matte

UK/mæt/US/mæt/

adjectiveB1+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,169 of 15,258leans written

Matte means having a flat surface with no shine. A matte finish, matte paint, matte lipstick.

It scatters light in every direction instead of reflecting it in one, which is why matte surfaces hide fingerprints and show scratches. In film a matte is a mask used to combine two images. Note that matt with two t's is the usual British spelling for the finish.

Definitions of matte

1adjectivematteHaving a flat surface with no shine.B1+
“Do you want your photos printed on glossy or matte paper?”

matte is a quality of surface.

Also accepted in games: matt

Where it comes from

French
mat
English, today
matte

Borrowed from French mat.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Colours & Patterns

Practise this word

matte in the wild

In order to combine the picture elements of the images correctly, it is necessary to keep an associated matte for each element in addition to its color.
Alpha compositing
Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image (e.g. actors on a set) with a background image (e.g. a scenic vista or a starfield with planets).
Matte (filmmaking)
In this case, the matte is the background painting.
Matte (filmmaking)
Whitlock Jr. was a British-born motion picture matte artist best known for his work with Disney and Universal Studios.
Albert Whitlock
In open matte, the 4:3 image is extracted from parts of the original negative which were shot but not intended to be used for the theatrical release.
Fullscreen (aspect ratio)

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

← Vocabulary