Glossary Page 1

A

Accelerator Table

A file that contains a list of shortcut keys. Different tables are active depending on the task that you are performing.

Add-in

A separate module that extends the functionality of an application.

Anchor Point

The point that remains stationary when you stretch, scale, mirror, or skew an object. Anchor points correspond to the eight handles that display when an object is selected, as well as the center of a selection box marked by an X.

Animation File

A file that supports moving images; for example, animated GIF and QuickTime (MOV).

Anti-Aliasing

A method of smoothing curved and diagonal edges in images. Intermediate pixels along edges are filled to smooth the transition between the edges and the surrounding area.

Arrow Keys

Direction keys that move or "nudge" selected objects in small increments. You can also use arrow keys to position the cursor when you type or edit text onscreen or in a dialog box.

Artistic Text

A type of text created with the Text tool. Use artistic text to add short lines of text, such as titles, or to apply graphic effects, such as fitting text to a path, creating extrusions and blends, and creating all other special effects. An artistic text object can contain up to 32,000 characters.

Aspect Ratio

The ratio of the width of an image to its height (expressed mathematically as x:y). For example, the aspect ratio of an image that is 640 x 480 pixels is 4:3.

B

Base Color

The color of the object that appears under a transparency. The base color and the color of the transparency combine in various ways depending on the merge mode you apply to the transparency.

Bézier line

A straight or curved line made up of segments connected by nodes. Each node has control points that allow the shape of the line to be modified.

Bit depth

The number of binary bits that define the shade or color of each pixel in a bitmap. For example, a pixel in a black-and-white image has a depth of 1 bit, because it can only be black or white. The number of color values that a given bit depth can produce is equal to 2 to the power of the bit depth.

Bitmap

An image composed of grids of pixels or dots. See also vector graphic.

Black-and-white color mode

A 1-bit color mode that stores images as two solid colors - black and white - with no gradations. This color mode is useful for line art and simple graphics.

Bleed

The part of the printed image that extends beyond the edge of the page. The bleed ensures that the final image goes right to the edge of the paper after binding and trimming.

Blend

An effect created by transforming one object into another through a progression of shapes and colors.

Bookmark

An indicator for marking an address on the Internet.

Bounding box

The invisible box indicated by the eight selection handles surrounding a selected object.

Brightness

The amount of light that is transmitted or reflected from a given pixel. In the HSB color mode, brightness is a measure of how much white a color contains. For example, a brightness value of 0 produces black, and a brightness value of 255 produces white.

C

Calligraphic angle

The angle that controls the orientation of a pen to the drawing surface, like the slant of the nib on a calligraphy pen. A line drawn at the calligraphic angle has little or no thickness, but widens as its angle gets farther from the calligraphic angle.

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

An extension to HTML that allows styles such as color, font, and size to be specified for parts of a hypertext document. Style information can be shared by multiple HTML files. See also HTML.

center of rotation

The point around which an object rotates.

CGI script

An external application that is executed by an HTTP server in response to an action you perform in a Web browser, such as clicking a link, image, or another interactive element of a Web page.

Character

A letter, number, punctuation mark, or other symbol.

Child color

A color style created as a shade of another color style. For most of the available color models and palettes, child colors share the same hue as the parent, but have different saturation and brightness levels. See also parent color.

Choke

In commercial printing, a form of trapping created by extending the background object into the foreground object.

clipart

Ready-made images that can be imported into Corel applications and edited if required.

Clipboard

An area that is used to temporarily store cut or copied information. The information is stored until new information is cut or copied to the Clipboard, replacing the old.

Clone

A copy of an object or an area of an image that is linked to a master object or image area. Most changes made to the master are automatically applied to its clones. See also symbol.

Closed object

An object defined by a path whose start point and end point are connected.

Closed path

A path whose start point and end point are connected.

CMY

A color mode made up of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y). This mode is used in the three-color printing process.

CMYK

A color mode made up of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K). CMYK printing produces true blacks and a wide tonal range. In the CMYK color mode, color values are expressed as percentages; therefore, a value of 100 for an ink means that the ink is applied at full saturation.

Code page

A code page is a table in the DOS or Windows operating system that defines which ASCII or ANSI character set is used for displaying text. Different character sets are used for different languages.

Color channel

An 8-bit grayscale version of an image. Each channel represents one level of color in the image; for example, RGB has three color channels, while CMYK has four. When all the channels are printed together, they produce the entire range of colors in the image. See also RGB and CMYK.

Color gamut

The range of colors that can be reproduced or perceived by any device. For example, a monitor displays a different color gamut than a printer, making it necessary to manage colors from original images to final output.

Color mode

A system that defines the number and kind of colors that make up an image. Black-and-white, grayscale, RGB, CMYK, and paletted are examples of color modes.

Color model

A simple color chart that defines the range of colors displayed in a color mode. RGB (red, green, blue), CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow), CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), HSB (hue, saturation, brightness), HLS (hue, lightness, saturation), and CIE L*a*b (Lab) are examples of color models.

Color palette

A collection of solid colors from which you can choose colors for fills and outlines.

color profile

A description of the color-handling capabilities and characteristics of a device.

