Adobe Certified Professional Illustrator flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Work made for hire

A legal doctrine under which copyright in work created by an employee within job scope, or by a contractor under written agreement, belongs to the hiring party.

Project brief

A document stating a project's goals, target audience, deliverables, constraints, and timeline; it aligns client and designer before production begins.

Exclusive license

A written grant giving one licensee sole rights to use a work in specified ways, excluding all others including potentially the original creator.

Statement of work

A contract annex listing deliverables, revision limits, milestones, and payment terms that defines the boundaries of a design engagement.

Spot color

A pre-mixed ink specified by a matching system such as Pantone, printed on its own plate rather than built from CMYK process inks.

Change order

A written amendment authorizing work beyond the original scope, typically adjusting fees and schedule before the added work proceeds.

Copyright fixation

The principle that copyright arises automatically once an original work is fixed in a tangible medium, without registration or notice.

Raster versus vector

Raster images are pixel grids that lose quality when enlarged; vector graphics are mathematical paths that scale indefinitely without pixelation.

PPI formula

Pixels per inch equals pixel dimension divided by physical dimension in inches; a 3000-pixel image printed 10 inches wide is 300 PPI.

Bit depth

The number of bits used per color channel; 8-bit channels give 256 levels each, while 16-bit channels give 65,536 levels for smoother gradients.

Lossy compression

A compression method such as JPEG that permanently discards image data to shrink file size, degrading quality with each successive save.

Lossless compression

A compression method that reduces file size while preserving all original pixel data, allowing repeated saves without quality loss.

Color gamut

The range of colors a device or color space can represent; converting from a wide gamut to a narrower one can clip out-of-gamut colors.

Anti-aliasing

A rendering technique that blends edge pixels with background colors to reduce jagged stair-stepping on diagonal and curved raster edges.

Upsampling limit

Interpolation can enlarge a raster image but cannot restore detail that was never captured, so enlarged images appear soft or blurred.

Resolution for print

Print output commonly targets 300 PPI at final reproduction size, while large-format work may succeed at lower PPI viewed from a distance.

Bezier curve

A mathematically defined curve shaped by anchor points and direction handles, forming the basis of vector path drawing in Illustrator.

Smooth versus corner point

A smooth anchor has collinear handles producing a continuous curve; a corner anchor has independent handles producing an abrupt direction change.

Pathfinder Unite

A Pathfinder operation that merges selected overlapping shapes into a single combined shape using the topmost object's appearance.

Shape Builder tool

An interactive tool that merges or removes regions formed by overlapping selected paths by dragging across or clicking those regions.

Clipping mask

A topmost vector path that hides all artwork beneath it outside the path's shape, confining visible content to that silhouette.

Opacity mask

A mask that uses luminance or alpha values of placed artwork to make parts of an object transparent rather than hiding them entirely.

Global color swatch

A named swatch whose edits propagate to every object using it, enabling consistent recoloring across an entire document.

Symbol instance

A linked copy of a master symbol; editing the master updates all instances, reducing file size and maintaining visual consistency.

Artboard

A defined printable or exportable region within an Illustrator document; one file can contain multiple artboards of differing sizes.

Appearance attribute

A fill, stroke, effect, or transparency setting that can be applied to objects, groups, or entire layers and edited independently of path geometry.

PDF/X-4

A print-ready PDF standard that permits live transparency and RGB content, relying on the RIP to handle transparency during output.

Flattening

The process of converting transparent overlapping artwork into opaque pieces for output formats that cannot preserve live transparency.

Package command

An Illustrator function that gathers the document, linked images, and fonts into one folder for handoff or reliable archival.

SVG export

A vector web format export that preserves scalable paths and can include text, making graphics resolution-independent in browsers.

Overprint Preview

A viewing mode that simulates how overlapping inks combine on press, revealing unintended overprints before final output.

Archival deliverable set

Best practice for archiving: retain the native editable file, a PDF/X proof, and a manifest listing fonts and linked assets.