DIGITAL GRAPHICS

REPORT
Ricky Speed
 Pixels
Picture elements, otherwise known as pixels, are the building blocks of all digital images, they are a single point which
come in the millions to make up an image. The colour of a pixel is made from the three colour signals red, blue and green.
They are the smallest bit of information in a picture and are typically square or circular in shape. A 2D grid is the common
arrangement for pixels as this is best for a monitor/screen. If you zoom in on a digital image you can see the individual
pixels which make up the image, a pixel is one colour and an image is made up of lots of different coloured pixels; a black
and white image is even made up of multiple shades of grey/black/white pixels. One pixel can display over 16 million
colours, bits that represent the pixel decide how many shades of grey/colours can be shown. An example of this is that in 8-
bit colour mode a monitor will use 8-bits for every pixel, this means it can display 2 to the power of 8 (256) different colours
and shades of grey. When looking at a digital image you can not see the gaps between the pixels, this is because they’re so
close together they seem conjoined with one another.
Resolution of an image refers to the amount of pixels in the image. When an image is 1920x1080 in resolution, it is made up
of a total of 2,073,600 pixels! As a result of this, higher resolution leads to higher quality. Pixels and resolution have a direct
correlation to quality and clearness of the image. Megapixels are also used to calculate the resolution of an image, one
megapixel is 1 million pixels. This is a good way to measure the pixels in the sense that it is a single number.
Intensity of a pixel is the amount of light or the number value that the pixel emits. Histograms are commonly used to show
the intensity of the total pixels.
Raster Images
Raster images (bitmap graphics) are the most common images. They are made up from pixels of different colours arranged
In a grid of X and Y coordinates unless 3D then a Z coordinate is also added, these grids are usually rectangular in shape (as
this best fits a monitor/paper). The file size of a raster image is decided by how many pixels there are in total, for example a
1920x1080 image containing 2,073,600 pixels has a larger file size than a 1280x720 image with 921,600 pixels.
One drawback of raster graphics is that you can’t resize them from their original size without losing quality, however, you
can make them smaller without loss of quality. These images also have a naturally high file size and are inefficient in terms
of computer storage space, to aid with this we can compress these graphics. Runlength coding (lossless) is a common form
of compression on raster images, this is because instead of pixel values being repeated they are coded in pairs (run-length,
value). The main data is in pairs otherwise known as tuples, these tuples contain a pixel value and a repetition value which is
the number of pixels in the runlength. Data is created by scanning through the raster row by row, a new tuple is created
whenever the pixel value changed or when it reaches the end of the row.
There are 2 types of compression, lossless and lossy. Lossless compression allows for the original data to be recovered after
compression. In lossy compression this is not the case and some of the original data can’t be restored, instead it is deleted
permanently.
Raster graphics can come in many formats Including GIF which can be used to make small animations, however, these are
not the best quality as they’re limited to an 8-bit palette. PNG is a very common format for raster images and it was created
to be an alternative to GIF, PNG has a much larger range of colours as it has the capability to use 48-bit TrueColor. Exclusive
to Photoshop PSD is a format that uses layers and still allows the editing of these layers even after saving, this works out
great for graphic designers and those who may need to make altercations to their work.
Vector Images
Unlike raster images vector doesn’t use resolution and pixels, instead they use lines, polygons and curves. This difference
allows for vector images to be enlarged to any point with no loss in quality at all! The size of the file is also considerably
smaller than that of a raster image. Adobe Illustrator is a very common program used to create these vector images as it is
based around lines and anchor points, files created in Illustrator are usually exported in AI format as this is the native format
for this program. Vector images are defined by mathematical equations, these equations are called Bezier curves and are
the replacement for pixels, these curves always render at the highest quality resulting in them looking crisp and smooth.
One drawback of vector is that it can’t be used for hyper realistic images, rather they are better suited for graphics like
logos, however, vector is evolving and we are able to do much more than we could a decade ago. With todays technology
we can actually add a bitmapped texture to a vector and give it a hyper-realistic look. These graphics are based on vectors
and these vectors lead through specific points called control points or nodes, these points have a specific position on the X
and Y axes of the work plane and this determines the direction of the path. An EPS file stands for ‘Encapsulated PostScript’,
EPS is a file format for graphics which are either bitmap or vector. This file format works for both types of graphics, it’s a
standard format for the importation and exportation of PostScript files
Bit Depth
Bit depth is the colour information stored in a digital image, if the bit depth is higher then it can store more colours. Images
with 1 bit can only display black and white. The more bits there are increases the amount of colours available greatly, 8 bit
images can store 256 colours while a 24 bit image can store 16 million colours! A black and white image or ‘1 bit
monochrome’ is a picture with only 1 bit, these images use 0’s and 1’s to determine colour much like binary. 24 bit colour
images or ‘true colour’ can display over 16 million colours, these are variations of 256 different shades of RGB (red, green
and blue). 16 bit images make use of around 65,000 colours and are commonly known as ‘high colour’. High colour is known
as ‘thousands of colours’ on a mac computer, it’s a way to store image information that each pixel has 2 bytes which
represent it. True colour is used by many operations systems as it is the best quality of colour we currently have access to.
However some more advanced and new computers offer 32-bit which is even higher than true colour! Sampling of bit depth
is relative to X and Y pixels per linear unit.
Colour Space
A specific array of colours is known as colour space, the colour space of a device basically describes the range of
colours the device can display.
Grayscale images are images where the value of every pixel is one sample, this single sample is the intensity
information. Otherwise known as monochrome these images are made up of shades of grey, these shades range
from white with the strongest intensity to black with the weakest intensity. Grayscale images are much different to
the average 1 bit black and white image as there are many shades of grey in-between the black and white which
means more information is stored in them, this results in a higher file size.
RGB (red-green-blue) colour spaces are made up of every colour you can make with red, green and blue coloured
lights (in an easier to understand way). If the red and blue lights are on then the colour will be purple, however, if
just the red light is on then the light will remain red.
Image Capture
A scanner is a device that optically scans an object or image (usually on paper) and creates a digital image version
of what you put in the scanner, white light is shined onto the object from one side and then a sensor detects the
intensity of light and colour that is reflected, from this the scanner can get an accurate reading of what was put in
the scanner.
Digital cameras capture images via light, the shutter opens for a fraction of a second and photo sensors read the
pattern of the light inputted electronically. This information is produced as a data file which allows us to edit it and
store it on a computer. The resolution of these images is dependant on the camera taking the picture. Megapixels
are commonly used to describe quality of a camera and this has a direct link to resolution, 1 megapixel is 1 million
pixels. An image which has 2 megapixels will have a larger file size than those with 1 megapixel but it will also be
higher quality. Pixels per inch is something to be considered when talking about image quality, if you were looking
at two phones and they both had a 1920x1080 display but one phones screen has a smaller surface area then the
phone with a smaller screen will appear to be more clear and higher quality.
All images will have a different file size, this all depends on how many bits, the resolution and many other factors.
Images with millions of colours and a high resolution are going to have a larger file size than black and white
pixelated images
Optimising
Optimising is very important as this allows us to get things more specifically to how we want them, this can range
from format of an image to the destination of the file. Sometimes we need to be very specific and luckily with
computers this is quite easy, we can pick where to save our files, the resolution of our files and the dimensions of
our images.
If we are completing work for a client we need to be aware of how we can optimise the image to best suit the
customer, we need to ask questions like ‘is the client wanting to use this on the internet’ yes? Then we must ensure
than the file format is correct and the size isn’t too large (this is where compression will come into effect). If the
customer wants a graphic for a company vehicle then we must make it the appropriate dimensions to fit their
needs.