User`s guide

Appendix G:Glossary
78 - PShop User’s Guide
monospaced font Any font in which all characters have the same width.
For example, in Courier New (a monospaced font), the
letter “M” is the same width as the letter “l”. Thus,
“MMMMM” is the same width as “lllll”.
peripheral At or outside the boundaries of the computer itself,
either physically (as a peripheral device) or logically
(as a peripheral card).
pixel Pixel is short for picture element. A point (dot) on the
graphics screen. It is the smallest definable unit of a
digital image. Each pixel represents a single point in
the image. The number of pixels per unit distance
(dot-per-inch or DPI for instance) within a digital
image is referred to as the resolution of the image. A
pixel can be binary, gray, or color, or can be an index
into a palette. Binary pixels require only one binary
digit or bit of computer memory to store; gray, color
and indexed pixels use more bits with 4, 8, and 24
being common values for the number of bits used.
point A typographic unit of measurement equal to 1/72 inch,
measured vertically. Points are used to describe font
size.
proportional font Any font in which characters differ in width. For exam-
ple, in the proportional font used here, the letter “M” is
wider than the letter “l”. Thus, “MMMMM” is wider
than “lllll.”
resolution The fineness with which a scanner, printer, or other
device produces information. It is expressed in dots per
inch (dpi). A higher dpi produces a sharper image.
swap file An area of the hard disk that is used for temporary data
storage when RAM is low or used up. This is also
known as virtual memory. A swap file lets you run
more programs than you could with actual memory, but
it is slower than using regular memory.
Glossary term Term definition