Glossary of Terms

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Archivalness: The length of time a product will last without fading or altering.

B

C

Canvas: A thick, cloth-like medium used to make prints with our Epson printers.

CD Burning: Saving your digital file to a CD. Usually, after we scan an image, we burn it to CD and send it to you.

Chromes: Another word for transparency (slide) film.

Chromira: A digital enlarger that exposes Type C photographic paper with red, green and blue LEDs to produce a continuous tone print. The Chromira is a newer machine than the Lightjet.

CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. This is a colorspace used most frequently by the prepress industry (magazines, books, anything offset reproduction). It doesn't work well for making fine prints.

Colorspace: This is basically the palette of colors you choose to work with. Examples of colorspaces include AdobeRGB, sRGB, Ekta Space PS5, CMYK, etc. Each colorspace has its own set of available colors.

ColorSync: ColorSync is the industry-standard tool for managing color across input, display, and output devices. Built into the Mac OS, this system-level software works with scanners, digital cameras, monitors, printers, copiers, proofers, and presses. ColorSync is also supported in all leading image-editing and page-layout applications. Apple pioneered this technology in the late 1980s.

D

DPI: Dots per inch. Interchangeable with PPI.

Digital Capture: Using a digital camera to photograph fine artwork, such as watercolor paintings and canvas. A digital camera provides an instant digital file, which we can use to make a print.

Drum Scanner: A machine that captures information from your film. Your film is mounted on a cylinder drum, which spins at a very high RPM. As the drum spins, a microscope lens and photo multiplier tubes capture the detail and nuances of your film. Drum scans are considered to be the "best" quality scans in the industry.

E

Ekta Space PS 5: A very wide gamut RGB colorspace. This is what we use for all of our scans (unless you request another colorspace).

F

Film Format: The size film you use, such as 35mm, 6x7, 4x5, etc.

Fuji Crystal Archive Paper: The type of photographic paper we use to make Chromira prints. It is a Type C paper with a display life of 60 years, as rated by Henry Wilhelm.

Full bleed print: When the image covers the entire piece of paper with no borders--if you order a 16x20 print, the image takes up the entire 16x20 piece of paper. Sometimes, making a full bleed print requires cropping the image.

Full frame print: A print that contains the contents of your entire piece of film. Usually, the only thing that is cropped off a full-frame print are the black film edges (though we can leave these on, if you prefer). If you order a full frame print of a 35mm photograph on 16x20 paper, the actual image size will be closer to 14x20, simply because of the 2:3 aspect ratio of 35mm film. Unless you request otherwise, all prints we make are full frame.

G

GB: Abbreviation for gigabyte.

Gamut: Another word for "palette", such as an artists' palette of paint.

Giclée Print : A fancy name for an inkjet print on watercolor paper, fine art paper, or canvas.

Gigabyte: A unit of measure for digital files. A gigabyte equals 1000 megabytes.

H

I

Imaging: This is what we call the work we perform on your image, such as dodging and burning; color correction; cloning, etc. All of this work is done in Photoshop.

Inkjet printer: A device that makes a print from a digital file by laying ink onto paper or canvas. Epson printers, Lexmark printers, and Roland printers are examples of inkjet printers.

J

K

L

Lightjet: A digital enlarger that uses red, green and blue lasers to expose Type C photographic paper. The paper is then processed in RA-4 chemistry. It produces a continuous-tone print. This is the printer that started the digital revolution. Prints are made on the same paper as our Chromira prints.

M

MB: Abbreviation for Megabyte

Master File or Master Image File: The file we use for making your prints. This file includes all adjustments and interpretive decisions.

Megabytes: This is a way of measuring the size of a digital file. A Megabyte is 1000 bytes. Our scans are usually 100MB, 200MB or 300MB.

Monitor Calibration: Accurately bringing the monitor into a known and repeatable state. See Monitor Characterization

Monitor Characterization: What happens after calibration. It actually creates the profile for the monitor, once it has been brought into the known, or calibrated, state. What people call "monitor calibration" includes both Monitor Characterization and Monitor Calibration.

N

O

P

PPI: Pixels per inch. Interchangeable with DPI.

Photoshop: The software we use to work on your images (dodging and burning, color correction, etc.) and to prepare files for printing. The full name is Adobe Photoshop.

Piezography® : A modified Epson printer that uses special inks and software to make B&W prints.

Pixel: A digital image is made of millions of pixels. A pixel is like a brick in a wall that is one specific color. A lot of bricks in a variety of different colors makes an image.

Preflighted Print: A print that is made from a file YOU fully prepared for printing. When you do all of your own imaging work, you qualify for our special preflighted pricing.

Printer Profile: A profile that describes the actual colors a printer is capable of printing. It is used to make sure a file prints accurately.

Profiles: ICC or ICM 3D lookup tables that describe the color of a output device (such as a printer), input device (such as a scanner), display device (such as a monitor) or workingspace.

Proofs: A small (8x10) print, which you can use to see what your print will look like BEFORE we make the final print.

Q

R

Raw Scan: The scan directly from our Tango, with no adjustments whatsoever.

S

Scan: Capturing your photograph digitally. You must scan (digitize) your film in order to work on your image in your computer.

Slides: A photograph made on transparency film.

sRGB: A very narrow gamut RGB Colorspace. We recommend scanning into EktaSpace PS 5 instead.

Substrate: The paper or canvas we use for printing. Examples of substrate would be Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, Concorde Rag and Bulldog Canvas.

T

Tagged File: A file that has a "tag" that tells ColorSync or ICM aware application what workingspace the file is in, and therefore how to display it properly.

Tango: A fun dance - also the name of our scanner--a Heidelberg Tango Drum Scanner.

Terabyte: A unit of measure for digital files. A terabyte equals 1000 gigabytes.

Trannies: Another word for transparency (slide) film.

Transparencies: A photograph made on transparency film. When you look at the image, you see the true color--unlike negative film, where the colors are reversed.

U

Ultrachrome Inks: These wide-gamut inks are rated to last 60+ years without fading (Depending on substrate). They are used with our Epson 9600.

V

W

Workingspace: A type of colorspace that contains the colors in an original piece of film, and describes an idealized colorspace. Ektaspace PS5, Adobe 1998, and sRGB are all types of workingspace.

X

Y

Z

Help us grow our glossary!
We talk about digital imaging every day, so it can be hard to know what words are confusing to people browsing our site. Do you need a definition for a term or service that is not listed here? Please send us an email, and help us grow our glossary.