Unit 30 - Digital Graphics

Hard drive

Hard drive is a computer hardware, which is connected to your mother board through different type of cables. You can get internal and external hard drive; which means that it can be a portable hard drive and have lots of capacity. Hard drive is important because when you save your graphic files, your system will automatically save it to your hard drive. Hard drive can be used to store your photos that have been taken on digital camera to make free space on your digital camera because then you can delete the files on digital camera because it will be stored on your hard drive and will allow you to take more photos on your camera. Hard drive cost start from £30. The cost depends on the capacity and brand. It is also important to have hard drive because you need a place to install and store your software . For example, to install Photoshop you needs about 1 GB of hard disk space to install the Photoshop software.

Graphics card

Graphic card is hardware in your computer that generates images that you see on your screen. It is important that the computer has a graphic card inserted on a motherboard because by having a high end graphic card will give you the best picture quality. It basically gathers the digital information from the operating system and then sent the data to graphic card to specify the data in more detailed, in order what to show on the screen.  Graphic card is needed because it display resolution and colour depth based of the user requirement and if the output monitor would be able to control the resolution and the colour depth. Graphic card works by collecting digital data from the system and sends it through video cable like (DVI cable) by creating a signal that then previews the signal as a picture on to the output device like monitor. Latest, best quality graphic cards can produce good quality pictures without slowing down the system. DVI is a latest version of VGA cable and DVI is commonly used because it produces better picture quality than the VGA cable. 32 bits colour is usually used by graphic designers and are split in two section 24 bits colour data and 8bits for transparency.  Graphic card is attached to the motherboard and connects to 4 main hardware component. This are motherboard, processor, memory and monitor It is connected to motherboard for power supply and data. It is connected to processor because than processor decide what to do with each pixel and how the pixel should be preview on a monitor. It is connected to memory because memory holds data about each pixel and to temporarily store completed images. Monitor so that you can see your images in good quality .

Processor

The processor is a brain of the computer because it does all the calculating; without the processor, graphic wouldn't be able to function in your computer. For a good graphic you need the high end processor for example Intel I7. Without a processor installed on your motherboard you won’t be able to run anything because it allows operating system, program to run. It is important to have latest processor installed because they can run instruction alongside, where old processor couldn't and ran instruction one at the time which made it slower to function. It is Important to have latest processor because when it comes to designing,  graphics has lots of instructions and the more instructions the processor can deal with the faster the graphic program because software like Photoshop needs a good  processor in order to run the program effectively.  Processor is important when manipulating images because processor controls all the instruction that is send by devices e.g mouse. It is also needed when manipulating images because it runs industrial software like Photoshop. If the processor cant handle the data it receives than the computer will freeze. 

RAM

RAM is a short form of random access memory; it is an internal memory hard drive that helps makes your computer run smoothly. Good amount of RAM is needed to help manipulate good graphic images. About 2 GB will be needed because this will help store and load up software quickly such a Photoshop.  If you don’t have big amount of RAM, then when you use Photoshop, you won’t be able to use some of the Photoshop tools effectively because some tools need more RAM space and if you have less RAM space, then when your editing images it will make your computer slower.  When editing graphic images in Photoshop; Ram temporarily stores the graphic images and the pixel. Ram is important when manipulation graphic images this is because this is where the each pixel is stored and it stores the graphic image until it is displayed on monitor.

Screen

Screen connected by two different type of wire: power cable; that is connected to the wall to power up the screen and VGA cable that is connected to you graphic card VGA socket. The size of the screen does matter when it comes to manipulating images because higher the monitors resolution is better because it let you see more information in more details like an image will be shown more clearly and in higher quality then lower monitor resolution. The benefit of more resolution is that: fewer mistakes will be made when designing because more information will be displayed on the screen and it will make it more efficient to scroll around. Drawback, could be that when you have additional information on the same size screen means that text, images,

Icons and other data are all smaller. The effect of that would be that the information will be harder to understand. There is different type of screen like the old TFT monitor and latest CRT monitor. It is better to have a CRT monitor because it has LCD screen which uses less power, it doesn’t have electromagnetic radiation like the CRT and flash less. TFT are lighter and lot slimmer that mean that TFT won’t need much space then the CRT monitor. Monitor is important when manipulating images because it will display the graphic image in high resolution on the screen. On the monitor you can also change the colour setting and can improve the resolution.

