Glossary

The "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software is the software you use to choose, design, and order photo products.

A TV format introduced in the 1990s, also known as widescreen. Modern digital cameras which can display images directly on a TV often support this aspect for photography.

The traditional print aspect ratio. A small photo negative, for example, is 24 mm x 36 mm, i.e. 2:3.

A 3D photo contains separate image information for both the right and left eye, so actually different images. Using special glasses and / or reproducing methods, these images are then seen as three-dimensional. This results in a spatial depth. Some digital cameras and smartphones are able to take stereo/3D photos in *.mpo and *.jps file formats. Using special imaging technology, two different perspectives are shot (but the same image detail) and will be included and joined using suitable software to create a 3D photo. For viewing pictures in a photo product, a 3D photo is converted to a so-called anaglyph, where the two images, red and cyan coloured are one above the other. With the aid of red-cyan glasses these photos are perceived as three dimensional in the printed or exposed photo product.

A paragraph of text refers to the area between two manual line breaks (with the Enter key).

A paragraph format is a text format that refers to the entire paragraph. This includes in particular the text alignment (left, right, centre).

The term comes from analogue photo development and means the result of a contact print, enlargement or printing of a negative onto photo paper.

Advanced Photo System. A special camera technology and a special film that give photographers the ability to use three different aspects.
APS-H (High) = 16:9
APS-C (Classic) = 2:3
APS-P (Panorama) = 1:3

An assistant is a program that gives the user help with certain tasks.

A digital photo is composed of individual dots called pixels. The number of these pixels is known as the absolute resolution. For example, 4000 x 3000 pixels or 12 mega pixels (million pixels) both refer to the same resolution. The higher the resolution, the finer the details that are shown at greater magnifications, but the larger the image file on the disk. The quality display indicates whether the resolution of a photo at the size used in the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software is sufficient for printing. This refers to the relative resolution, i.e. the density of the pixels in the output. See "dpi".

In contrast to digital printing, digitally exposed photos or pages are printed onto true photo paper. The digital photo is transferred onto the photo paper using coloured lasers; this is then chemically developed in the photo lab.These prints are as fade-proof and moisture-proof as real photos.

A command for the operating system clipboard. Cut means that a file or object is removed from its current position and stored in the clipboard.

Also known as a drop-down list. Here's an example:

A frame drawn by dragging the mouse to select objects. Also known as rubber band.

You can drag this from bottom right to top left (see mouse pointer).

All objects that are at least partly in the selection frame are selected.

Automatic Image Optimisation is a software in the digital photo lab that attempts to automatically correct exposure, white balance and focus errors in digital photos.

A barcode is a piece of printed information comprising lines and gaps which is machine-read using cameras or special barcode scanners and then translated to plain text by cash registers or computers. The barcode typically resolves to a sequence of numbers linked to a specific product or article.

In photography, exposure is the amount of light that falls on a film or camera sensor. It is dependent on the exposure time and on the aperture of the camera, but also on the sensitivity of the film or the sensor. If a photo is underexposed, then it is too dark, and if it is overexposed, it is too bright. Within certain limits, you can readjust the brightness of digital photos using software (photo editor) and thereby correct exposure errors.

A user account is an access right to a computer system. The user must log on with his/her user identification (often the e-mail address) and a password and then has rights in the computer system. The user account often contains additional information about the user, such as name and address, so that it does not need to be re-entered for additional orders.

An edge is cropped around the photo. This edge may consist of parts of the photo itself.
In image processing, a photo is cropped in order to move an object to the centre of the photo or remove unwanted images on the screen, for example.

Example:

An operating system is the software that enables a computer to be in operable and usable state. It controls the hardware (hard drives, monitor, keyboard and mouse) and manages other software and data.

Examples: Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux, MacOS.

1. The size or the resolution of the image.(See Resolution)

2. The file format in which the image is stored, such as JPG.

A term used in the printing trade.If a narrow strip of white paper or the printed background can be seen between the cropped edge of a print or a printed image, it is known as a white space. It is not visually appealing, so images and backgrounds which run to the edge of the printed page are aligned to go slightly over so that they can be cropped tidily.

Refers to a CD or DVD burner on your computer. These are drives that can write to optical media (CD, DVD, Blue-Ray) with a laser.

