"alpha channel" meaning in All languages combined

See alpha channel on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: alpha channels [plural]
Etymology: Coined by Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull in the 1970s. Smith writes: "We called it that because of the classic linear interpolation formula αA+(1-α)B that uses the Greek letter α (alpha) to control the amount of interpolation between, in this case, two images A and B". That is, when compositing image A atop image B, the value of α in the formula is A's alpha channel. Head templates: {{en-noun}} alpha channel (plural alpha channels)
  1. (computer graphics) A numerical value specifying a level of translucency to be applied to a colour. Wikipedia link: Alvy Ray Smith, Ed Catmull, alpha channel Categories (topical): Computer graphics Translations (numeric value): alfakanava (Finnish), canal alfa [masculine] (Portuguese)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for alpha channel meaning in All languages combined (1.8kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull in the 1970s. Smith writes: \"We called it that because of the classic linear interpolation formula αA+(1-α)B that uses the Greek letter α (alpha) to control the amount of interpolation between, in this case, two images A and B\". That is, when compositing image A atop image B, the value of α in the formula is A's alpha channel.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "alpha channels",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "alpha channel (plural alpha channels)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computer graphics",
          "orig": "en:Computer graphics",
          "parents": [
            "Computing",
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A numerical value specifying a level of translucency to be applied to a colour."
      ],
      "id": "en-alpha_channel-en-noun-T80fpKh8",
      "links": [
        [
          "computer graphics",
          "computer graphics"
        ],
        [
          "numerical",
          "numerical"
        ],
        [
          "value",
          "value"
        ],
        [
          "translucency",
          "translucency"
        ],
        [
          "colour",
          "colour"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computer graphics) A numerical value specifying a level of translucency to be applied to a colour."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computer-graphics",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "numeric value",
          "word": "alfakanava"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "numeric value",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "canal alfa"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Alvy Ray Smith",
        "Ed Catmull",
        "alpha channel"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "alpha channel"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull in the 1970s. Smith writes: \"We called it that because of the classic linear interpolation formula αA+(1-α)B that uses the Greek letter α (alpha) to control the amount of interpolation between, in this case, two images A and B\". That is, when compositing image A atop image B, the value of α in the formula is A's alpha channel.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "alpha channels",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "alpha channel (plural alpha channels)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "en:Computer graphics"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A numerical value specifying a level of translucency to be applied to a colour."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computer graphics",
          "computer graphics"
        ],
        [
          "numerical",
          "numerical"
        ],
        [
          "value",
          "value"
        ],
        [
          "translucency",
          "translucency"
        ],
        [
          "colour",
          "colour"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computer graphics) A numerical value specifying a level of translucency to be applied to a colour."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computer-graphics",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Alvy Ray Smith",
        "Ed Catmull",
        "alpha channel"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "numeric value",
      "word": "alfakanava"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "numeric value",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "canal alfa"
    }
  ],
  "word": "alpha channel"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (a644e18 and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.