. You can match the background texture, lighting, and shadows or shading to “cover up” these flaws.

Heat transfers: Used when names, numbers, one-of-a-kind artwork, artwork with many different colors, gradients, and process color, and short runs are desired. With a heat transfer, there are no screens to burn, and you (should) get what you see on your computer screen. Heat transfers can be used on mouse pads, can coolers, puzzles, tote bags, and similar products, and they are quite easy to produce in Photoshop. You use a heat transfer press to apply the transfer to the product.

Hidden tools: In the toolbox, many of the icons have arrows in the bottom-right corner. This signifies that there are additional tools located underneath the tool that is showing. Selecting a hidden tool from the toolbox can be achieved by clicking, holding, and choosing the tool you want from the resulting list of tools.

History Brush: You can use the History Brush to paint over something that you’ve recently added to an image to erase it.

History Palette: Shows the list of steps taken to create the image that you are currently working on. The History palette helps you correct errors (by storing what you’ve done to a file previously) and allows you to “go back” to a point before a particular edit was made simply by clicking on the appropriate step.

HSB: This mode uses a color’s hue, saturation, and brightness to define it. Hue is defined by its location on the color wheel and is denoted by a number from 0 to 360 degrees. Saturation is the purity and strength of the color and is defined by the percentage of gray in the image (0 to 100 percent). Brightness is how light or dark a color is and is defined by a percentage (0 percent is black and 100 percent is white).

ICC profiles: Color space descriptions that can be configured or installed for a specific device like a scanner or printer. ICC stands for and was defined by the International Color Consortium as a cross-platform color standard.

Image: From the Image menu choices, you can make adjustments to the image concerning color, hue, saturation, and other attributes, as well as make changes to the color mode. Other options allow you to duplicate, trim, rotate, crop, and trap the image, and change the image size.

Image Ready: A second application that ships with Photoshop 7.0 and is used mainly for web design.

Import: Available from the File menu, this command lets you import files from a scanner or digital camera and import PDF images, annotations, and WIA support. PDF (Portable Document Format) is the primary file format for Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Acrobat.

Impressionist: Adds an impressionist effect (like Monet’s art) when the box is checked while using the Pattern Stamp tool.

Indenting text: Left indent indents a paragraph from the left edge of the paragraph, right from the right edge, and first line to only indent the first line of the paragraph.

Indexed color: This mode uses from 1 to 256 colors. You can convert an RGB image to an indexed color image, and Photoshop will look at the colors and convert them to the colors available in the indexed color model. Indexed color can be used for web images but is used in screen printing as well. Screen printers can use indexing to color separate an image using only a few colors, and those colors can be hand picked.

Info palette: Displays color information about the color directly underneath the mouse pointer and displays additional information depending on the tool chosen.

Interpolation: Photoshop’s way of figuring out what should be in a specific pixel when enough information isn’t given, such as when you resample an image. If you start with a small image and try to double the size, Photoshop has to guess at what’s supposed to be in those extra areas. If you take a large image and reduce its size, it has to guess at what to throw away. There are several types of interpolation: Bicubic, Bilinear, and Nearest Neighbor.

Jaggies – A term used to describe jagged edges found on raster images. Jaggies appear on diagonal lines and are shaped like squares. Jaggies hinder the print process and are generally undesirable.

JPEG: Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and is sometimes also written JPG. JPEG files are lossy, meaning that as they are compressed, they lose detail. When the file is changed from a JPEG to another format, those compressed or lost pixels must be reconstructed. This usually results in jagged edges in the design. Alternatives to JPEG include GIF and BMP.

Justification: The art of using blank space, numbers, and words to fill a specified area of the design or image. These are used to make the right and left margins equal and even. This option is offered in many applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and other graphics programs.

Justify Text: Justifies all lines of text in the paragraph and leaves the last line justified either left, center, or right. (For vertical text, it is top, center, and bottom.)

Kerning: Kerning determines how much of a gap to have between specific letter pairs. Letter pairs like AV and Ky often seem out of sync with the other letters in the text because of how the sides of the letter pairs line up with each other. Kerning can be used to add to or diminish the space to remove this natural occurrence.

Labels: When printing, check this to print the file name above the image.