Browser Refers to a user interface for web applications. Examples: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera.

Button - in the IT world, a button is a part of the screen that can be clicked on with a mouse.

A cache is a fast memory area which temporarily stores a copy of some data for ongoing, or repeated use to avoid the need to load the data again from the original source. A cache is typically an area of computer memory reserved for a certain program; some hardware components (e.g. hard disks) have their own internal cache memory. A Web browser stores copies of websites, images and other media in its hard disk cache to accelerate the display when reused. (A hard disk is definitely faster than any Internet connection.)

A reproducible copy of a CD on another medium, such as a hard disk.

Compact Disc Recordable. Refers to a write-once CD.

Compact Disc Rewritable. Refers to a rewritable CD.

Clipart is an image file in vector format, i.e. it is not composed of individual pixels like a photo, but of mathematical descriptions of curves, lines and geometric shapes. Clipart has developed into a separate art form. Clipart collections are available on CD or DVD for use in designing greetings cards and invitations.

This was originally an art form in which cuttings from images and newspaper articles, or other objects, were glued on a background to form a work of art.

Example of a collage:

A community is a group with common interests, experience and knowledge, today typically on the Internet (online community).

A cursor is a mark for the current editing position on a screen. For text input, depending on the program or operating system, it is a flashing vertical bar, a blinking underline or a blinking rectangle. This text cursor indicates the position at which the next letter will appear. Depending on its use, a mouse cursor is an arrow, an arrow with a question mark, etc. The movements of the computer mouse on the table are translated into movements of the mouse cursor on the screen.

A design is an artistic creation or layout. In the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software, a design is a pre-defined layout template to which users often add their own content (photos, texts).

Pressing the left mouse button twice in quick succession. (For a left-handed mouse, the right mouse button in quick succession.)

Dots per inch. States the number of pixels per inch (= 2.54 cm) in the output. A resolution of 72 to 96 dpi is sufficient for on screen display; the resolution for  high-quality prints can be up to 360 dpi.

dpi is referred to as the relative resolution as it changes proportionally with the display size in contrast to the absolute resolution which specifies the total number of pixels in an image (e.g. 1024 x 768 px).

In IT/computer graphics, this is a handle that lets the user rotate an object around its midpoint. (See arrow)

In the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software, you can rotate an object (placeholder, image, text box) in the editor workspace either in 90° steps using the corresponding buttons or context menu commands, or by freely rotating the frame around its rotation point by holding down the mouse button and dragging it.

A copy of an existing image or file with (virtually) the same content.

In IT/computer graphics, this refers to the handle at the corner of an object frame. You can hold down the mouse button to drag the handles and thus scale the object proportionally. (See arrows)

In IT this generally refers to a program for entering/composing and editing data or objects. In the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software, you can use editors to create or customise a product, i.e. order a photo product (photobook, photo gift, or individual images).

In book binding, the cover is the outer covering of a book, (front and rear pages of a book) and the spine (the thin edge of the book that can be seen when a book is on a bookshelf).

A command for the operating system clipboard. Refers to inserting data or objects previously copied to the operating system's or a program's clipboard using the "Cut" or "Copy" commands.

Philosophically, an object is an element on which the action is directed. Any (virtual) object that is used when designing an item is an element in conjunction with the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software. So a photo, text, anything you can use or edit in a photo product, is an object. An object, in turn, may consist of lots of other objects, e.g. a page layout is an object that can consist of text boxes and frame layout, and text consists of words, which are made up of individual characters. Even products and the shopping cart are objects that are composed of other objects. Wherever you perceive something that you can edit or insert, as an entity, this something is an object.

The Delete key on the keyboard is used to delete selected objects or text situated to the right of a text cursor.

"Escape" key on the computer keyboard is for quitting the computer command that is currently running.

"Exchangeable Image File Format", a standard used to store additional information (data) in an image file. The Exif data often includes the camera settings (make, type, focus, exposure time, shutter speed, etc.) and keywords for finding and sorting the image files along with additional information such as the geo-data or the copyright.
In Windows Explorer, open the "Properties" item from an image's dropdown menu and take a look at the entries in the "Details" tab. Much of the listed information is taken from the EXIF data of the photo.

