Glossary

Anthropology is the scientific study of human behaviour, biology, societies, cultures and languages.

Antiquity is the ancient past. We usually use this term to refer to the Classical period in Western culture (and other cultures from around this time) before the Middle Ages.

Buffering in digital video means preloading some of the video data before playing it – common in streaming video from the Internet.

In Greek mythology, a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.

Chroma is the absolute colour of the object irrespective of its relative appearance - it's the attributes we see as belonging to the object itself. "For an object to have high chroma it must reflect/ transmit saturated light in relatively large amounts."^[1]

Cognitive science is the study of how the mind works, functions, and behaves. It includes aspects of psychology, linguistics, philosophy, neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

Colorimetry is the science of measuring colour.  It involves methods of identifying light wavelengths and ascribing a numerical system to represent those wavelengths.

Cones are cells in the eye's retina that respond to high-intensity light and enable us to see high-resolution, coloured images. Humans have three types of cone cells, but other animals may have two, four or other numbers of cone cell types.

Dichromacy (di means two) is where only two types of cone cells exist in the eye retinal area. Dichromats may not perceive parts of the visible spectrum that trichromats (three types of cones) or tetrachromats (four types of cones) can see.

A dyestuff is a substance that can be used as a dye or from which a dye can be made. For example, a block of indigo dye can be called a dyestuff, as can a bundle of indigo leaves.

Electromagnetic radiation is made from waves of the electromagnetic field. It includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, light (including the visible spectrum), ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays.

A colour filter in traditional photography would be some kind of transparent glass or plastic that would absorb certain colours of light and change the image that is captured. In digital media, a colour filter is usually a file that has information that when applied to a digital image, can adjust the colour properties such as change the saturation of certain colours, change the lightness and contrast, etc.

Colour gamut (also known as colour space) is the complete range or subset of colour that can be produced or recorded by an application, system or device.

Hue is the term that we use to classify colour. For example if we describe something as "red" or "magenta" or "greenish-yellow", that is the hue. In physics, a specific wavelength of light is a hue. Black, white and grey are not hues, although we may call them colours in a practical sense, for example, when referring to coloured paints or fabrics.

Lagging in digital video and computer games means the video or game does not play smoothly at the right frame rate and might stop playing while the software catches up with downloading the necessary files.

Lightness describes lighter and darker variants of a colour. The lightest "colour" would be white, and the darkest would be black.

maritime means related to the sea - especially in reference to sea trade or navigation

Mezzotint is a printmaking method that uses an engraving technique to create subtle gradations of tone and deep blacks.

The term mordant comes from the Latin mordere, "to bite" because it was thought that a mordant helped the dye bite onto the textile fiber so that it would bind with the fibre and not wash out.

Optics is a branch of Physics – it's the science that deals with light. Optics explains how light energy behaves and interacts with matter.

Vipers, pythons and boas have holes on their faces called pit organs, which contain a membrane that can detect infrared radiation from warm bodies up to one metre away. At night, the pit organs allow snakes to 'see' an image of their predator or prey — as an infrared camera does — giving them a unique extra sense.^[2]

A polymath is a person who has knowledge and experience in a wide range of subjects.

Post production editing means work done on an image, film, video or audio recording after capturing the media. This could be work done to a physical or digital object and may include colour grading, colour correction, special effects, titles and soundtrack etc.

Primary colours are the basic set of colours that can’t be mixed from other colours - but can be used to mix a gamut of other colours.

The rainbow spectrum is commonly known as the colours ROYGBIV - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Rods are cells in the eye's retina that respond to low-intensity light and help us to see low-resolution, black-and-white images - it's why we can still see things in very low light. Animals that can see in the dark have more rod cells than humans do.

Saturation is the intensity of the colour. Saturated colours appear very vibrant, whereas  de-saturated colours tend towards white or grey.  A black and white image would have zero colour saturation. Saturation does not relate to how light or dark a colour is.

It was called the Silk Road because silk from China travelled westward and was traded for wool, gold and other goods that came from the west and travelled eastward.

The speed of light (in a vacuum) is defined as exactly 299,792,458 metres per second

Stygian means 'very dark'. The word comes from the River Styx in Greek mythology - which was the way to the underworld.

To learn more about subtractive colour, see  3.1 Additive and Subtractive colour in this resource

To superimpose is to place one thing over another, and allowing both to be visible. For example, to display or print an image or text over another image so that both are visible at once.

The tapetum lucidum is a biologic reflector system that is a common feature in the eyes of vertebrates. It normally functions to provide light-sensitive retinal cells with a second opportunity for photon-photoreceptor stimulation, thereby enhancing visual sensitivity at low-light levels.^[3]

Colour Value is also known Brightness: this value is different to Lightness – it relates to how bright a colour is, not how light (pale) or dark a colour is.

VANTA is an acronym which stands for Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays