Unit 19

Assignment One

Pixels
Picture Elements
A picture element is the basic building block for a digital image (a raster image). A picture element
doesnt have a set size but it is the term that relates to the smallest resolvable rectangular area of an
image, either on a screen or stored in memory. The term is usually used with reference to graphic
artwork thats printed commercially or used in graphic design, its also commonly used with
reference to display monitors and displays for a computer or television as the number of picture
elements present in a monitor is normally used to describe the quality of the monitor. The easiest
way to understand a picture element is to consider older newspaper
images since they were made up of tiny dots of ink that could be
easily seen when looking closely or looking through a magnifying
glass; each tiny dot is a picture element and was the smallest point
of ink that could affordably be made at the time; pixels are smaller
now as printing technology has improved.
Image Resolution
The image resolution within a digital graphic refers to the number of
pixels in an image and therefore determines how detailed the image will
be. For example, if you had a picture of a map with a low resolution,
trying to see all the different place names and roads would be virtually
impossible as the number of pixels in that image would be too low to
create readable words from all the small place names, whereas if you
had the same image with a higher resolution, meaning there would be
more pixels in the image to display more colours, then all the place
names and roads would be clear and readable since having more pixels
with more colours would mean that text can be formed without having
one or two letters merged into one pixel and instead is able to use
multiple pixels to form one letter.
There are pros to using low resolution images though. Low resolution
images take up less space within a storage device such as a hard drive or
a pen drive, having low resolution images means that the user can
upload their image to a website with ease since having a lower file size
means that itd be unlikely to breach the file size limit (that most
websites that allow users to upload their own images have) and also itd
take much less time to upload the image than it would with an image
with a higher resolution. However, using an image with a low resolution
means that the quality of said image would be noticeably low and could be difficult to see what is in
the image clearly.
There are also pros to using high resolution digital graphics as the detail within the image would be
much more crisp and clearer to look at. However there are drawbacks to using high resolution digital
graphics as they take up a lot of space on a storage device, they are also more liely to break the file

size limits on websites if the user were to upload them and even if they didnt the upload speed
would be much slower than the upload speed of a low resolution digital image.
Intensity
Pixel intensity is measured via how bright an image is. For example, in
a monochrome image each pixel has its own brightness, from 0 for
black to the maximum value (255 for an 8-bit pixel) for white. In a
colour image each pixel has its own brightness and colour, usually
represented as a triple of red, green and blue intensities.

Raster Images
Compression:
Lossy
Lossy compression refers to data compression
techniques in which some amount of data is
lost; Lossy compression technologies attempt to
eliminate redundant or unnecessary
information. Lossy compression is usually used
for graphics, video and sound, as other types of
data cannot tolerate lossy compression. For
example, MPEG use a lossy technique, where a
certain amount of information loss will not be
detected by most users. The JPEG image file, commonly used for photographs and other complex
still images on the web is an image that has lossy compression, using JPEG compression, the creator
can decide how much loss to introduce and make a trade-off between file size and image quality.
Only graphics audio and video

Lossless
Lossless compression refers to data compression technologies in which no data is lost. The PKZIP
compression technology is an example of lossless compression. For most types of data, lossless
compression techniques can reduce the space needed by only about 50%. For greater compression
one must use a lossy compression technique. Lossless compression is generally the technique of
choice for text or spreadsheet files, where losing words or financial data could pose a problem. The
Graphics Interchange File (GIF) is an image format used on the web that provides lossless
compression.
File Extensions:
BMP
The BMP file format, also known as a bitmap image file, is a raster graphics
image file format which is used to store bitmap digital images. The BMP file
format is able to store both monochrome and colour files and is capable of
storing two-dimensional digital images of arbitrary width, height and
resolution, BMP can also be optionally used with data compression of Lossy
Lossless.