Lasso tools: There are three Lasso tools: the Lasso tool, the Polygonal Lasso tool, and the Magnetic Lasso tool. The first two choices let you draw around an object using curves and line segments, respectively, and the third lets you draw around an object and have the drawn lines snap to the object (based on calculations determined by color differences in the object and the background).

Layer: Layers are like transparencies, which are clear plastic sheets of material that can be printed on. The transparencies can be printed and stacked on top of one another to form a complex picture, and single transparencies can be removed from the stack for editing or removal. When you create artwork in Photoshop 7.0, you can create it on layers similar to these transparencies—text on one layer, background image on another, and perhaps a selection pasted from another file on another. These layers can then be edited independently of each other, making the editing process more efficient and precise.

Layer masks: Used to obscure entire layers and layer sets. By using masks, you can apply special effects without actually affecting any of the original data on that layer. After you’ve found the perfect effect, you can then apply the changes. The changes can also be discarded. Layer masks are created using the painting and selection tools.

Leading: Leading is the amount of space between lines of text in a paragraph.

Limits: Allows you to choose from Contiguous, Discontiguous, and Find Edges when using the Background Eraser tool. Contiguous erases colors that are next to the original sample, Discontiguous erases underneath the brush, and Find Edges looks for and finds the edges of an image and erases to those edges.

Line screen: Also called screen ruling, line screen is how many lines of halftone dots appear per linear inch on a printed page, positive or negative. Line screen is measured in lines per inch (lpi). Lines per inch is limited by the output device and the paper or film you print on. Common lpi for screen printers range from 55 lpi to 65 lpi. Newspapers print around 85 lpi and magazines around 133 or 155 lpi.

Line tool: Allows you to draw straight lines using the mouse. The Line tool is located with the other Shape tools and draws vector-based lines.

lpi: Lines per inch is a term used by offset printers, screen printers, and other graphic artists to describe how many lines or dots per inch will be in a halftone screen. Screen printers generally output their images at 55 to 65 lpi, depending on the type of print process (spot or process) and other factors such as the type of screen used and its mesh count and the type of ink used.

Magic Eraser tool: Lets you erase by clicking with the mouse and erases all pixels similar in color to the area you click on.

Magic Wand tool: Allows you to make a selection automatically, based on a color, without having to physically trace the outline by clicking in a specific area with the mouse. Options for the Magic Wand are set in the options bar.

Magnetic Pen tool: A variation of the Freeform Pen, this Pen tool snaps to the edges of an image, making tracing around an image easy.

Marquee tools: There are four Marquee tools—rectangular, elliptical, single row, and single column. These tools allow you to select portions of an object, file, photo, or subject for editing. These selections must be elliptical, rectangular, circular, or 1 pixel wide or thick.

Menu bar: The bar at the top of the Photoshop interface that contains several headings: File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, and Help.

Mode: Mode options allow you to control how you want pixels to be affected by the application of the painting or editing tool you choose. Modes, also called blending modes, are generally used for creating special effects.

Moiré: The unwanted addition of patterns on a print or scan. These patterns are usually caused when two similar repetitive grids are placed on top of one another. Screens and their inherent mesh pattern when combined with the halftone dots and their inherent dot patterns can cause the print to have unwanted lines and patterns. You can also get moiré when you scan an image that has already been halftoned, like a photograph from a magazine. If you get moiré patterns when scanning, use a “Descreen” option if one exists, scan the image at twice the final size, and then resize the image as needed and experiment with other settings.

Move tool: Allows you to move a selected part of an image, align layers, and distribute layers in an image. When the Move tool is selected, a box is placed around the selected part of the image. This box can be used to move the selection and edit its shape and size.

Oblique: Italicized text derived from the Roman version of a font.

OCR: Optical Character Recognition, or the ability of an application to convert scanned text into text that can be edited. Most graphics editing programs now include OCR technology.

Offset Lithography: The type of lithographic printing. In this process the image and nonimage areas are created on the same plate. The areas are separated with chemicals. To print, ink is rubber stamped to the paper.

Opacity: Used to specify how transparent a layer should be, either on its own or in regard to other layers. When color-separating artwork, you can use the Opacity Slide to “pull” more color from the image, thus making color separating artwork easier.

Opaque: Not transparent, among other meanings including to “block out” a specific area of an image or film.

