Raster Graphics

Raster Graphics are made up of tiny rectangular squares called pixels. Each small square is given one colour, when you zoom out away from these pixels they come together and show a picture just like how a collage shows a picture when you back away from it.


Advantages of Raster Graphics
Even though it uses this method of using tiny pixels to make the images, the image looks very realistic when it is viewed at its proper size.


Disadvantages of Raster Graphics
There are limitations to using Raster Graphics, when zoomed in the picture becomes blurry and the pixels are easier to see making it hard to zoom into a photo and keep the quality of the picture.


Vector
Vector graphics use mathematical equations to create the image. These mathematical equations mark out points, lines and curves of the image.


Advantages of Vector
The images can be scaled with out any loss in quality. The picture also don’t take up a lot of disk space.


Disadvantages of Vector
Computers have to work harder so that the picture can be displayed so this may result in the image taking longer to be processed. They cannot be used to display photographs or any other complicated pictures.


Compression

Compression is used usually to reduce the size of images. Images can be compressed as either Lossy or Lossless.


Lossy

Lossy compression will reduce the file size of a picture but by doing so will permanently delete details of the image which will reduce the quality of the image.


Lossless

Lossless compression unlike lossy compression will not permanently delete details of the image when compressing the file so details can be recovered.


JPEG

JPEG (stands for joint photographic experts group) is used for image compression. JPEG is used for compressing either 24 bit images or real life pictures.


Advantages of JPEG

It works well with photographs, naturalistic artwork and anything similar. All web browsers support JPEG.


Disadvantages of JPEG

It does not work well with lettering, cartoons, and black and white line drawings because files tend to come out very large. JPEG can only handle still pictures and cannot handle moving pictures. Has a lossy compression so some details are permanently lost when pictures are compressed. JPEG also creates a mess of vector images when they are compressed into JPEG.


GIF

GIF (stands for graphics interchange format) is a type of bitmap images. GIF is often used for simple or moving pictures.


Advantages of GIF

Suitable for logos or other simple images with solid areas of colour. GIF supports animation. Has a lossless compression so details are not permanently deleted when pictures are compressed by GIF.


Disadvantages of GIF

There is a limit of 256 colours allowed for each image. GIF is unsuitable for photographs or images with continuous colour because of its colour limit.


TIFF

TIFF (stands for tagged image file format) is a file format for storing images for Apple Macintosh computers.


Advantages of TIFF

TIFF files are usually the best quality photograph files for digital cameras. Files can either be stored as lossless or lossy files. Lossless files don’t compress the image.


Disadvantages of TIFF

Lossless files are rather big in size because of the fact that these files don’t compress the image.


PNG

PNG (stands for portable network graphics) is a type of bitmap image that was created to replace the GIF files.


Advantages of PNG

PNG compresses files into lossless images so details are not permanently lost when images are compressed into PNG images. PNG supports palette-based images and grayscale images.


Disadvantages of PNG

PNG does not support non-RGB colour spaces because it was not designed for print graphics.

BMP

BMP also known as bitmap or DIB (device-independent bitmap) is a raster graphics file format used to store digital bitmap images.


Advantages of BMP

BMP has a very realistic picture display. Image editing software will support BMP images.


Disadvantages of BMP

BMP images will lose quality when zoomed in. BMP are quite large compared to the likes of JPEG or GIF.

New and Emerging Technology

Now lets look at how the future of technology may effect digital graphics.

Mobile Phone
I had a little look at mobile phones and found this:


Now although this phone has not been named some of the features of the phone have been listed. The phone is touch screen but its different to today's touch screen its made from graphene which makes it essentially indestructible, even to water. The phone can be bent(without breaking it) like so:


It takes 30 seconds to fully charge the battery and it should be on the market sometime within the next ten years showing you how much technology should evolve in such a short time. It also shows you how much digital graphics are evolving that picture can be physical bent on device as simple as mobile phones so how knows what can be done to digital graphics on computers.