Software provided by the user interface for file and directory management. Also known as a file manager. Supports easy navigation of directory trees using a computer mouse.
Web browsers are often referred to as "Explorers". ("Internet Explorer")

The colour intensity can be adjusted using digital image processing. This changes the brightness of a selected shade. This can affect the image quality because it follows the same rules as for the general brightness only limited to a specific colour. (Redder than red does not work, for example.)

A colour space is a combination of all the colours in an image that can actually be shown. The colour spaces differ depending on the image processing program and the image and output devices used. Some Nikon cameras, for example, take photos in a special "Nikon sRGB" format, and Adobe Photoshop often uses its own "Adobe sRGB". Printers even work in a completely different colour space (CMYK), into which images first have to be converted by the printer driver.

The standard and intersecting set of the colour spaces is the simple "sRGB" format (standard RGB). All digital cameras, scanners, monitors and printer drivers support this colour space. In production, the photos in your photo project are always processed in "sRGB" colour format and photos in other RGB formats are converted automatically and without any quality loss into "sRGB " format. Most digital cameras take photos of themselves in sRGB format, so there should be no problems.

The colour sorting in the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software reads the colour values of the images in a directory, compares them with each other using average values and groups the images according to similar colours.

A value in the Photoshow image editing that determines, using a slider, the colour in which a photo should be coloured. The intensity of the shading is adjusted using the "Shading" slider.

This means that you drop off your photo order at a dealer (or at a dealer's store). From there, it is collected with other photo orders and taken for production. Usually you collect the finished product from the same store.

This is hardware or software that controls (filters) the exchange of data between computers and networks, and attacks by viruses, Trojans and hackers.

Means: "Give something a form." This relates to all objects where you can modify the "format", e.g. the position or size of an object, or a font in the case of text. It also refers to preparing a storage medium for recording data.

A real or virtual (online forum) area where questions are asked and answered and opinions are exchanged.

Certain photo products, which make good gifts: Crockery (Mugs, Beer mugs, Glass mugs, Money boxes banks), Greeting cards, Calendars (Wall calendars, Appointment calendars, Desk calendars), Textiles (T-shirts, Baby bibs, BBQ Aprons, Pillows), Bags, Mouse mats, Puzzles, Playing cards, Soft toys, Keyring pendants and Decorative articles. All of these come with personal printed photos.

A community of people who talk on the Internet about their common hobby of "photography" or "image processing". Members upload their images to a website in order to present them, talk about them and to give each other tips.

In the case of the gamma value, the mean colour brightness curve is manipulated. The advantage is that it does not change the darkest and lightest pixels. However, the brightness values between them are shifted, making them lighter or darker. This is not a linear process, but a curve that flattens at both ends of the brightness curve, that is, the brightness values in the middle of the brightness curve are shifted more than the values at the end of the brightness scale. This means that you can brighten or darken an image without any substantial loss of quality. This should not be overdone.

Geo-data refers to the positional data on the earth such as the longitude and latitude.
Some digital cameras and photo mobiles have a GPS receiver that ascertains the geographic position at the point where the photograph was taken based on satellite data, and storing this information in the EXIF data of a photo file. Alternatively, you can use some image editing programs to manually add the geo-data to a photo file by marking the position at which the photo was taken on a map using the computer mouse.

This is the equivalent of a black and white image in photography. A digital photo contains brightness and colour information. The colour information is removed when a colour image is converted to greyscale.

Organising of files in groups by date of creation, or similarity of image content (colour values, colour distribution).

A coupon distributed during advertising or special events for a price reduction on photo products.

" High Dynamic Range" (high contrast photos/images). HDR photos are usually created using exposure bracketing. You take one photo at a given exposure, one brighter and one darker, in order to select the best image. The 24-bit colour depth of regular digital photos is no longer sufficient, so an a HDR photo with conventional screens and print media cannot be displayed. In order to view them and print, the image information must be compressed again to 24 bits. Using HDR photos avoids over- and underexposure and the image has much richer details.