Opaquing: The process of removing pinholes in an image, often performed by screen printers on screens produced by films.

Options bar: This bar is located at the top of the interface underneath the menu bar and changes each time a new tool is selected. The options bar contains choices for configuring and working with the various tools in the toolbox.

Original: The artwork required for printing reproduction. An “original” may mean camera-ready artwork or artwork you acquire for editing and reproduction in a different, usable, form.

Out of Gamut: A color not within the specified color gamut. Often, out of gamut errors occur when using Web colors only to create an image.

Outline Letter: A letter created only with an outline that does not have a solid middle.

Outside Margin: The area outside the margins of a printed page. It is often referred to as the trim margin.

Overlay: Color screens that are layered, and once layered produce additional colors on an image. You can create overlays in Photoshop when creating transparencies for presentations using an overhead projector, adn then use those overlays to enhance the presentation to show changes, without actually changing the slide.

Overset: Text or type that is in excess of the available space in the image. This means that the type in a line exceeds measure allotted for the type.

Page Setup dialog box: An area where paper, orientation, and margins can be set and access to the printer properties is available.

Paint Bucket tool: The Paint Bucket tool fills a closed object with a solid color.

Palette: These are located on the right side of the interface. They are contained in rectangular boxes and offer tools to help you modify, monitor, and edit images. Palettes are stacked together, and each rectangular box holds two or three separate palettes.

Palette Well: Located on the options bar in the top-right corner of the interface. Palettes can be dragged from the work area to the Palette Well. This effectively removes the palette from the work area, while keeping the palette handy and easily accessible. You won’t be able to see the Palette Well unless you have your screen resolution set at 1024 x 768 or higher.

Pantone colors: Industry standard colors that are represented by names and numbers.

Pantone Matching System (PMS): An ideal way to ensure true colors when you print. Pantone colors include Pantone Yellow, Pantone Red, Pantone Purple, etc., with various shades in between with names like PMS251 and PMS262.

Paragraph Type: A way to type in paragraphs where all of the letters typed in wrap to new lines based on the size of the bounding box. Using this option, paragraphs of text can be entered, and if more space is required, the bounding box can simply be resized. Compare to point type.

Paste: This command pastes the selection (from Cut or Copy) into another part of the image or into a new image as a new layer.

Paste Into: This command pastes a selection into another part of the image or into a new image as a new layer, and the destination’s selection border is converted into a layer mask. You can then decide if you want to apply the mask or discard it.

Patch tool: Similar to the Healing Brush tool, this allows you to choose a part of the image and use it as a sample for repairing another part of the image. The Patch tool combines the selection power of the Lasso tools with the correction properties of the Healing Brush and other cloning tools.

Path Selection tool: Use this tool when you want to edit the paths that you’ve created using the Pen or Shape tools.

Pattern Stamp tool: Allow you to paint with a specific pattern from the pattern library or from your own pattern creations.

PDF: Stands for Portable Document Format and is used mainly for documents. PDF file format preserves fonts, page layout, and other document information and can be imported into Photoshop for editing. PDF files are platform independent, meaning almost any computer OS can be used when opening them. PDF files are not used in Photoshop for creating artwork.

Pen pressure: If you use a stylus tablet, you can set pen pressure. This allows you to draw on the tablet and have the resulting amount of pressure you use while drawing applied to the tool you’re using on the screen. Pen pressure is available with several tools, including the Pen tool and some Brush tools.

Pen tool: The Pen tool is used for drawing paths and custom shapes. As lines and curves are drawn, anchor points are created that define the line, its endpoints, and its curves.

Pencil tool: The Pencil tool allows you to select a brush, choose its characteristics including size, shape, spacing, roundness, hardness, angle, diameter, mode, opacity, and more, and then use the brush for various types of artwork.

Pixel: Images such as photos are made up of pixels, which are small squares that contain color. An image’s resolution is determined by how many pixels there are in the image per inch. Monitors display output using pixels as well. Monitors display output at 72 ppi.

Point Type: A way to type a paragraph where each line of text that you add is independent of the other lines; it does not wrap to the next line. If you run out of space in the work area, the letters that don’t fit on the page won’t show. Compare to paragraph type.

Polygons: Closed shapes like triangles, squares, rectangles, and octagons, these are shapes that have three or more sides.

