IT Jargon Glossary

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) 

A popular type of compressed graphics (picture) file, widely used on the Internet. Best for pictures with 16 or fewer colours, digital line drawings and logos. See also jpg, compression. 

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) 

The system used for creating World Wide Web pages, ordinary text with commands for special effects like pictures, colour and links enclosed between < > symbols. 

ISP (Internet Service Provider) 

A company which provides a connection to the Internet, or Internet services. 

JPEG, jpg (Joint Picture [Experts] Group; pr. "jay-peg") 

A standard type of compressed graphics file, widely used on the Internet. Particularly good for photographs. See also compression. 

MP3 (MPeg-1 audio layer 3)

A very popular standard for compressing audio and particularly music files down to a reasonable size with little or no perceptible loss of quality, and the files created using it - "an MP3" is an audio file. See MPEG, Compression. 

Pixel (Picture cell) 

All computer screen or printed images are made up of pixels, small square dots - the more the pixels, the higher the image quality. 

POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3; pr. "pop 3") 

A protocol for transmitting and receiving email, but mostly used just for receiving. (Its less powerful predecessor, SMTP still mostly handles transmitting.) 

Resolution 

Loosely speaking, the quality of an image. When printing or working with images, the resolution is usually measured in Dots Per Inch (dpi) - the more dots per inch, the higher the quality of the image but the larger the file needed to store it. 

RGB (Red, Green, Blue) 

The three colours used by a computer screen - all the other colours can be made up by mixing red, blue and green. A few printers use this system as well, though most use the alternative CMYK system instead. 

Server 

A computer at the centre of most networks which provides files and other services to other computers. Also known as a file server. 

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

The original method of transmitting and receiving email on the Internet. Still often used for transmitting, but has been widely replaced by POP3 for receiving. 

URL (Universal Resource Locator) 

An address used to locate something on the Internet, most often a web page. All web addresses are URLs. E.g. www.magicdust.com.au.  

Web Host 

A company which makes web pages available on the World Wide Web, usually as a commercial venture. 

Web Server 

A computer which fetches or stores World Wide Web pages and provides them over the Internet on request. 

Web Space 

The storage on an Internet server where websites are kept. Web space can be hired from a commercial provider, or is sometimes provided free with an Internet dialup account, though usually with constraints on what you can use it for.