A Digital Lexicon For Artists

Learn your gigabytes and your JPEGS in this artist-friendly lexicon of digital terms.

In that location'southward no denying it: the art world is shifting to the realm of the internet. Facebook has become the new storefront gallery, and Instagram is the new studio visit. To make information technology in today's art market, any artist needs to face the digital earth caput-on. But what did your painting workshops teach you about pixels? What did art history courses tell you nearly FTP clients?

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Permit us pave the mode for you in this abridged lexicon of digital terms: the artist edition. These are the mutual "tech-y" terms you're probable to come up beyond as an artist in the digital world, whether you're submitting a portfolio, building an artist website, or just updating your social media pages.

Your Artwork Every bit A File

jpegs

From Michelangelo's David to Banksy's Dismaland, all artworks tin can be rendered into a computer file. No matter what the medium or dimensions of the artwork, all files wait the same. Sort of.

Unless your artwork needs to be depicted with audio or video, for the almost function yous'll be working with image files. These are the ones you need to know:

image placeholder.JPEG / JPG

At that place are many types of image files, but the most common that galleries, museums, and websites apply for photographs is the .JPEG file. JPEG is brusk for Joint Photographic Experts Group, but that'south not what y'all demand to know. What y'all do need to know is that these files are compressed (simplified) images that are like shooting fish in a barrel to post on the web or transfer via email, USB, or with a compact disc (CD). Just because they're simple and small-scale doesn't mean they can't pack plenty of particular. The .JPEG is a versatile file type that volition suit most of your needs.

.PNG

A "Portable Networks Graphic" is another file type for images. The main difference between a .JPEG and a .PNG is the 'blank' space backside the subject field. If the prototype includes a transparent groundwork, the PNG will continue the background transparent while the JPG would plough that area into a white groundwork. You lot may finish up using a PNG for your logo or special graphics on your webpage, but your artwork images should typically be .JPEG only.

.JPG
.PNG
Agora Gallery's logo saved as a .jpg document. No matter what color the page is that this image is placed on, the background will be white.
Agora Gallery'due south logo saved every bit a .jpg document. No thing what colour the page is that this paradigm is placed on, the background will be white.
agora gallery png
Agora Gallery's logo saved as a .png document allows the groundwork to be transparent – so when the image is pasted onto a colorful or patterned page, the background volition adapt.

.TIFF

A .TIFF file is typically much larger than a .JPEG. This is because information technology is college quality and far less compressed. You'll likely just ever need a .TIFF file for your own uses: its uncompressed high resolution allows for easy editing. If you take the pick of saving files on your digital camera every bit .TIFF, then you can edit them with Adobe Photoshop, and export them equally .JPEG – which you can do with Photoshop or even Microsoft Pigment and Apple'south Preview.

what is a psd file?.AI/.PSD/.INDD/.IDML

Adobe'south Artistic Suite has many different programs, and every bit an artist, you're most likely to use Photoshop (PSD), Illustrator (AI), and InDesign (INDD & IDML). These filetypes are all native to these programs, and save the 'schematics' of your file. So, if you are adding special filters in Photoshop, drawing on Illustrator, or putting together a circuitous certificate in InDesign, these files will permit you lot to choice up where you left off and continue editing or undo edits in the futurity. These files are to your last paradigm what a text document is to a printed page.

pdf logo
Ironically, this image of a .PDF logo is really a .PNG file…

.PDF

Here, we've merely been talking near image files, but a .PDF can include text, spreadsheets, images, and more. Essentially, a PDF (Portable Document File) presents any document on a fixed layout "page." A .PDF is a good manner to combine texts with images in one curl-able, uneditable document, but it isnotthe best way to present your artwork. If somebody is interested in viewing images of your artwork, send the images every bit .JPEGs. If somebody is asking to view a catalog from your nearly recent exhibition,that'southwardwhen you'll send a .PDF.

It is not piece of cake to embed a .PDF into a website, nor is it piece of cake to extract images or text from information technology. As one of the most normally used filetypes, the .PDF has many restrictions that make its applications limited in the fine art world.

The Anatomy of an Epitome File

Pixels

When your artwork becomes an paradigm, it is broken down into small dots (or "pixels") on the screen. Not to be confused with the 2015 moving-picture show, pixels are the building blocks of most digital images. Take any image on your computer and zoom in. (You can zoom in on a Windows past holding Control and using your mouse to scroll up/down.) You'll notice that whatever image becomes a series of different-colour squares.

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hermoine macura zoomed in to demonstrate pixels
If yous zoom in enough on whatever image with your figurer, you'll see pixels – the edifice blocks of every digital photo.
Hermoine Macura Syrian Refugee Photo on Metallic Newspaper 19″ x 12″

Resolution

The resolution of an image is frequently as well called the "quality." It refers to how much particular an image holds. Pixel resolution refers to how many dots make up the image.

DPI/PPI

A loftier-resolution image has more pixels per inch. Sometimes this is called DPI, which is more than specifically related, historically, to the concrete printing procedure. By fitting more pixels/dots per inch, you are making the pixels smaller, and thus allowing for more than pocket-sized details to exist visible.

It is always easier to lower the quality of an prototype than to improve it.

If yous save a 1 square inch prototype at 72 DPI, it will accept 72×72 pixels full. If later y'all want to increase the resolution to 300 DPI, your image will get smaller and volition not look sharper. While you lot can utilize some advanced Photoshop tools and techniques to enlarge low-resolution images, it is best to always take photographs at the highest resolution possible. Information technology is always easier to lower the quality of an image than to improve it.