Pop-up palette: Some palettes are not available from the window menu choices and instead appear when a specific tool is chosen and is being configured. These are available from the options bar and denoted by a small arrow. Click on the arrow to access the palettes.

PostScript: A page description language for medium to high resolution print devices. The language consists of software commands and protocols that allow you to send data (including picture and font information) from your computer to the printer for output. PostScript is device independent, allowing different computers and printers to communicate independently of platforms.

ppi: Image resolution is a ratio of pixels per inch; the more pixels you squeeze into each inch of the image, the higher the resolution. Higher resolution means a better quality image.

Preserve Exact Colors: Check this when creating indexed colors to make any pure color a spot color.

Preset Manager: A dialog box that allows you to manage all preset items in one place. Changes made here affect all of the presets you see when accessing them from any area of Photoshop. The Preset Manager is available from Edit>Preset Manager.

Print Selected Area: This check box is available if you’ve used a Selection tool to select a specific area of the image prior to opening the Print dialog box. When this box is checked, only the selected area is printed.

Process color: Used when you want to print photorealistic prints. Process color printing requires that you create four unique halftone screens, one for each of the four colors (CMYK). These screens are really just dots on a page that control how much ink should be put in a particular part of the image.

Proprietary file format: A proprietary format means the file can only be opened in the program in which it was created, such as Arts & Letters’ GED files, Adobe Photoshop’s PSD files, Paint Shop Pro’s PSP files, CorelDRAW’s CDR files, and other file formats.

PSD file format: Photoshop’s own format for saving files. Files saved in this format retain layer and channel information. The image’s resolution and spot color channels are also saved, as is image bit depth. PSD files save information about the file, including its layers and channels, so that those items can be continually edited.

Range: Used with the Dodge and Burn tools, this allows you to select a tonal range to lighten or darken (midtones, highlights, or shadows).

Raster data: This data is defined by its colors and pixels and is not defined mathematically. Digital pictures are raster data. Some tools in Photoshop can only be applied to raster data or raster images.

Rasterize: Converting vector data to raster data. Performing this conversion is called rasterizing.

Registration marks: When printing, these marks are used to print marks on the image for alignment on the press (bull’s-eyes and star targets).

Reproduction Proofs: Often camera-ready artwork. These proofs are used to reproduce an image or print.

Resolution: Resolution determines how many pixels are shown per unit (such as inch or centimeter) in an image. Higher resolutions contain more pixels (thus more detail) than lower resolution images.

Reversal Processing: The process in which film is exposed so that it will become a positive instead of a negative or a negative instead of a positive.

Reverse: Reverses the chosen gradient’s colors. Used with the Gradient tool.

Revert: Located in the File menu, the Revert command returns the file to the condition it was in the last time it was saved.

RGB mode: A color mode that uses red, green, and blue to create the colors you see. Monitors use RGB mode to output color, and RGB mode is Photoshop’s default.

RIP (Raster Image Processor): A processor (like a CPU) included in an output device that converts an image’s data into the dot pattern. It is this dot pattern that is printed onto film or paper.

Roman Type: A regular version of a font, versus bold or italic.

Rotate: A Transform tool that allows you to rotate an object around its center point. The center point can be changed.

Roundness: Controls how round the brush stroke will be. A setting of 100 percent creates a circular brush stroke; 0 percent creates a linear brush stroke.

Rules: Vertical or horizontal lines on a page that may be applied during typesetting, drawn by hand, or printed on a negative.

Sample size: The Eyedropper can be used to take a sample of a color for multiple uses, including choosing a foreground color, using the Healing Brush, and using the Background Eraser. The sample size of the Eye dropper can be changed from the sample size window. It is usually best to keep the sample size small. You can choose from point sample, 3 by 3 average, or 5 by 5 average.

Scaled Print Size: Scale determines how large or small the image should be printed in relation to the actual size of the image itself. A choice of 100 percent, the default, prints the page as you see it using its actual size.

Screen button: Use the Screen button when printing to set screen frequency, angle, and dot shape for each of the ink colors (CMYK) in the process print.

Screens: When screen printing images onto fabric, you use screens to physically transfer the ink onto the shirts and other materials. These screens are created from printouts that you print from your PostScript printer. These printouts can be created on vellum, film, or similar paper.

