Pinstripe Creative - Multimedia Glossary

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

Acrobat - product from Adobe Systems, Inc. which converts text documents, word for word, image for image, into fully-searchable electronic documents. The electronic document, with the exact look and feel of the original but with added hyperlinks, is stored in PDF (Portable Document Format). The PDF document can be viewed and printed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
ActiveX - Software components from Microsoft. They enable sound, Java applets and animations to be integrated in a Web page.
After Effects - Software for creating special effects, published by Adobe.
Anti-aliasing - Process used to remove jagged edges in computerized graphics.
API (Application Programming Interface) - set of routines/functions that an application program uses to request and carry out lower-level services performed by the operating system. For Windows, for example, API's help manage icons, windows, menus and other elements.
Applets - small programs, called by application programs, that produce various special effects. WordArt, a Windows applet, lets you produce special effects with text. You can invoke WordArt by selecting Inset from the menu.
Aspect ratio - height-X-width proportions of graphics. Some programs allow you to maintain the aspect ratio when sizing a picture, i.e. when you change the width, the height changes proportionally so that the resulting image does not look distorted.
Authoring software - programs used to create full, multimedia productions, such as simulations and tutorials. Although most of these programs have some point-and-click features to simplify development, most require some knowledge of programming language concepts. Popular authoring software packages include Asymetrix ToolBook, Microsoft Visual Basic, Macromedia Director and Authorware.
AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) - Windows format for saving video with sound.