Computers
Now I know it's hard to imagine how more advanced computers could possibly get but the Vaio Zoom looks to be one incredibly advanced laptop compared to nowadays computers.
 

The screen is completely transparent when turned off but when turned on image is pushed through this quite thin area of transparent glass which if you think about it is actually not that far off from holographs, a bit like the ones you saw in old futuristic movies. The keyboard also uses the same kind of technology, the keyboard can only be seen when the laptop is on when the laptop is off the keyboard disappears. 


So from Vaio Zoom we see some huge changes to digital graphics. We see that the physical keyboards that we know may become a thing of the past thanks to these virtual keys and the fact that image can be seen on transparent glass shows that technology no longer need the monitors we use on all of our computers at home and it also shows that technology may not be that far away from creating images that require no monitors to present them.

Two Types of hardware

Here I will compare two types of hardware for editing/creating images with:

Graphics Tablet:
A graphics tablet is an input device used by a computer for creating hand drawing that can be made on a software package like paint. A graphics tablet in simple terms is a flat square that can be drawn over using a stylus (not a real pen), which is very similar to using a pen to draw something on paper, this is why it is so easy to use for making drawings for computers.

Now lets go through the limitations, for a start it isn't bought with a computer it has to be bought separate for the computer, it can be expensive the cost of a graphics tablet is somewhere between the price of £35 to £250 and they can only be used as a tool for drawing with, they could possibly be used as a mouse but the chances are this would be too awkward.  

Mouse:
A mouse can also be used for editing photos or drawing pictures but it has a few different advantages to the graphics tablet. for a start it comes with a computer, its usually cheaper too an average mouse costs around £10, they are pretty simple to use and can be used to do more than a graphics tablet.


Although don't think a mouse doesn't have limitations, an example of a few limitations a mouse has is it isn't as easy to draw with as a graphics tablet and a graphics tablet is easier for an artist to draw, if your mouse goes over a bump it can ruin your drawing while a graphics tablet doesn't have that problem.

So if you had the option which one would you pick? They both have their advantages and disadvantages but if you could draw and money is not an issue then your best with a graphics tablet, but if you are new with photo editing or short on money just use a mouse for now, its still highly useful for editing or drawing images with. 

Two Types of software

Photoshop:
photoshop is one of the most well known photo editing programs on the market for computers. It has the ability to remove backgrounds or delete parts of the picture and join two pictures together. It can be used to make pictures seem professional or real so it is a useful program for those who design magazine covers or create posters for advertisement etc but that doesn't mean you have to be an artist to use it.
Let me take you through a simple task of joining 2 picture together, these are the pictures I used:

Now if you add your pictures to the one file you will notice that you can only add effects to the one image, the reason is it only allows you to manipulate one image at a time if you want to manipulate the other image select the image under the "Layers" at the bottom right of the screen. I deleted most of the picture of the 2nd picture, made it slightly transparent and put it on top of the first picture but you are allowed to do extra editing if you want like.

There are very few limitations to to photoshop but some of the few limitations are that it very expensive to buy photoshop (£368) and to new users it may be difficult to understand because it only allows one picture to be edited at a time.

Paint:

Paint unlike photoshop is free and usually comes with any windows computer. Its software is also very easy to use and it can be easily understood by new users (unlike photoshop). It has many of the same functions that photoshop has like rotate, resize and crop. It also has quite good tools for drawing with making it easy to be creative and also comes with various of shapes which can be used to help be creative.

Although there are also limitations to paint to, unlike photoshop it does not have as many tools to manipulate pictures with and pictures are very difficult to be joined together on paint.

So now that we have looked at an overview of the products you may wonder which one are you better with having for photo manipulation, well the answer will depend on why do you need software to manipulate photos. if you need software for combining more than one photo together photoshop is probley your best choice but if you need something to show a more creative side then maybe you would be better of using paint.

Output Medium

Printer:

•A printer is an output device used for making paper copies of documents made on computers

•A business usually uses high quality laser printers for the use of office work to get the best possible picture quality

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Konica Minolta Magicolor 8650DN A3+ Colour Laser Printer:

•An A3 laser printer designed for medium-sized organisations in need of a premium colour solution.