Selective Color: A powerful command that allows you to work with and adjust colors independently of one another.

Shape tools: Shape tools include rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, line, and custom shapes. Shape tools are used by graphic artists for creating logos, setting type boundaries, creating custom artwork, creating trademarks, and more. Shapes are vector images too, meaning they can be resized without distortion. Photoshop comes with many custom shapes, including animals, check marks, hands, feet, puzzle pieces, pens and pencils, phones, international symbols, and more.

Sharpen tool: Sharpens an area of the image using any brush that you choose.

Show Bounding Box: Available from the options bar when you choose the Move tool or the Path Selection tool. Checking this box allows you to see the bounding box that surrounds a selected object, which in turn makes it easier to move, resize, and rotate a selection.

Simulated process color separations: Sometimes called fake process color separations, these are created when you want to print an image on a dark-colored shirt. Common images and clients for simulated process color prints include rock bands, fantasy groups, animals, motorcycles, and photographs. Simulated process color differs from true process color because these images are not printed using CMYK inks like regular process prints are. These images are printed using “regular” colors like red, black, orange, yellow, blue, white, etc., and are printed with all-purpose inks.

Skew: A Transform tool that allows you to slant an image vertically or horizontally.

Slice tool: Slices are generally used to define areas of an image that will later be used for animating for a web page, as links to URL addresses or for rollover buttons.

Smudge tool: Smudges an area of the image using any brush you choose.

Source (Sampled or Pattern): Used when repairing flaws in images (perhaps with the Healing Brush) to determine how exactly an image will be repaired. Sampled uses pixels from the current image, and Pattern fills the area with a pattern you select from the Pattern pop-up palette.

Spacing: Controls the distance between the brush strokes when using a brush. Increasing the spacing creates a skipping effect; decreasing the spacing creates less of a skipping effect (or none if set to 0).

Splitting channels: To send process color separations to programs that don’t accept DCS 2.0 files, you can split channels to create a separate file for each channel that you’ve created. When splitting channels, Photoshop renames them and places them on the screen one by one as they’re created. With these separate files, you can do a File>Save As command on each file, and then you can send them to a service bureau or import them into another program. To split the channels, simply click the right arrow in the Channels palette and choose Split Channels. Don’t do this until you’re sure though; this can’t be undone!

Spot color: Images that have a limited number of colors in the design. Generally, spot color prints are the easiest kind of images to both screen print and color separate.

Step Backward: Like the Undo command, you can revert to a previous state. With Step Backward you can undo even after you’ve saved the image with the state change.

Step Forward: Allows you to move forward one state. Moving forward is the opposite of moving backward and is only available after using the Step Backward command from the Edit menu.

Stochastic: Indexed separations use random square dots called stochastic or diffusion dither. These dots are not halftone dots and are used only in indexed color separations.

Strength: Used with Blur, Sharpen, and Smudge and specifies how strong the stroke should be. Lower numbers reduce the strength; higher numbers increase the strength.

Styles palette: Lets you apply a preset style to a selected layer, which can be the foreground or background or load different libraries of styles.

Sublimation: Printing with sublimation requires that you have a sublimation printer and sublimation inks, along with special papers for printing. Although sublimation can be used for printing T-shirts, caps, and totes, it is mostly used for printing coffee cups, mouse pads, luggage tags, clipboards, and similar materials.

Swatches palette: Allows you to choose a foreground or background color and allows you to add or delete colors from the swatches library of colors.

TIFF files: Tagged Image File Format files (also called TIF files) that are widely used files in graphic design. TIFF files are raster-based and support almost all color spaces. TIFF files can be compressed using a lossless compress scheme, making them better for saving than JPEG files.

Tolerance: This option is available with several tools and used to set how “tolerant” a tool is with regard to the colors with which it is working. For instance, when using the Paint Bucket tool to fill an area with color, the tolerance level determines how close the color must be to the original color (where you click) before it gets filled. Values can be from 0 to 255. A lower number only fills colors very similar to where you click; a higher number fills a broader range of colors. Tolerance can also be set for the Magic Eraser tool, the Art History Brush, and the Magic Wand tool.

