Aliasing
Unwanted visual effect that causes the image to adopt a "staircase" shape. Usually occurs when RIPping vector data at too low resolutions, which means that is caused by low pixelization. It can lead to unprofessional printing results, however, it can be easily solved through anti-aliasing.
| Normal picture | Picture with aliasing |
› You can see how the edges on the right image look uneven and irregular. This gives images a "staircase" shape that makes them look unprofessional.
› The image on the left gives us a post-anti-aliasing result. See the full definition below.
Anti-aliasing
A technique employed to eliminate the "staircase" visual effect on an image (aliasing). It consists of smoothing the lines and contours of the image to improve its finition. This can be applied by adding more pixels to the images, which will make the edges, lines, and backgrounds look smoother. We can use different techniques like implementing a high-resolution display. This will reduce the size of the staircase effect to make it less visible to the human eye. It is also possible to avoid aliasing effects by using blur filters in editing programs. Read more on anti-aliasing techniques
You can also see anti-aliasing results in the images below:
| Aliasing | Anti-aliasing |
Reaconverter.com
Alpha Channel
All images have three data sources: Red, Green, and Blue. This is known as RGB. The Alpha channel is the fourth data source (A) responsible for transparency in an image. This gives us the abbreviation: RGBA. Associated with a graphic point, it serves to control the transparency degree of a pixel. This feature can be used to code any other information, but it is usually used to increase or decrease transparency. It is controlled by values from 0 to 255. If the alpha channel has a value of black (0), it becomes transparent. If it has a value of white (255), it becomes opaque, and the image located under the white remains visible. More Info.
Info
The process of adding the transparency layer is called Alpha Blending or Alpha Compositing.
Artifact
An unwanted visual effect that appears in digital files or on prints.
Aliasing and bleeding are types of artifacts that can occur, for example, when you resize an image bigger than the original input resolution. Artifacts can be visually or technically detected. To avoid artifacts, the operator must know the triggers, forms, and types of these artifacts. For instance, if there is aliasing, both its cause and solution reside in the size of pixels. See more.
Printingcenterusa.com
Aqueous Ink
A type of ink that uses water as its main vehicle. This kind of ink uses evaporation to dry which can be accelerated by heaters. In addition to its eco-friendly printing option, it helps in printing high-resolution photographs and images. This type of ink can be used for normal as well as large-format printing. This ink is highly recommended for companies who want to use safer printing options because aqueous ink does not contain any chemicals or solvents. See more.
Largeformat.hp.com
Banding
It is an unwanted visual effect in the print output caused by wrong printer parameters, temperature, missing print-head nozzles, bad media quality, etc. It can be detected by looking at steps or breaks in the print. When banding happens, you will see horizontal or vertical lines on your images. See more.
› You can see banding with horizontal lines below:
Blog.breathingcolor.com
Bandwidth
A quantity of data that is delivered via a specific network per unit of time. This can be through a network or between hardware components. The bandwidth is the number of bits sent from point A to point B in one second. It is measured in bits per second (for example, current ethernet networks go from 10Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s). Bandwidth does not refer to the speed applied in data transfer but rather to the amount of information being transferred every second. See more.
Bit
Bit or “binary digit” is the tiniest value a computer can decode. Used mostly in computer science, the binary element (equal to 0 or 1) allows us to represent, digitally, coded data. These binary digits are the primary building structures of all digital data: image, audio, video, etc. Due to its very small values, it is not possible to treat information one bit at a time. Bits are assembled to form a group of bits that we call Bytes. You can see more details about bits and bytes here.
Black Point
It is considered the darkest point of an image or ICC profile and from which the tones of all other zones are spread out. The ICC profile black point is the darkest point that can be reproduced, and there are no darker colors after that point.
Info
The procedure that allows us to adapt the black intensity in digital data to the black capacities of devices is called black point compensation.
picturecorrect.com
Byte
As mentioned before, Byte is a numerical value in data processing that consists of a series of 8 bits. It produces, in binary language, 256 different values. Grouping bits is a necessary step to process and decode larger information. In computers, all the characters are coded on a byte. This lets us know the exact amount of data a computer can process. The coding on 8 bits of color gives 256 shades of different colors. See more.
colocationamerica.com