GLOSSARY
ACTIVATE
To make a window active by clicking anywhere in it.
ACTIVE WINDOW
The window with the programs focus, usually in
front. Tools and commands work in the active window.
ALPHA CHANNELS
A grayscale duplicate of an image on which you
can store masks and selections.
ALT KEY
The Alternate key, usually marked Alt on a Windows
keyboard, that modifies an action when pressed.
ANCHOR POINT
The starting or ending point of a path segment.
Anchor points appear only when an object is in edit mode. When
selected, anchor points of curve segments display one or two direc-
tion lines.
ANSI
American National Standards Institute; one of the standards
available to specify dimension object properties.
ANTI-ALIAS
To soften the edges of an applied brush stroke, effect or
selection. When something is anti-aliased, the color on the edges
fades to transparency instead of stopping abruptly.
APPLESCRIPT
A scripting language developed by Apple Computer
that is integrated into the Mac OS. AppleScript provides an easy way
to automate common tasks. AppleScript is also powerful enough to
automate complex tasks and to customize the way applications
behave.
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (pro-
nounced ASK-ee); used for representing text inside a computer and
for transmitting text between computers.
BASELINE
An imaginary line on which a line of text rests. The
descenders of characters such as g, j, p, and q extend below the base-
line.
BEVEL JOIN
A style of connection between two segments in a vector
object, in which the stroke lines appear to be trimmed diagonally.
BÉZIER CURVE
A curve, named after French mathematician Pierre
Bézier, defined by the position of anchor points and tangent lines.
BICUBIC
An appropriate setting for image interpolation if you work
primarily with photographs.
BILINEAR
An appropriate setting for image interpolation if you work
with line art. It may be applied to some photographic images.
Anchor point
Anti-aliased line
b a s e l i n e e x a m p l e
Bevel join