Color separation

In commercial printing, the process of splitting colors in a composite image to produce a number of separate grayscale images, one for each primary color in the original image. In the case of a CMYK image, four separations (one for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) must be made.

Color space

In electronic color management, a virtual representation of a device or the color gamut of a color model. The boundaries and contours of a device's color space are mapped by color management software. See also color gamut.

Color swatch

A solid-colored patch in a color palette.

Color value

A set of numbers that define a color in a color mode. For example, in the RGB color mode, color values of 255 for red (R) and zero for both green (G) and blue (B) result in the color red.

Combined Object

An object created by combining two or more objects and converting them into a single curve object. A combined object takes on the fill and outline attributes of the last selected object. Sections where an even number of objects overlapped have no fill. Sections where an odd number of objects overlapped are filled. The outlines of the original objects remain visible.

Compound blend

A blend created by blending the start or end object of one blend with another object.

Concave

Hollowed or rounded inward like the inside of a bowl.

Content

The object or objects that appear inside a container object when you apply PowerClip effects.

Contour

An effect created by adding evenly spaced concentric shapes inside or outside the borders of an object.

Contrast

The difference in tone between the dark and light areas of an image. Higher contrast values indicate greater differences and fewer gradations between dark and light.

Control object

The original object used to create effects such as envelopes, extrusions, drop shadows, contours, and objects created with the Artistic media tool. Changes made to the control object control the appearance of the effect.

Control points

The points that extend from a node along a curve that is being edited with the Shape tool. Control points determine the angle at which the curve passes through the node.

Convex

Curved or rounded outwards like the exterior of a sphere or circle.

Crop

To cut unwanted areas of an image without affecting the resolution of the part that remains.

Curve object

An object that has nodes and control points, which you can manipulate to change the object's shape. A curve object can be any shape, including a straight or curved line.

D

Desktop

The area in a drawing where you can experiment and create objects for future use. This area is outside the borders of the drawing page. You can drag objects from the desktop area to the drawing page when you decide to use them.

Diacritical mark

An accent mark above, below, or through a written character; for example, the acute (é) and cedilla (ç) accents.

Dimension line

A line that displays the size of objects or the distance or angle between objects.

Dithering

A process used to simulate a greater number of colors when only a limited number of colors is available.

Document navigator

The area at the bottom-left of the application window that contains controls for moving between pages and adding pages. The document navigator also displays the page number of the active page and the total number of pages in a drawing.

DPI (dots per inch)

A measure of a printer's resolution in dots per inch. Typical desktop laser printers print at 600 dpi. Image setters print at 1270 or 2540 dpi. Printers with higher dpi capabilities produce smoother and cleaner output. The term dpi is also used to measure scanning resolution and to indicate bitmap resolution.

Drawing

A document you create in CorelDRAW.

Drawing page

The portion of a drawing window enclosed by a rectangle with a shadow effect.

Drawing window

The portion of the application window on which you can create, add, and edit objects.

Drop shadow

A three-dimensional shadow effect that gives objects a realistic appearance.

Duotone

An 8-bit color mode that displays images using 256 shades of up to four tones. An image in the duotone color mode is simply a grayscale image that has been enhanced with one to four additional colors.

Dynamic guides

Temporary guidelines that appear from the following snap points in objects — center, node, quadrant, and text baseline.

E

Embedding

The process of placing an object created in one application into a document created in a different application. Embedded objects are included entirely in the current document; they are not linked to their source files.

Encoding

Determines the character set of text, letting you correctly display text in the appropriate language.

Envelope

A closed shape that can be placed around an object to change the object's shape. An envelope consists of segments connected by nodes. Once an envelope has been placed around an object, the nodes can be moved to change the shape of the object.

Extrusion

A feature that lets you apply a three-dimensional perspective by projecting lines from an object to create the illusion of depth.

F

Feathering

The level of sharpness along a drop shadow's edges.

Fill

A color, bitmap, fountain, or pattern applied to an area of an image.

Filter

An application that translates digital information from one form to another.

Floating object

A bitmap with no background. Floating objects are also referred to as photo objects or cutout images.

Font

A set of characters with a single style (such as italic), weight (such as bold), and size (such as 10 point) for a typeface such as Times New Roman.

Fountain fill

A smooth progression of two or more colors applied to an area of an image that follow a linear, radial, conical, or square path. Two-color fountain fills have a direct progression from one color to another, while custom fills may have a progression of many colors.

Fountain steps

The shades of color that make up the appearance of a fountain fill. The more steps in a fill, the smoother the transition from the beginning color to the end color.

Freehand marquee select

To marquee select objects or nodes by holding down the Option key while dragging the Shape tool and controlling the shape of the marquee box enclosure as if you were drawing a freehand line. See also marquee select.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

A method of moving files between two computers. Many Internet sites have established repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP.

G

GIF

A graphic file format designed to use a minimum of disk space and be easily exchanged between computers. This format is commonly used to publish images of 256 or fewer colors to the Internet.

Glyph

Diamond-shaped handles that can be dragged to alter the form of a shape.