Brightness is the perceived intensity of light, especially in a photo. If a photo appears too dark, the brightness is too low. If a photo appears too light, the brightness is too high. Both can be compensated for using digital image processing. As only a limited number of brightness levels are available and the brightness scale is limited, image information is often lost at the ends of the brightness scales. If you brighten an image, for example, an almost white (light grey) pixel becomes a white image point, and a pitch black pixel becomes dark grey. A white pixel cannot become even brighter, as there is nothing brighter than white. This means that very bright pixels become lost when they are white, and with them image information. The same thing applies to dark image detail when darkening an image. a very dark pixel becomes black, and bright white becomes light grey.

A faded line pattern which helps to position objects in the work area. The objects lock into place at the crossing points of the help grid. The help grid will not be printed.

The lowest level of a photographic product, whose entire surface is covered with a colour, pattern or image. All the other objects of the photographic product are arranged on this background (in the foreground).

In the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software, content refers to a pre-designed photo product (or part of it) to which users add their own data (photos, text).

A reproducible copy of a CD in ISO-9660 format on another medium, such as a hard disk. ISO 9660 is standard CD format which many burning programs support.

Is a file format which is particularly suited to photos and capable of displaying over 16 million colours. It compresses the image data to save disk space. Due to the small file size of a JPEG and the fact the picture quality is not affected by the file size, this format has established itself as the standard for digital cameras and on the Internet in particular.

"JPG Stereo" is a file format for 3D photos, the two images (right and left view) are stored next to each other in JPG format. You can see it if you change the file type from *.jps to *jpg. (Don't forget to change it back!)

The classic image ratio of an analogue photo is 2:3 (two to three).

The most commonly used film in analogue photography. A 35 mm negative image is 24 x 36 mm and thus has an aspect ratio of 2:3.

An open menu window that displays the commands applicable to the currently selected object. Open by right-clicking on the object.

The contrast is the difference between the light and dark pixels. A high-contrast image is generally perceived as being "brilliant" (bright). Contrast can be edited using digital image processing. This can result in image information being lost. If an image is to have greater contrast, the brightness of the image is spread out in both directions. Black and white are at either end of the brightness scale. Black pixels cannot become darker and dark pixels become darker until they are black; white pixels cannot become brighter and bright pixels become brighter until they are white. If an image is to have less contrast, a dark black becomes dark grey and pure white becomes light grey.

"Convert" refers to the transfer of an object to a different state. For example, to convert a photo file in TIFF format (file extension. Tif) into JPEG format (file extension. Jpg) or to convert a text in "Arial" font into a different font or to convert a small photobook into a large photobook, or vice versa.

A command for the operating system clipboard. Copy means that a file or object is stored in the clipboard without deleting it from the original position.

"Layout" is how your photos are laid out. When designing printed products (newspapers, brochures, posters, etc.) the traditional technique was to cut out texts and images on a background (e.g. a blank newspaper page), in order to decide how to arrange these elements in printing. Today, this is done digitally using placeholders and text boxes.

A placeholder in the page layout into which a photo is inserted. The position, size, and rotation of the placeholder can be modified and the frame can be made to stand out against the background by defining a printable frame (border).

A canvas is a piece of white cloth mounted on a wooden frame which is typically used in painting. Today, photos can be printed on canvas and mounted on wooden frames. Thanks to the structure of the fabric and the thickness of the wooden frame, a canvas print looks high-quality and decorative.

If the "Magnetic alignment" in the software is turned on, then layout objects snap to the edges of other objects when moved and scaled. It enables the layout objects to be easily and intuitively aligned.

Select the objects that you want to edit with the following commands. Mark one by positioning the mouse pointer over it and then clicking with the mouse. You can select multiple objects in order to process them simultaneously. To select multiple objects arranged together at the same time, drag the mouse and make a selection box around the objects you want to select, or select the first object to be marked, hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and them select the last object. To select (or un-select) several different objects, hold the "Crtl" key and select the objects you need.

A mask is a greyscale image that defines the transparency of an image. The greyscales are stored in the image as a fourth colour value in addition to red, green and blue (RGB). This colour value is also known as the "alpha" or "a" channel. The colour white makes the image completely transparent; the colour black makes it completely opaque. Grey shades act as a partial transparency; the lighter the grey, the more transparent the image. With transparency you can shape an image or allow it to fade out against the background.

".mcf" is the file extension that your project or photo product is stored in. An MCF file containing product information is also accompanied by a MCF directory of the same name, in which copies of photos used are stored. If you want to archive the project or copy it to another computer, the MCF file and the associated MCF directory must be saved or copied together.