and

PNG
The PNG file format, also known as Portable Network Graphics is a raster graphics file format that
supports lossless data compression. The PNG file format was created as an improved non-patented
replacement for a GIF and is the most used lossless image compression format on the internet, PNG
was designed for transferring images on the Internet and not for professional-quality print graphics
and therefore does not support non-RGB colour spaces such as CMYK. PNG supports palette-based
images (with palettes of 24-bit RGB or 32-bit RGBA colours), greyscale images (with or without an
alpha channel) and full-colour non-palette-based RGB(A) images (with or without an alpha channel).
GIF
The GIF format, also known as a Graphics Interchange Format is a lossless format for image files that
supports both animated and static images. Because GIFs use lossless compression it does not
degrade the quality of an image. However, GIFs store image data using indexed colour, which means
that each image can only include a maximum of 256 colours. Since GIFs can only contain 256 colours,
they arent an ideal format for storing digital photos, such as those captured with a digital camera.
TIFF
The TIFF format, also known as a Tag Image File Format is a file format that is used for storing raster
graphics (bitmap) images, which is popular among the publishing industry, graphic artists, and both
amateur and professional photographers in general. The TIFF file format was originally created by
the Aldus cooperation (now part of Adobe Software) for use in desktop publishing; it is now
commonly used in faxing, 3-D applications, and medical imaging applications as well as desktop
publishing. The TIFF file format is commonly used for exchanging raster graphics between
application programs, including those used for scanner images.
JPEG
The JPEG file format, also known as a Joint Photographic Experts Group is a format that uses lossy
compression so image quality is lost as the file size decreases. JPEG files are the most common file
type for images taken with digital cameras and a common file format used for digital photos and
other digital graphics used on websites. JPEG files allow for some degree of file size reduction
without losing too much image quality unlike GIF files, which show significant loss in a photos image
quality.
PSD
The PSD file format, which is also known as a Photoshop Document, is the default format that
Photoshop uses for saving data. A PSD file is a layered image file that is used in Adobe Photoshop. A
PSD is a proprietary file that allows the user to work with the individual layers of an image even after
the file has been saved. When the image is complete, Photoshop allows the user to flatten the image
and then convert the flat image into a .JPEG, .GIF, .TIFF or other non-proprietary file formats so the
image can be shared.
Vector images:
Unlike raster image formats like JPEGs, GIFs and BMP, vector graphics are comprised of paths, which
are defined by a start and an end point. Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as
points, lines, curves and shapes or polygons to represent images in computer graphics. A path can be
a line, a square, a triangle or a curvy shape. These paths can then be used to create simple drawings
or complex diagrams. Because vector-based images are not made up of a specific number of dots,

they can be scaled to a larger size and not lose any image quality, whereas if you were to scale a
raster graphic to a larger size, it will look blocky, or pixelated. This makes vector images ideal for
logos, which can be small enough to appear on a business card, but then can also be scaled to fit a
billboard. Common types of vector graphics include Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand and
EPS files.
Points

Lines

Curves

Polygons

File extensions:
EPS
An Eps file, also known as an Encapsulated Postscript Vector is a file extension used for a graphics
file format used in vector-based images in Adobe Illustrator. EPS files can contain text as well as
graphics and usually contains a bitmap version of the graphic for simpler viewing, rather than the
vector instruction to draw the image.
AI
An AI file, also known as Adobe Illustrator Artwork file is a proprietary file format that was
developed by Adobe Systems for representing single-page vector-based drawings in either the EPS
or PDF formats.
FLA
A FLA file, also known as a Free Lossless Audio Codec is primarily associated with Flash by Adobe
Systems Incorporated. Adobe Flash, initially known as Shockwave Flash Professional multimedia
authoring program. The FLA is used when working with the working movie file in Flash, meaning that
the basic document file used in content development. When a movie is complete, the FLA file is
exported from Flash as an .swf file. This type of file cannot be then edited in the Flash Player like the
FLA file can.
Bit depth:
Sampling
In bit depth, sampling is the deconstruction of a pixel so that all the colours which are in one pixel
are revealed. Nearly every digital graphic is made up of one of the 1 to 18 bit colour range, for
example the higher the bit colour the better quality the image will be for the viewer. Each bit colour
level doubles the amount of colours in which each pixel contains, for example a 1-bit colour will
contain two colours, a 2-bit colour will contain four colours, a 3-bit colour will contain eight colours
per pixel and so on.

