Imaging Software Glossary: Terms & Concepts: P-Q
The imaging software glossary provides definitions for document and web imaging, in addition to terminology specific to Snowbound Software’s imaging technology.
| Package | A package is a collection of Java classes which are typically stored in the same directory, one class to a file. |
| Palette | A palette is a designated subset of the total range of colors supported by a computer graphics system. Each color in the palette is assigned a number, and for each pixel, one of these numbers is stored. This number determines the color of the pixel. Palettes allow images comprising a small number of colors to be stored using a relatively modest amount of graphics memory. A digital image palette is a collection of 3 look-up-tables, which are used to define a given pixel's display color. One table is for red, one for green, and one for blue. |
| Pan Window | The pan window is a window containing a smaller version of the image. Used in conjunction with the mouse pointer and a cropping rectangle, it can simulate scrolling around the image quickly. |
| Parameter | A parameter is an item of information, such as a name, a number, or a selected option that is passed to a program by a user or another program. The parameters affect how the program operates. With simple HTML parameter changes in Snowbound Software's VirtualViewer web viewer, user permissions can be enabled or disabled. |
| Pixel | A pixel which is short for Picture Element is a single point in a digital image. An image is made up of many rows and columns of points. An 8-bit pixel can take on one of 256 values. A 24-bit pixel image usually has three 8-bit components for each of the primary colors; red, green, and blue. Depending on the resolution used for viewing or printing may or may not be able to see the individual pixels. High resolution will make the pixels appear as though they are seamlessly interlaced showing now space around the pixel. Low resolution will make the image appear blurry and not as defined. |
| Pixel Depth | Pixel depth is the number of data bits each pixel represents. In 8-bit contexts, the pixel depth is 8, and each display pixel can be one of 256 possible colors or shades of gray. With a 24-bit raster, the pixel depth is 24, and 16,777,215 colors are possible. |
| Plugin | A plugin (or plug-in) is a computer program that can, or must, interact with another program to provide a certain, usually very specific, function. Typical examples are plugins to display specific graphic formats (e.g., SVG if the browser doesn't support this format natively), to play multimedia files, to encrypt/decrypt email (e.g., PGP), or to filter images in graphic programs. The main program (a web browser or an email client, for example) provides a way for plugins to register themselves with the program, and a protocol by which data is exchanged with plugins. |
| Pointer | A pointer is a way to grab an instance of an object and then either pass that instance a message or retrieve some data from that object. A pointer is actually just an address of where an instance is held in memory. |
| Postscript | Postscript is a programming language that describes the text and graphic elements of a printed page. The PostScript language is a programming language spoken by desktop software after the print command is issued. These PostScript instructions created by the software (in partnership with the printer driver) are sent to a PostScript laser printer to describe the page the user wishes to have output. The PostScript laser printer has an interpreter inside (called a RIP) that takes that page description and instructs the laser printer how to image the page. |
| Preserve Black | Preserve black checks neighboring pixels for any black pixels so that any small black lines are not removed when scaling a large black and white image. This type of anti-aliasing is best used for engineering drawings. In Snowbound's products preserve black creates a 1-bit pixel based on neighboring pixels. It forces the snowbnd object not to skip black pixels when being scaled down for display. |
| Printer Driver | The printer driver is a piece of software th at converts the data to be printed to the form specific to a printer. The purpose of printer drivers is to allow applications to do printing without being aware of the technical details of each printer model. All Snowbound products for Windows print to any device with a valid Windows printer driver installed. |
| Public Attributes | An object’s public attributes are those properties of that object required by other simulations that want to interact with it. Public attributes are inherited from other classes and are therefore visible to those classes. |
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