A message window appears when the software alerts you to something. In most cases you will need to press a button to acknowledge the message or dismiss it.

Multi Picture Object – a file that can include 3D photos, among other types. It contains two (or more) photos/images in JPG format and information on how the images are to be displayed.

Special backgrounds available in 36 colours/scales in the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software that can be inserted into a layout.

Settings define how the software should perform a certain action. Settings are set via drop-down lists, radio buttons and checkboxes.

Examples:

This refers to the aspect ratio of your original photo. Ideally, it will have an aspect ratio of 2:3, however, the digital camera often uses a different aspect (4:3, 16:9) to store images, or the image size may have been modified by cropping in an image editing program.

Keys on the computer keyboard with arrow icons for up, down, left and right.

A pixel is a single dot in an image; the smallest unit in a digital photo. In digital photography, pixels are typically defined by mixing the colours red, green, and blue. 0 (zero) parts of red, 0 parts of green, and 0 parts of blue give you black. 255 parts of red, 255 parts of green, and 255 parts of blue give you white. With this system it is possible to display more than 16 million different colours.

In contrast to the "simple" poster, which is just a large exposed photo, a collage poster provides additional design settings. For example, you can combine multiple images (collage) or insert additional text.

This is a print on high-quality photo paper. Premium prints are also supplied with the file name and date of creation on the rear side, and a photo index, an overview of the photos with thumbnails.

In the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software, a product is a ready-to-order, compiled photo article.

A proxy links various networks, e.g. a company network and the Internet. It runs on the hardware or as a program on a server. A router (for the Internet) can also act as a proxy.

A QR code (Quick Response) is a two dimensional barcode. That means it contains information both horizontally and vertically in the shape of small square blocks. The information can be a link to a website. The QR code can be read with a suitably equipped smartphone (camera and app). When the QR code is scanned, the relevant website will be launched.

The quality indicator indicates whether the resolution of a photo, at the required size, is sufficient to ensure good image quality when printed. It is indicated by a coloured smiley in the toolbar, or by a coloured bar at the bottom of the thumbnail for individual images.

Green means: The resolution of the image is high enough to achieve good quality when printed. No quality loss with an image of this size.

Yellow means: The resolution of the picture is not optimal in order to achieve good print quality. This means that you will have to accept some quality loss if you keep the image at the current size, or you might prefer to scale down the image to increase the resolution.

Red means: The resolution of the picture is too low to achieve good quality when printed! (An additional "Caution" icon is displayed on the image itself.)

You should avoid using the image at this size as this would lead to clearly visible loss of quality when the image is printed. You can either scale down the image, or use another image with a higher resolution.

For websites, the HTML text display including instructions for display in the Web browser (commands and attributes).

A frame in the "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software is a combination of a mask and clipart. The clipart can lie both around the mask and be (semi) transparent over it in order to simulate, for example, yellowed old photos.

Raw data format in digital photography, also called "digital negative". The photo data is stored without further processing. The structure and content of RAW photos is different depending on the camera. Therefore, it must be converted for viewing and further processing (image processing program, print, output to film ) with a suitable so-called RAW converter (usually camera manufacturer specific) into a standard picture format .

This refers to the order in which objects are superimposed in a layout. The objects can cover each other or overlap. If an object partially covers another object, you can use the order commands to push it back behind the other object, or to move one of the objects in front of the other. If an object in the foreground completely covers another object so that you cannot see or select the background object, simply select the foreground object and keep moving it back until the hidden object becomes visible.

Originally used in office management, this term refers to the plastic or metal tags that were attached at the top of hanging files in order to label them. This term has now been adopted for the label on a browser window, with multiple pages being separated by these tab labels (see below).

The "Red-eye effect" occurs in flash photography. The flash is reflected on the subject's (an animal's or human's) retina and makes the inside of the eye look red.

Protocol file for "Auchan Fotolumea mea" software. Important for software developers when debugging the program.

In the editor, this restores the state that existed prior to the last action. The command "reverses" it.

This refers to moving an object using the computer mouse. To do this, first select the object by clicking with the left mouse button (or the right button for left-handers), hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse. The object on screen will follow the mouse movements on the desk. As an alternative, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the object in small steps.