Vectors

Unless you are a designer, yous may not know what the difference is between a vector paradigm and a rasterimage. The simplest explanation is that a raster image is made upward of pixels and vectors are made of… well, algebra. Vector images are drawn lines and points that are made up of equations that your computer calculates in order to let you change the size of the paradigm infinitely without losing whatsoever resolution.

A program for vector drawings selects points on the object as a frame of reference. By maintaining the relationship between these points, the image can be infinitely enlarged.
A program for vector drawings selects points on the object equally a frame of reference. By maintaining the relationship between these points, the prototype can be infinitely enlarged.

When should an artist utilise vectors? When you are creating digital paintings or line drawings. Vectors will permit y'all to impress your drawing any size and it'll look as smooth and make clean as it looks on your screen. If you are creating a logo for your creative person brand, it is all-time to do this in vectors.

The image above was enlarged as a vector and as a raster image. There's a huge difference in quality.
The image to a higher place was enlarged every bit a vector (left) and every bit a raster (right).

When should an artist use raster/pixels? Photographs of your artwork will all exist raster-based. Whatsoever image that was originally made outside of a drawing software will exist made up of pixels. The images of your artwork, your headshot volition be made of pixels: in sum,all photographs will exist raster images.

File Sharing

KB/MB/GB

A "byte" is a unit of measurement of measuring how large a file is. For reference, a completely bare text file is one byte. Small-scale, low-quality images volition typically exist between 100-900 KB (kilobytes). Yous can tell an image is better quality when it is between 2-5 MB (megabytes). Averyloftier quality paradigm will be even larger than that. A very high quality video will exist several GB (gigabyte). Finally, a TB (terabyte) is typically the storage of a large hard drive, capable of holding a vast number of these and many other files.upload download

Uploading

You lot'll come up across this term when yous are submitting your portfolio to galleries or museums online. To "upload" a file is to transport it from your computer to the internet. You can upload to a website, e-mail, and fifty-fifty to a messaging program.

Downloading

The opposite of uploading, downloading is when you relieve a file or folder from the internet onto your local device. You tin download just about anything these days onto your computer, tablet, and phone.

FTP

A "File Transfer Protocol" or FTP is a way of sharing files. In simplest terms, it allows you to shop your files on a third-party site/server so that somebody else can download it (with your permission).

WeTransfer/DropBox/Google Bulldoze

These are all websites you can use to transfer files and folders to other people online.

WeTransfer will let you upload files or folders and will provide a link which you tin can send to another user where they tin can download your file. It will host your files for 7 days. If the recipient hasn't downloaded it by so, y'all'll have to upload the files once again.

DropBox and Google Drive allow you to permanently store your files on their websites. Both come up with limited free space with the choice to purchase more. Google Bulldoze offers xv GB of space and DropBox starts you with 2 GB.

Zipped Folder/Compressed Folder

It tin can often be easier to send several files all at once, only many programs volition simply allow you to upload/ship i at a time. When you create a zipped folder (also known as a compressed folder), you are combining all of these files into i .aught file that can be unzipped (or extracted) later.zip folder

To zip a folder, copy all of the files you need into a new folder. Once you have all of the files copied, find the folder in your library and right click. Select "Send to" and then "Compressed (zipped) folder." Yous'll know you were successful if another version of the folder is created with a zipper graphic on it.

If somebody else has sent you a zipped folder, you tin can access the files within by extracting it. Right click the folder, and select "Extract All…" A box will come up up asking you lot to select a "Destination" for the unzipped file to exist located. If yous wish to change the automatically generated destination, and so simply click "Browse" and choose a folder for the new files to go. Then, just hit "Extract" and y'all're done!

File Size

We discussed the difference betwixt a KB, MB, and GB, but what size should your artwork be when you include it in your portfolio? As a rule, the .JPG images of your artwork should bebetween 1 MB – 5 MBeach. The entire portfolio should not be larger than 50 MB.

"My file is likewise big."
"My file is too small."
Open the file with whatever editing software. This doesn't demand to be avant-garde – you can apply Paint/Preview – and find the 'resize' pick. Every photo editing software has this. Simply lower the pixels, inches, or centimeters in minor increments.

To run into if your new file is the right size, hit "Save Every bit" (e'er salvage it as anewdocument so that you don't write over your high quality images, which you may need later). Salve information technology equally a new file, and you can check the new file size of the new document.

image size

Have a new picture. Make sure that your camera is set to accept photos at the highest resolution. Make certain, when you transfer them from your camera to your computer, that you are saving them as the highest quality JPEG/TIFF.

If, for whatsoever reason, yous cannot take a new photograph, then you can use Photoshop to enlarge the image. Become to "Image" > "Epitome Size" and type in your new dimensions. Brand sure to select "Bicubic Smoother" in the dropdown menu.

bicubic smoother enlargement

The digital world is a big place, and it'south always growing. With new technologies will come new means of sharing artwork and connecting with audiences/galleries. Information technology can be hard to embrace these new tools and markets, but it's worth information technology.

If yous aren't using social media yet, that's a great place to get started. We've provided tutorials on how to use Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram to promote your artwork. In that location's no better time than the nowadays to get started.

Looking to enhance your career and build a presence in New York? Submit your portfolio to usa and go the opportunity to present your work to a broad range of national and international art collectors and buyers. Visit our Gallery Representation And Creative person Promotion page for more information.

copyright knightIs your artwork safety on the internet? There are a number of ways to aid protect your art's copyright, and nosotros've laid them out for you in a quick, simple guide.

Protecting Your Fine art: Copyrights