 COMPUTER & INDUSTRY LANGUAGE For Commercial Art

MACINTOSH  Computers known as “Mac” for short  A family of personal computers  Manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc.  Since 1984

Apple History

 What Ms. Messer used in 1989

Apple History  Funny Apple Ad… mid 1980s

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT  Or “CPU” for short  A computer’s primary control circuitry

HARDWARE  Equipment and electronic components that make up your computer system

SOFTWARE  Computer applications / programs  Written coded commands that tell a computer what tasks to perform  Do not install any additional software on any of the Commercial Art computers!

SOFTWARE

BIT  A binary digit  This is the single digit of a binary number  The smallest unit of information a computer can hold  0 or 1

RAM  Random Access Memory  Found in computers and other devices, like printers  The main memory available for programs  Don’t confuse with ROM (Read-Only Memory)  Special memory that stores programs that boot the computer and performs computer diagnostics.

MONITOR  The hardware that displays information, text, and visuals on a screen in full color  The iMac computers we use in class include both the monitor and the CPU within one unit

RGB  Red, Green, Blue  The primary colors of a screen / monitor

PIXEL  Short of “Picture Element”  The smallest unit of a picture element / digital image displayed on a screen / monitor

PIXEL

DPI  Dots per inch  Refers to the measure of output resolution produced by the printer  The higher the DPI, the higher the image quality

PPI  Pixels per inch  Refers to the measure of resolution produced on a computer monitor

IMPORT  To bring a support file into another program  You will be “importing” a Microsoft Word file into a Quark document and/or an InDesign document

EXPORT  To output a document from one application and be able to place it or open it in another program  You will be “exporting” PDF files from Quark and/or InDesign so that they can be read by anyone, anywhere, on any computer type

KEYBOARD  The main input device which connects to the computer, similar in appearance to a typewriter

MOUSE  A hand-size input device, used in addition to the keyboard, designed to move a cursor quickly around the screen

ICON  An on-screen symbol representing a file or other computer function

MENU  A list of choices by a program to select a desired function

FONT  All of the characters and numbers available to a specific family variation of a typeface  Computer fonts have 2 components:  Screen Fonts – Display the text on the monitor  Printer fonts – Communicate to the printer how to correctly print the text  An improperly constructed font may not print or display correctly

FONT

CDs & DVDs  Storage devices used to save digital data  Used to store completed projects / backups to avoid storage of large files on the hard drive

FLASH DRIVES  A small self-powered device that connects to a computer directly through a USB port  Transers file to and from multiple computers  Both Mac and PC compatible  Also called  key drives  thumb drives  jump drives  USB drives  pen drives

FLOPPY DISK  A thin, flexible plastic disk coated with magnetic material  Stored data - smaller files such as text documents  Held 1.44 MB of data  NOT USED ANYMORE!

ZIP DISK  A portable device used for storing information  Similar in size to a floppy disk  Held between 100 and 250 MB of data  NOT USED ANYMORE!

SCANNER  A device that converts visual information into digital data  Used in conjunction with software that allows you to scan a visual or document onto your computer

PRINTER  The process of applying ink / toner to paper  A piece of hardware that allows you to produce a hard copy of what appears on the computer screen

LOG OFF (OUT) / SHUT DOWN  Log Off: To terminate a work session on a computer  Shut Down: To turn off the computer