The table below represents the 24-bit colour range in which can hold up to 16,777,216 colours
within a digital image using nearly every possible mix of Red, Green and Blue.

Bits per pixel (BPP)

Every colour in a digital image is created through some combination of the three primary colours
(Red, Green and Blue). The bits per pixel (BPP) refers to the number of bits in all three colour
channel s and represents the total colours which are available at each pixel. For example, most
colour images produced via digital cameras have 8-bits per channel
and so they can use a total of eight 0s and 1s. This allows for 2s or
256 different combinations, which translates into 256 different
intensity values for each primary colour. When all three primary
colours are combined at each pixel, this allows for as many as 28*3
or 16,777,216 different colours, or "true colour." This is referred to
as 24 bits per pixel since each pixel is composed of three 8-bit
colour channels.
Monochrome
Monochrome in bit depth is one of the lowest forms of graphical
representation using one colour or different shades of one colour.
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design or photographs that are in
just one colour or have the values of just one colour. A monochrome objects
or image reflects colours in shades of limited colours or hues. For example,
whether the one colour is black/white or blue, it is stall classed as
monochrome.
256
In 8-bit images, they contain a colour palette of up to 256 different colours which are made up of
different shades of the 3 primary colour channels: red, blue and green. There are two forms of 8-bit
colour graphics; the most common uses a separate palette of 256 colours, where each of the 256
entries in the palette map is given red, green, and blue values. In most colour maps, each colour is
usually chosen from a palette of 16,777,216 colours.
Highcolour
Highcolour is a method of storing image information into a computers memory so that each pixel is
represented by two bytes. Usually the colour is represented by all 16 bits, however some devices
also support 15-bit highcolour.
Highcolour has been recently used by Microsoft to distinguish display systems that can make use of
more that 8-bite per colour channel (10:10:10:2 or 16:16:16:16 rendering formats) from traditional
8-bit per colour channel formats. This is a distinct usage from the 15-bit (5:5:5) or 16-bit (5:6:5)
formats traditionally associated with the phrase highcolour.

Truecolour
An image is called Truecolour when it offers a natural colour rendition, or when it comes close to
it. This means that the colours of an objects in an image appear to a human observer the same way
as if this observer were to be directly viewing the object. A green tree appears green in the image, a
red apple red, a blue sky blue, and so on. When applied to black-and-white images, truecolour
means that the perceived lightness of a subject is preserved in its depiction.
Truecolour supports 24-bit for three RGB colours. It provides a method of representing and storing
graphical-image information (especially in computer processing) in an RGB colour space such that a
very large number of colours, shades and hues can be displayed in an image. Usually, truecolour is
defined to mean 256 shades of red, green, and blue, for a total of 224 or 16,777,216 colour
variations. The human eye can discriminate up to ten million colours.
Colour space:
Greyscale
In photography and computing, a greyscale digital image is an image I which the value of each
pixel is a simple sample, which means that is carries only intensity information. Images of this sort,
also known as black-and-white, are composed exclusively of shades of grey, with black at the
weakest intensity to white at the strongest. Greyscale images are distinct from one-bit bi-tonal
black-and-white images, which in the context of computer imaging are images with only the two
colours, black, and white. Greyscale images have many shades of grey in between.

RGB
The RGB colour model is an additive colour model in which the three
primary colours: red, green and blue light are added together in various
ways to reproduce a broad range of colours. The name of the model
comes from the initials of the three additive primary colours, red, green,
and blue. The main purpose of the RGB colour model is for the sensing,
representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as
televisions and computers, though it has also been used in conventional photography. Before the
electronic age, the RGB colour model already had a solid theory behind it, based in human
perception of colours.

