Web Design Vocabulary

Web Design Vocabulary

You want to know a little bit more about Web Design?

Here 's your chance to learn some key terms.

Come take a walk down Vocabulary Lane.

By Zoe Lewis

Lesson 1: Internet Fundamentals

• Backbone: large transmission lines that travel long distances
• Checksum : a number that allows the receiving end of the packet to determine if any errors occurred in the transmission of the data
• Computer Network: When two or more computers are connected together in a way that allows them to communicate with each other.
• Domain Name System: was devised to group the many computers on the Internet into domains
• : a collection of information about the IP packetHeader
• Internet : a collection of computer networks that communicate with each other using a common set of rules
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): a nonprofit corporation that coordinates the assignment of Internet addresses and domain names
• Internet Protocol (IP): defines how data is routed over the Internet
• Internet Society (ISOC): a nonprofit group that is the central organization for the groups that are responsible for the standards for Internet infrastructure
• : an address recognized by the IPIP address
• IP packet: a typical packet created by TCP and is less than 1500 characters in length
• Local area network (LAN): a network where the packet starts out on
• Name Server: computers that look up the IP address of the domain name and transparently direct the email or Web browser to the appropriate IP address
• Network: When two or more computers are connected together in a way that allows them to communicate with each other.
• : small piece of dataPacket
• Packet-switched network: a type of network where data is sent through the network in small pieces
• Protocol: a common set of rules
• Router: a device that examines the packets and decides the path that each packet should travel
• Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): defines how data is broken down into packets at the sending end and reassembled at the receiving end
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): develops technical specifications for the Web

Lesson 2: Web Serving and Browsing

• Client-server operation: the work is divided between the user’s computer and the server         
• Client-side operation: the user’s computer does the work
• Cluster: a powerful computer or a group of computers performing tasks necessary to serve the Web site
• HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): the most common kind of file the browser loads
• Plug-in: a software that is written in a special way that allows it to become a part of a Web browser, as if the functionality were built in to the browser
• Server-side operation: the server does the work
• Streaming: a concept where a computer user can hear the audio as it is downloaded into the computer
• Telecommuting: a way that lets people work from home using the Internet
• Web browser: the primary tool that a computer user needs to access the resources of the World Wide Web. It loads files and interprets their contents.
• Web server: a computer that serves web pages

Lesson 3: Dreamweaver Basics

• Docked- a pane is anchored to a specific location on the edge of the FrontPage window
• Editing window- primary workspace for creating and editing
• Floating- a pane is not anchored to a specific location in a window
• - a set of characters that have a  defined styleFont face
• Formatting toolbar-  the toolbar that allows the user to adjust any text on a Web page
• Heading- a title at the head of a page or section of a book.
• Horizontal space- the space to the left of the image
• Menu- shows all actions you can perform at the top of the window
• Sans-serif font- a font that has no caps on its ends and has an appearance of being plain
• Serif font- a font that has caps on its ends and has an appearance of being fancy
• Standard toolbar- the toolbar that provieds accessto the most common actions performed by users including Copy, Paste, and Save
• Vertical space- the space to the top and bottom of an image
• Views bar- the toolbar displayed in the left side of the FontPage window where icons can be chosen to obtain information contained in the main area of the window
• Visual interface- a set of menus and tools used to build a Web page in place of writing code
• Web-safe colors- colors that are consistent on all computer monitors--across all browsers

Lesson 11: Basic Design Principles

• Active white space- blank areas on a Web page that are placed on purpose
• Alignment- the content of the page has the same alignment
• Consistency- to have uniformity from page to page
• Grid- a conceptual design tool that divides a page into rows and columns in order to help the Webmaster structure the layout of a page
• Passive white space- the blank areas on a Web page that are a result of incomplete or mismatched shapes
• Proximity- how close one element is to another
• Repetition- the process of repeating elements throughout a website

• Print-based layout method: method that considers that people are accustomed to viewing content in printed material in a certain way
• Screen-based layout method: a method that considers that, on a screen, people scan content in a sweeping motion

Lesson 13: Color and Typography

• Anaglogous colors- three colors on the color wheel that are side by side
• Bit- the smallest unit of information thats a computer understands
• Color wheel- an ordered progression of hues (or colors) that helps a designer easily understand and select color combinations
• Complementary colors- colors that are opposite from each other on the color wheel
• Cool colors- colors that contain blue
• Shade-adding black to a hue and darkening it
• Split-complementary colors- colors that form a tridad on the color wheel
• Teritary hues- Red-yellow (orange), green-yellow, green-cyan, blue-cyan, blue-magenta (violet), and red-magenta
• Tint- adding white to a hue and lightening it
• Tridad colors- three colors on the color wheel that have an equal amount of distance between each other
• Typography- the act or art of expressing by utilizing types or symbols
• Value- the definition portion of a value
• Warm colors- colors that contain red
• Web safe colors-  colors that are consistant on all computers

• Clip art – a ready-made art that is available to use without having to edit it in any graphics applications.
• Compression – to make smaller
• File format – the arrangement in which data is saved in order to display it in a certain way
• GIF – a file format that can be viewed equally well on every kind of computer
• Icon – a small symbolic graphic
• Index color – a maximum of 256 colors
• JPEG – files that are used for photo-like images that require a greater level of detail
• Raster – an image that is made up of pixels
• Vector – an image based on mathematical formula