Graphics tablet

You can connect your graphic tablet wirelessly or wired. It is better to connect wirelessly because it will let you move around with the tablet and place it anywhere in your working station. Graphic tablet is similar to a mouse but gives you more control then a mouse, when drawing.  Graphic tablet allows you import your drawing simultaneously. It can be an expensive tablet and doesn’t always work on all the software but it is easier to edit. Graphic tablet is important when manipulating graphic images because it allows user to hand draw images on to industrial software’s like Photoshop, illustrators and etc. graphic tablet makes easier for user to draw graphic images as if they were drawing images with paper and pen. This device will allow user to create graphic images that are complex more easily than a mouse.

 Mouse

Mouse can be connected through several connections like wireless, wired – PS/2 connector or by USB.  Mouse has one of the major roles when it comes to digital graphic because without a mouse you won’t be able to do anything. Mouse let you manipulate images by moving the mouse on your screen. It allow you cursor around graphic software more efficiently, this mean that it will allow you add and remove effects on graphic software like Photoshop.  There are 3 different type of mouse: ball, optical and laser. When it comes to editing it is better that you have a wireless laser mouse because this will let you move around easily and more efficiently the other type of mouse because it will have a high dpi. Mouse device makes it easier for user to select tools in editing software.  Mouse isn't a best choice when manipulating graphic images this is because it will take user long time to manipulate graphic images, this is because mouse is very responsive and inaccurate.

  

Digital camera

Digital camera let you do so many things such as, it let you take: good quality images, it allows you to import export images, can store lots of pictures by external memory, quicker than SLR. Digital camera basically let you take pictures and store them on the camera and then it can be downloaded on the computer or other devices.  Digital camera helps manipulate images by letting user connect their digital camera through USB adapter to computer and by saving the photos that are taken on digital camera to be save on computer hard drive. Where the user will be able to make changes to any pictures e.g. Changing the colour, shape and fixing red eye etc.

Scanner

Scanner is needed to transfer digital picture on to the computer. Scanner cost can be varying as it is depend on the quality and how many dpi it can recognize.   A scanner is a hardware that is connected to your computer through adapter. A scanner or image scanners is used to scan hardback photographs to your computer which is then known as digital image. Scanner is used to manipulate a digital graphics by scanning images to the computer and then to make changes to the scanned images.

Software's 
Rectangle Marquee tool
This tool is used on Photoshop to select an image in rectangle shape. It is used to change the area in which your image is affected by other tools.
Magic Wand Tool (W)
It is used to select color range. This tool allows you to select colour range.  This tool allows you select block of colours on your design, on the colour you clicked on. You can change the size to make it more precise. Magic wand tool works by looking for pixels which are of the same tone and colour.  This tool is great for selecting block of same colour in your design.
Clone Stamp Tool (S)
It is used to duplicate something that you want in your design.  This tool allows you to make a copy of selected item in your design on to the same layer.
Adobe illustrator
Slice tool can be used when manipulating graphic images in illustrator. This tool allows user to remove section on an image. It is used to delete section of an image when manipulating images.

 Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Paint

The different between Photoshop and paint, there are many differences from adobe Photoshop and Microsoft paint.  Paint is a simple software and limited on tools and features where else on Photoshop there are several of tools and features for editing. Photoshop is software that is used to correct the color, red eye or even the shape of a photo. Whereas paint is lot different because paint is a program that is designed to create low quality, low size bitmap format images.

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is industry standard software that has been used by professionals to create realistic images. It has complex features and tools that other software doesn’t have; you are able to change images in many different ways. It is used by professional designer because Photoshop offers so many feature that other programs don’t. The only set back about this software is that it isn’t a cheap software and cost from £600. It is mostly used to design vector based graphics and even bitmapped images. It is used to edit and manipulate images. Photoshop can save file in 23 different formats like in jpegs, bitmap and etc.  Photoshop is amazing software when it comes to manipulating images because it makes so many options available, when editing/ manipulating images. It let you remove and add object on a photo easily and professionally. Photoshop software allows users to manipulate, crop, resize, and correct color in any digital image. Photoshop software is used by all types of audiences from photographers to web site designers.