•Extremely fast

•At a price of: £1,955.54 excluding VAT

Computer Monitor:

•A computer monitor is used to display what’s on the computer

•Triple monitoring (3 computer monitors connected to the 1 computer) is used by:

•Gamers

•Game designers

•Music producers

NEC LCD2490WUXi2B 24.0" Black Monitor:  

•A monitor designed to show the clearest picture possible with a high response rate.

•high resolute of 1920 x 1200

•very lightweight 

•costs £629.00

Mobile Phone:

•These are used to make calls from anywhere without having to be connected through phone wires

•early mobile phones were rather large and were limited to only making calls whilst modern mobiles can be used for capturing pictures, recording videos, texting and sending videos, pictures etc.

•Many large businesses offer their employees company phones because they are important to the business and need to be reachable at any time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HT Desire HD:

•comes with wi-fi, email and instant message

•phone can be used abroad

•8 megapixel camera and hd video recorder

•cost £449.95 on pay as you go or £26 a month on 02

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PDA:

 •PDA (personal digital assistant) is a handheld device used to play music, browse the web, read email and set up appointments, this makes them very useful to businesses

•most modern mobile phones now have been built to function like a PDA but stand-alone PDAs are still being sold around the world

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dell axim X51 PDA:

 •runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0

 •Touch screen

 •Bluetooth 

 •128 mb memory and comes with a SD card slot 

 •costs £241.52

 

 

 

 

 

Performance of a computer

Hard drive:

•A hard drive is used to store memory on a computer.

•The size of a hard drive will not effect a computers performance (unless it is near filled) but the speed of which it saves and opens saved files will effect a computers performance

Graphics Card:

•A graphics card is used to display image/video.

•A good graphicscard will improve the speed at which images/videos are processed for viewing on screen significantly meaning less time is used recreating the image.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Processor(s):

•This is used to control all of the functions a computer makes.

•A higher gigahertz processor chip will take less time to make its processes making a computer run faster.

RAM:

•RAM (random access memory) is used as temporary memory for a computer. 

•The more memory of RAM your computer has the faster your computer works because as soon as the RAM memory is full things start to get saved on your hard drive which is a much slower process.

 

hardware components for digital graphics

There are various hardware components that can be used to create and manipulate digital graphics. I will describe these components.

Mouse:
•A mouse is a hand-held object that is connected to a computer. It is used to open programs and websites.

•It can be used to resize, delete backgrounds and rotate images.

Monitor:

•A monitor is used to see programs, websites etc that are being loaded on a computer

•It is used to see how you are manipulating a digital graphic



Graphics Tablet:

•A graphics tablet is a device used to allow a user to input a hand writing into a computer

•It can be used to draw pictures that can be saved on a computer

•Here is an example of it being used : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZQWhOCEc3s

Digital Camera:

•It is used to take pictures of anything that exists.

•You can zoom in on pictures that have been took and the pictures can be saved on to a computer for extra editing

  

Scanner:

•It is used to send pictures that are on pages to a computer

•Picture that have been sent on a computer can be edited from there

USB Flash Drive:

•A USB flash drive is used to send files to another computer or to back up files

•File can be sent to different computers so they can be manipulated by different people

Flash Cards:



•A flash card is used to save pictures on a digital camera or files on a mobile phone

•Computers with a slot for flash cards can open the files on a flash card and from there the files can be manipulated

Firewire:

• Firewire is used to connect digital cameras and digital video cameras up to a computer
• they have a faster connecting speed than usb and don't depend as much on the processor
• Files on cameras and video cameras can be be sent to a computer via Firewire to be manipulated by the computer.

Printer:

• A printer is used to print out pages that are on computers, the pages can have writing, pictures or both.
• Pages can be printed out to see what they look like on paper to see if anything is out of place when printed or the pages can be given to other people to scan on to their computer to be edited.