Are you new to digital scrapbooking and feeling a little lost amongst some of the lingo you're encountering? Below are explanations of some of the general tech terms that you will see used in relation to digital scrapbooking. These terms and ideas are in no way digital scrapbooking specific, but you will often see them used in digital scrapbooking forums and other places where digital scrappers gather.
- Backup—this is the process of creating a copy of files on your computer and placing them onto a different storage media (e.g. DVD, external hard drive, internal hard drive in another computer, flash drive). Many people create regular backups of important files in case they experience a failure of their hard drive in their main computer to prevent loss of the files.
- Download—this is how you receive files from the internet to your computer. Digital scrapbooking supplies are files that are downloaded from a server to your computer.
- DPI—stands for Dots per Inch and is sometimes used interchangeably with PPI, but is not the same. DPI indicates how many dots of ink a printer lays down when it prints a document or photo. A printer has a maximum DPI that it can print. The higher the DPI number the more clarity you will get in your printed project. When you choose the “draft” setting when printing a document, the printer will print at a lower DPI laying down less ink therefore making the print faster but at a lower quality.
- External Hard Drive (also “EHD”)—permanent data storage device identical to the hard drive within your computer except for the fact that it is placed within a plastic housing. An external hard drive plugs into your computer via a USB connector and can be used to add extra storage space to your computer without opening your actual computer case and adding a second hard drive. External hard drives are also often used as a place to store backups of computer files.
- Flash Drive—memory storage device that is connected to a computer by plugging it into a USB port. Flash drives are popular because they are highly portable (small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, pocket or purse) and are supported by most every operating system.
- Gigabyte (also “GB”)—unit of measure equal to about a billion bytes; often used to describe the size of a file.
- Hard Drive/Hard Disk (also “HD”)—permanent data storage space on your computer. When you choose to save a file on your computer, the data is written to your hard drive.
- Megabyte (also “MB”)—unit of measure equal to about a million bytes; often used to describe the size of a file.
- Pixel—stands for Picture Element and is the smallest part of every image you see on your computer monitor.
- PPI—stands for Pixels per Inch and is sometimes used interchangeably with DPI, but is not the same. PPI indicates the number of pixels per inch that are in your image. The higher the PPI, the higher quality your image will be when printed. (This does not apply for images prepared for viewing on a computer monitor. Computer monitors only display up to 72 PPI.) Most digital scrapbooking supplies are created at 300 PPI as this is considered within the range of “print quality” for images.
- RAM (also “memory”)—stands for Random Access Memory. This is the temporary storage space used for files and programs while you use them. Data written to RAM is purged when a program is closed or your computer is turned off. Every program that can be installed on a computer has a minimum requirement of RAM necessary to run the program.
- Zip File—a file format used for data compression and file archival. Most digital scrapbooking supplies will be downloaded in zip files and can be “unzipped” (or unpacked) by right-clicking on the zip file and choosing one of the unzip options.