You can use the mouse to change the slider setting and set a value.
For example, the brightness, contrast, and colour intensity on the right, and the zoom factor below.

Keywords (e.g. in the CEWE PHOTOSHOW) in a document (e.g. an image file) are assigned to an index, so that you can search for and sort by these terms (in your operating system's Explorer). In the Windows photo gallery, keywords are referred to as "Selections".

Example: You have taken photos on holiday in Florida and assign them the keyword "Florida". You can then use your operating system's search function to display all the images with the "Florida" keyword (selection). If you have photos from Disneyworld, you can add a "Disneyworld" keyword. If you have also visited Disneyworld in France, these photos would be indexed using "France" and "Disneyworld". You can then use the search function from your operating system.

All the images from Disneyworld in Florida for "Florida Disneyworld" and Disneyworld in France for "Disneyworld France" (the order doesn't matter); if you simply type "Disneyworld", you would be shown all your Disneyworld images from Florida and France.

This refers to the burning speed supported by your CD burning device or your CD-R/CD-RW media.

A font is the graphical representation of a typeface. Many different fonts will be installed on your computer by default, and you can add more fonts. The font is an important design object.

Examples of fonts:

The font size refers to the distance between the lower edge of a font (e.g. in "p") and the top edge of the font (e.g. capital letters), and is typically quoted in point (pt). The unit "point" (pt) is 0.376 mm (Didot point).

The font style can be normal, bold, italics or bold italics. Underlining is often regarded as a font style.

Scroll bars appear at the side or bottom edge of the program window, if the content does not fit into the program window due to, say, a small screen resolution. Dragging the scroll bar moves the view within the program window left, right, up, or down.

These are the tags at the midpoint of the borders of a placeholder which you can click and drag with the mouse. Doing so changes the height or width of a frame. The mouse cursor changes into a double arrow when positioned on them.

(See arrows)

A prefabricated array of photo placeholders and text boxes that you can use again and again.

The ratio between the height and width of a photo. Typically given as "2:3" (two to three) or "16:9" (sixteen to nine). The classic analogue 35 mm format has an aspect ratio of 2:3. Digital cameras normally produce images with an aspect ratio of 3:4, some also feature the 16:9 format as well as APS films (Advanced Photo System) which can also produce panorama formats with an aspect ratio of around 1:3. When editing photos with digital image processing programs it is possible to amend image formats by cropping the individual images.

The images are exposed on 2:3 format photo paper; in the case of original formats other than 2:3 the images will have a white border at the top and bottom, or on the right and left.

Sepia is originally a natural reddish, brown dye made from squid ink; it was used in ancient times for ink drawings, or as ink for writing. When old black and white photographs age due to UV light and oxidation, their appearance is similar to that of sepia ink drawings on parchment. White photo paper turns yellow and darker image elements become brownish. This typical appearance of old black and white photos is imitated by the sepia effect in digital image editing.

Change the size of an object.

The "smiley" is a very popular, iconic, graphical representation of a smiling face. Has enjoyed cult status since the 70s. Also known as an emoticon.

This is a print on semi-gloss photo paper. In contrast to the Premium print, the paper is slightly thinner and a photo index is not provided.

See 3D photo.

A storyboard is a graphical sequence of individual views of a media product, like the settings for a movie script, for example. In this case it refers to the preview pages of a multiple page photo product such as a photo book or calendar.

"Control" key on the computer keyboard.

In computing, an icon is a symbol or a simplified graphical representation as a button that triggers an action or command. Icons are grouped in toolbars.

Example:

Cut, copy, paste, delete.

Refers to the intensity of the colour in a photo. The saturation can be changed using digital image editing. High level of saturation: The image appears very colourful. Low saturation: The image appears faded. Lowest saturation: The image comprises greyscales only.

A text cursor marks the insertion point in a text (editor). This is where new text to be written will appear. To help differentiate this cursor from the normal mouse cursor (arrow icon), it is typically shown as a flashing I-bar, a flashing underscore, or a flashing box.

This is a frame in which you can enter, align and format text. Can also be given a background colour.

Thumbnails are miniature views of normal sized photos, layouts, documents, etc. Also referred to as a thumbnail or miniature image.

