Web Design Glossary

Accessibility - the degree to which that web site is usable by people with disabilities including visually impaired people using screen readers, hearing impaired people using browsers with no sound, physically impaired people, or color blind people.

Backlinks - a link coming from another website to your own. The number and quality of backlinks that your site has can affect your search engine optimization efforts

Bandwidth - the amount of data that is requested from your website over time. Bandwidth is expressed in terms of kilobits per second (Kbps).

Blog - short for weblog and is a web page that has frequent updates made to it. Similar to a web journal or "what's new" page.

Breadcrumbs - similar to the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", breadcrumb trails are often found near the top of Web pages and define both the current location within the site hierarchy as well as primary pages above the current page.

Browser - Computer program to view and interact with internet web pages.

CAPTCHA - part of a web form that ensures that the person filling out the form is indeed a person, and not a computer. The goal of a CAPTCHA is to reduce the amount of spam received.

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) - A language for the Web to define the style (look and feel) of a web page. Cascading Style Sheets can define: fonts, colors, layouts, and more.

Content Management System - a system that stores a website's content for easy management by the website's owner.

Domain name - a case-insensitive string of letters, numbers, and hyphens that is used to define the location of a website. Domain names are used as pointers to IP addresses.

E-Commerce - the sale of goods and services on the web or through other online mechanisms.

Elastic layout - web layouts that flex to accomodate the browser width and the reader's font preferences.

External Link - a hyperlink that points to another website on the internet, typically on another domain from the current website.

Favorites Icon/Favicon - a small graphic that is associated with a page or web site that allows the web developer to customize the site in the web browser, both in the tab bar that is displayed in many browsers as well as in the bookmarks when a site is saved.

Fixed width layout - webpage layouts that start with a specific size, determined by the web designer. They remain that width, regardless of the size of the browser window viewing the page. Fixed width layouts allow a designer more direct control over how the page will look in most situations.

Font Family - A group designation that applies to a set of typefaces that look generally the same. Example: Garamond, Times, Helvetica, Geneva

GIF - a graphic format suited for flat color images and drawings. Created by CompuServ and often used for animated images on the Web. An acronym that stands for Graphics Interchange Format.

HTML - Hypertext Markup Language: The language used to write Web pages.

Hyperlink/Link - An image or portion of text that is highlighted in some way (usually underlined on the web) and connects the current document to another so users can navigate a website.

IP Address - stands for Internet Protocol Address. A packet-based protocol for delivering data across networks, specifically the Internet. IP Addresses are a string of four numbers separated by dots. These numbers can then be translated into a domain name.

JPEG - a lossy graphics format best suited for photographs and images with a lot of colors. It's an acronym that stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group.

meta tag - a specific hidden HTML tag used to define meta data on your Web pages. The most commonly used meta tags are description, keywords, author, refresh. These are sometimes used by search engines to place the pages in the search directory, and they are used to provide a short description of the web page in the search results. Also known as meta data.

PDF - stands for “portable document format”. It is a file format that was created by Adobe as a way to store documents for exchanging. The PDF format was meant to be independent of the hardware or platform it was being viewed on. In many ways, a PDF document was intended to be a digital print out of a document. Like a paper print out, it cannot be readily changed (without appropriate software) and looks the same no matter what operating system displays it.

Pixel - Dots on a computer monitor. The resolution on a computer monitor is measured in dots per inch or pixels per inch.

PNG - an acronym standing for Portable Network Graphics. A graphics format for lossless, highly compressd rastered images with support for transparency.

Podcast - a digital recording that is sent to subscribers over the Internet through an RSS feed. A podcast can be sent as audio or video files.

Resolution - The number of dots of color per inch on a computer monitor. Also Known As: DPI, dots per inch, PPI, pixels per inch

Script - a small bit of code that enables web browsers to do something rather than just displaying static content

Search engine optimization (SEO) - the act of developing a website and marketing a website to perform well in search engine results.

Streaming media - multimedia that are sent continuously by the web server to the client. Typically they are treated as a form of presentation or broadcast that is delivered to the customers.

Subdomain - a more specific portion of a domain name. Used to divide up web domains without registering a new domain name. Example: web.tylermaroon.com

Web standards - a general term for the formal specifications and rules surrounding building web pages. Web standards are formulated and maintained by the W3C. Designers that choose to use web standards can create pages that display more consistently in most web browsers.

Web server - a specialized computer that is set up with software and networking capabilities to deliver web pages on the Internet or an Intranet.

Web page - a single page document written in HTML and meant to be viewed in a web browser on the Internet or World Wide Web such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera.

Web Designer - someone who designs Web pages. A Web designer is more focused on the look and feel of a website than how it works.

Web Developer - someone who programs web pages. A web developer (or programmer) is more focused on the way a website works than how it looks. They typically work with databases and programming languages as well as HTML.

Whitespace - empty spaces in a design. Whitespace is used to separate disparate design elements and group similar ones. Whitespace is the lack of graphics or text in the layout. Whitespace is not always "white" - it is the empty parts of the page.

Working Draft - works in progress, and should not be considered final. Also Known As: public working draft

WYSIWYG (editor) - What You See Is What You Get. an editor where you primarily work with the layout and design of the page
Examples: FrontPage, DreamWeaver

XML - eXtensible Markup Language. Allows for the creation of applications that are streamlined for the use of the owner.

XHTML - Extensible Hypertext Markup Language - HTML 4.0 rewritten to be compliant with XML rules.
Pronunciation: ehks aytch tee em el - (acronym)

Courtesy About.com