Grab area

The area of a command bar that can be dragged. Dragging the grab area moves the bar, while dragging any other area of the bar has no effect. The location of the grab area depends on the operating system you are using, the orientation of the bar, and whether the bar is docked or undocked. Command bars with grab areas include toolbars, the toolbox, and the property bar.

Grayscale

A color mode that displays images using 256 shades of gray. Each color is defined as a value between 0 and 255, where 0 is darkest (black) and 255 is lightest (white).

Greeking

A method of representing text using either words that have no meaning or a series of straight lines.

Grid

A series of evenly spaced horizontal and vertical dots that are used to help draw and arrange objects.

Group

A set of objects that behaves as one unit. Operations you perform on a group apply equally to each of its objects.

Guideline

A horizontal, vertical, or slanted line that can be placed anywhere in the drawing window to aid in object placement.

Gutter

The space between columns of text, also called the alley. In printing, the white space formed by the inside margins of two facing pages.

H

Halftone

An image that has been converted from a continuous tone image to a series of dots of various sizes to represent different tones.

Handles

A set of eight black squares that appear at the corners and sides of an object when the object is selected. By dragging individual handles, you can scale, resize or mirror the object. If you click a selected object, the shape of the handles changes to arrows so that you can rotate and skew the object.

Hotspot

The area of an object that you can click to jump to the address specified by a URL.

Hotspotting

The process of adding data to objects or groups of objects, so that they respond to events, such as pointing or clicking. For example, you can assign a URL to an object, making it a hyperlink to an external Web site.

Hot zone

The distance from the right margin at which hyphenation begins.

HSB (hue, saturation, brightness)

A color model that defines three components: hue, saturation, and brightness. Hue determines color (yellow, orange, red, and so on); brightness determines perceived intensity (lighter or darker color); and saturation determines color depth (from dull to intense).

HTML

The World Wide Web authoring standard comprised of markup tags that define the structure and components of a document. The tags are used to tag text and integrate resources (such as images, sound, video, and animation) when you create a Web page.

Hue

The property of a color that allows it to be classified by its name. For example, blue, green, and red are all hues.

Hyperlink

An electronic link that provides access directly from one place in a document to another place in that document or to another document.

I

Icon

A pictorial representation of a tool, object, file, or other application item.

Image map

A graphic in an HTML document that contains clickable areas that link to locations on the World Wide Web, to other HTML documents, or to graphics.

Image resolution

The number of pixels per inch in a bitmap measured in ppi (pixels per inch) or dpi (dots per inch). Low resolutions can result in a grainy appearance to the bitmap; high resolutions can produce smoother images but result in larger file sizes.

Imagesetter

A high-resolution device that creates film or film-based paper output used in the production of plates for printing presses.

Insert

To import and place a photo image, clipart object, or sound file into a drawing.

Intensity

Intensity is a measure of the brightness of the light pixels in a bitmap compared with the darker mid-tones and dark pixels. An increase in intensity increases the vividness of whites while maintaining true darks.

Interlacing

In GIF images, a method that lets you display a Web-based image on the screen at a low, blocky resolution. As the image data loads, the image quality improves.

Intersection

The point at which one line crosses another.

J

JavaScript

A scripting language used on the World Wide Web to add interactive functions to HTML pages.

JPEG

A format for photographic images that offers compression with some loss of image quality. Because of their compression (up to 20 to 1) and small file size, JPEG images are widely used in Internet publishing.

JPEG 2000

An improved version of the JPEG file format that features better compression and allows you to attach image information and assign a different compression rate to an image area.

Justify

To modify the spacing between characters and words so that the edges on the left, right, or both margins of a block of text are even.

K

Kerning

The space between characters, and the adjustment of that space. Often, kerning is used to place two characters closer together than usual, for example WA, AW, TA, or VA. Kerning increases readability and makes letters appear balanced and proportional, especially at larger font sizes.

L

Lab

A color model that contains a luminance (or lightness) component (L) and two chromatic components: "a" (green to red) and "b" (blue to yellow).

Leader tabs

A row of characters placed between text objects to help the reader follow a line across white space. Leader tabs are often used in place of tab stops, especially before text that is flush right such as in a list or table of contents.

Leading

The spacing between lines of text. Leading is important for both readability and appearance.

Linking

The process of placing an object created in one application into a document created in a different application. A linked object remains connected with its source file. If you want to change a linked object in a file, you have to modify the source file.

Library

A collection of symbol definitions that are included in a CorelDRAW (CDR) file. To share a library between drawings, you can export it to the Corel Symbol Library (CSL) file format.

Ligature

A character consisting of two or more letters joined together.

Lightness

The level of brightness that is shared between a transparency and the object to which it is applied. For example, if a transparency is applied to an object whose color appears bright, the transparency color will take on a comparable brightness. The same holds true for a transparency that is applied to an object whose color appears dark—the transparency will take on a comparable darkness.

Lossless

A kind of file compression that maintains the quality of an image that has been compressed and decompressed.

Lossy

A kind of file compression that results in noticeable degradation of image quality.

LZW

A lossless file compression technique that results in smaller file size and faster processing time. LZW compression is commonly used on GIF and TIFF files.

SOURCE: CORELDRAW HELP FILES