YUV (luminance and chrominance); HSV (hue, saturation, value)

Image capture:
Scanners
A scanner is a device which captures images from photographic prints,
posters, magazine pages, and similar sources for computer editing and
display. Scanners come in hand-held, feed-in, and flatbed forms and can be
used for scanning black-and-white only, or in colour. Scanners usually
attach to the users personal computer with a Small Computer System

Interface (SCSI).
Some major manufacturers of scanners are Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Microtek, and Relisys.
Sometimes scanners come with software, such as Adobe Photoshop product, which allows the user
to resize and otherwise modify a captured image.
Digital cameras
A digital camera can be used to record and store photographic images in digital
form. A lot of current camera models are also able to capture sound and/or
video, in addition to still images. Capture is usually accomplished via the use
of a photosensor, using a charged coupled device (CCD). These stored
images can be uploaded to a computer immediately or stored in the camera
for to be uploaded into a computer or printer later. Images may also be
archived on a photographic compact disc or external hard disk.
Resolution (pixels per inch)
In the context of editing photos, resolution is a measurement
of the output quality of an image. Pixels per inch are one of the
most common units to measure in when printing photographs.
Pixels per inch or PPI is the term that is commonly used when
selecting the resolution for images in photo editing software.
PPI is important since if the resolution of a device is too low
then the image will appear blurry, however if a device has a high PPI then the image will appear
clear. When you try to enlarge a picture with such a low resolution further, you are asking the
software application to make up for pixels that don't exist; the image will get blurrier. You can
always scale down resolution, but you cannot increase the resolution of an image. So bigger is better
if able to accommodate the extra file sizes.
Storage (memory, file size, asset management)
Storage memory is a term which is used to describe where digital files are kept within a computer or
memory source, storage memory can come in different sizes physically and electronically, usually
the bigger the electronic storage memory, the bigger the case the memory is held within depending
on the jump space in which the size of the memory goes from and to, within storage memory is held
files. Files often differ in size depending on their detail usually, the more detail a file can hold the
larger its size and the less detail in which file holds the smaller its size this goes for all types of files,
text, image (Raster and vector), code etc.
Optimising:
Optimising something involves increasing the efficiency or general performance of it. In terms of
graphics it involves creating a just balance so the quality of the image and the file size are reasonable
enough, this however is usually only done through optimising certain factors.
Target destination
The target destination is the destination in which the user wishes the graphic to be
located on the users network. In order to do this the user should be certain of the
folder in which they intend to save all of their graphics in, this will ensure that the

web server is able to locate the graphics quickly and with ease, therefore optimising the
performance of the website.
Bit depth
Bit depth is the volume of bits per pixel (BPP), reducing the bit depth will
also reduce the image file size however the image quality is likely to suffer
because of this. The creator will need to make a choice between having
good quality graphics with a slower load time, or having poorer quality
graphics which will enable the website to perform faster.
Resolution
Resolution of graphics can be used to optimise the file size and also optimise the quality of the
image although both cannot be optimised at the same time. This is because by optimising the
graphic quality the file size will be much larger, which although wont be very beneficial for the
creator, the users will benefit from the higher visual quality. On the other hand, if the creator
decides to reduce the file size then the
image quality will be worse.
Dimensions
Dimensions relate to the length and width of a digital image. Although by changing the dimensions
of a graphic can make the image smaller or bigger depending on the purpose or location of the
image for the business. When changing the dimensions of the graphic the volume of pixels stays the
same, the only difference is the larger the image the more space the pixels have to cover which can
make the image quality deteriorate.
Intended image output, e.g. screen, worldwide web
When creating graphics the intended image output is essential as they need to not only fit on the
webpage, but also be a decent standard to be accessed and processed quickly by the users
computer. The intended image output is the data found in a computer file which informs on the
graphic output.