Tool Presets palette: Lets you load, save, and replace tool preset libraries for quick reference. Saving custom preset tools allows you to reuse these tools without recreating them each time. Each tool in the toolbox has its own icon in the left corner of the options bar, and there is a down arrow beside it. Clicking on this arrow brings up the tool presets. Here, you can save and reuse tools and tool settings, as well as load, edit, and create libraries of tools you use most often.

Toolbox: Located on the left side of the screen, it’s where you’ll find the tools you need to create your artwork and perform editing tasks. From the toolbox you can access the selection tools, Shape tools, Type tools, the Crop tool, Eraser tools, Zoom tools, and more.

Transfer button: When printing process color separations, this button allows you to compensate for dot gain and loss from inside the Print dialog box. However, since dot gain is taken into account and dealt with appropriately when configuring the color settings from the Edit menu, this is best left at its defaults.

Transparency: When an area of an image is “erased to transparency,” there is a checkered background showing. There is nothing on that part of the image.

Trim: The Image>Trim command automatically trims an image (which is like cropping) based on attributes you specify in the Trim dialog box. This trimming can be based on transparent pixels in the image, the top-left pixel color, or the bottom-right pixel color. With that choice made, the trimming can be done from the top, bottom, left, or right sides of the image or a combination of these.

Tsume: Reduces the space around a character. The character is not squeezed or stretched as a result of this action, only resized.

TWAIN: A proper name that is often followed by the words compliant driver or compliant application. TWAIN-compliant hardware, such as scanners, allows you to use your scanner and scan an image from various applications that are also TWAIN compliant. (This is what makes the File>Import command work.) Other hardware can be TWAIN compliant too, such as digital cameras and virtual devices, explaining why some digital cameras, scanners, and similar hardware work from inside Photoshop and others don’t.

Type Mask tools: Allows you to create a selection in the form of typed letters. These selections can be moved, copied, or filled with color just like any other selection can. Type selections are best created on a normal image layer and not a type layer, since the type is created from the underlying image.

UCA: UCA adds cyan, magenta, and yellow where black is present in a photograph or neutral colors in an image. UCA gives density to an image and increases ink coverage. UCA is not generally desirable in offset printing or screen printing and should be set to 0 percent.

UCR: A choice in the Color Settings dialog box. Choosing UCR before printing reduces the amount of C, M, and Y ink in the darkest neutral areas of the image when the colors exceed the specified ink weight configured in the Color Settings dialog box. Thus, UCR is better suited for newsprint where ink is heavily restricted.

Undo: The Undo command is usually accompanied by the name of the last tool used, such as Undo Paint Bucket or Undo Trim. Undo simply moves back one step and reverses the last action taken. The Undo command is not available after a file has been saved.

Unsharp Mask: Available from Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Increasing the values in this dialog box makes the edges, pixels, and colors in the image sharper (they’ll stand out more) so that when you lose sharpness during the print process, the final product will look similar to the original.

Use All Layers: To apply a selected tool to all of the layers in the image, place a check in this box. For instance, when using the Magic Wand to select a specific color, you can choose to apply the selection to all of the layers in the image instead of the default of only the active layer.

Vector data: Type and shapes are vector data. Vector data is computed mathematically, and the object or type is defined by it geometric shape. Type, shapes, and vector masks are all considered vector data.

Vector masks: Created from paths, these masks can be used to mask (or hide) part of a layer, they can be edited by configuring styles or adding special effects, and they can be used to reveal specific areas of a layer. Vector masks are created with the Pen and Shape tools.

Vector type layers: These type layers are the optimal choice when possible because they are printed as vector data and are thus much cleaner, less pixelated, and a whole lot easier to screen print than rasterized type.

Warping: Allows you to configure the type so it isn’t simply added to the document in a straight horizontal or vertical line. When the type is added, the warp icon appears in the options bar. Warping can also be achieved using Layer>Type>Warp Text, and in some cases you won’t have the option to choose in what orientation you want the warp to occur (vertically or horizontally).

White Space – Part of an image with nothing on it or a part of a sheet not covered in ink.

WIA Support: WIA stands for Windows Image Acquisition. This allows your digital camera, scanner, Photoshop, and Windows XP or ME to work together to acquire images.

Wildcard: An asterisk used in a file search. For instance, a search for *.jpg would result in a list of files stored on the drive with the .jpg extension.

Wordspacing: Placing additional space between each word to fill out text in an image or design. Often used to justify the print.