A small text window that pops up when you move the mouse on an icon. Gives a short text explanation of the function of the icon.

Example:

Keys on the computer keyboard. Also known as the shift key. Typically used to type upper case letters, or to access a second set of key assignments.

This is a directory within another directory (within another directory ...). Also known as a sub-folder.

Install a new version of a software or specific data (e.g. price lists). Settings that existed previously will remain. The new version is often downloaded from the Internet. Can be performed automatically or by clicking a button in the program itself.

A vector graphic is a computer graphic that does not comprise individual pixels but is made up of simple geometric shapes such as circles, squares, polygons, arcs and  curves. For example, a line has a start and end point, a thickness and a colour. A circle has e.g. a centre point, a radius, a line thickness, a line colour, and a fill colour. This is much less information than you would need to describe a line or circle in pixels. Especially considering the fact that the background, the square around the shape, would also need to be stored. In comparison to a photo, a vector graphic saves memory space and the image quality stays the same when scaling up or down. However, it is only suitable for comic-style images which can be broken down into coloured areas.

A directory is a structure for organising files on a hard disk. Also known as a folder. It is best to give the folder a descriptive name as it is more helpful when locating the files it holds. Example: "Photos_Vacation_June2008", "Letters to Julia", or "My account statements" etc.

A directory tree is an organisational structure on the hard drive in which the directories and subdirectories spread like the branches of a tree. Each branch can be expanded by clicking on the small plus icon to the left of the directory name in the file browser, and closed by clicking on the minus sign.

A program for navigating the directory tree. Referred to as the Explorer in Windows.

A thumbnail of an image or another file (e.g. the pages in a photo book).

The basket collects and lists the products which you can order online or on a CD. The sbasket is typically represented by a shopping cart icon. After filling your basket, you can then checkout or continue your order.

White balance in photography refers to the act of adjusting the colours to match the colour of the light at the location where the photo was taken to achieve as natural a look as possible. Light occurs in various colours which the human eye can only detect in direct comparisons, and which would otherwise be compensated by our individual colour perception. For us, a white piece of paper (in normal lighting) is only white because we know it is white. For the sensor in a digital camera, the white piece of paper is only more or less white in bright sunshine; if the sky is blue and the paper is in shadow it is slightly blue, in the light from a light bulb it would be slightly yellow and in neon light it can even look slightly purple. This affects all the colours in a photo.

A digital camera often gives you several settings for achieving white balance, that is, adjusting the photo to achieve as natural colours as possible when taking pictures. You can set the lighting semi-automatically on the camera. The settings are typically, "Daylight", "Artificial light", "Neon light" and so on. This will not work in mixed lighting, e.g. sunlight and artificial lighting. The cameras fully automatic white balance attempts to modify the hues by measuring the colour of light via a sensor. The lightest pixel is then white for the camera. Manual white balance is achieved by pointing the camera at a pure white area and measuring the reflected light colour. Cards with standardised colours are available for holding in front of the camera lens for this purpose. Otherwise you can use a piece of paper.

Some cameras have a semi-transparent white lens caps which the camera uses to measure the colour of the reflected light automatically when switched on. In many cases, the photo lab will use an automatic image correction software to make sure that the colours in the photos are as natural and neutral as possible. In photos of sunsets (where the lightest pixel is reddish orange), or in candlelight (where the lightest pixel is yellowish), you should disable this function, as the fact that the colours are not natural is what makes these images interesting.

The area in a software's user interface that displays commands to create or edit an object in the form of icons. Also known as a toolbox.

In the Editor, this restores the state that existed prior to the previous undo action.

Moving objects on screen by moving the computer mouse while holding down the mouse button.

Enlarge or reduce the size of the screen content. Zoom in (enlarge) to be able to see more detail; zoom out (reduce) for a better overview. This is originally from movie and still photography and refers to changing the focus of a zoom lens.

Cutting off part of an image to achieve a specific aspect ratio, to emphasize an element at the centre of the image, or to remove undesired parts of the image at the edge of the image. See also "Cut".

A memory space used by the computer operating system or a computer program to cache data for later use. Data is copied to the clipboard and pasted elsewhere. This is sometimes used to exchange data between various programmes.