The tools that Photoshop offers to the users:

Zoom tools (Z)

Zoom tool is available on Photoshop, where the user can zoom in depth when editing an image. It basically let you zoom right in the image that you’re editing to give more control when editing graphic images.

Crop tools

It is used mainly to crop images. Crop tool can be used to manipulate graphic images. It is used to crop images – to delete parts of an image that you don’t want. By cropping an image it will reduce the content and size on the image. Crop tool isn’t the popular tool to use when manipulating images but magic wand is because it is more precise then crop tool.

Microsoft paint

It is installed on all the Microsoft operating system and it is free software but doesn't offer any complex features or tools but it is simpler to use then Photoshop. Paint is simple software that offers basic bitmap editing tools that allows the user to do simple image editing. It doesn't offer variety of tools when editing images. Paint changes the color of each individual pixel, to create an image. In paint it doesn't add new pixels when you enlarge an image, this mean that when you zoom in your image, it stretches the previous pixel and makes the image look burly. Paint mostly has picture tools.  Some of the tools that is available on the paint software. Photoshop can either be in full color, gray-scale or black and white. Photo manipulation is a bitmap program with tools that are specialized for manipulation photographs.

Shape tools like rectangle

Rectangle shape tool is available to draw a rectangles shape. It is similar tool to Photoshop rectangle marquee tool. It lets user select area of an image in rectangle shape.

Eraser or color eraser tool

It is used to erase things that you don’t need in your design. This tool us used to delete individual and specific pixel on graphic image.

Line tool

To draw a perfect straight line in your design. This toll let user draw accurate straight line when creating graphic images.

Pick color

Pick color tool is available to pick a specific color that you need. This tool allow user to select various of colors  when creating graphics images.

Adobe illustrator is a similar as Photoshop because it is complicated software and hard to use. It is designed to edit vector base images. It is best software if you’re editing or creating cartons type images and that it can be viewed in any size without the image getting pixilated because it will be mainly made out of shapes.  The cost of this software is from £350. It is usually used to create things like a company logos, banners and posters. The set back of this software is the limitation in its file formats.

The Zoom tool (Z) 

The Zoom tool allows us to enlarge or reduce the view of artwork we are viewing or when we want to edit everything in detail. This tools allow user to get more precise tool when editing graphic images.

The Hand tool (H) 

We use the Hand tool to scroll to different areas of the document. This tool is usually taken right after our artwork has been zoomed in or zoomed out. This tool allow user to move around image efficiently.

The Rectangle tool 

Use this when you want your path to be a rectangle or square shape. This tool is similar to the marquee rectangle tool in Photoshop and rectangle shape tool in paint. It lets user select area of an image in rectangle shape.

Slice tool

 Different file formats and the limitations for each format

Five common image formats for the web and computer graphics:

1. žJPEG
2. žGIF
3. žBMP
4. žTIFF
5. žPSD
6. žRAW

JPEG 

ž  JPEG is a short form for Joint Photographic Expert Group and it is a popular file format. There is some disadvantage to this format because when you save an original image and save it as a JPEG, it losses all detailed information from an original picture and make it look in poor quality, that’s why the file format is known as “lossy” because JPEG deletes the image information to make the file size smaller that leads to poor quality.

        Pros of JPEG: 

        Pros of JPEG:

  Ø24-bit color, with up to 16 million colors

      ØRich colors, great for photographs that needs fine attention to color detail

 ØMost used and most widely accepted image format

 ØCompatible in most OS (Mac, PC, Linux)

           Cons of Jpeg :

  ØThey tend to discard a lot of data

     ØAfter compression, JPEG tends to create artifacts

        ØCannot be animated

          ØDoes not support transparency

GIF

       GIF stand for Graphic Interchange Format, it has only 256 colors available with 8 bit palette limit. It is a most used file format because of the small format size. It can have smaller file size, even when a different format image is been compressed. Graphic Interchange Format also known as GIF. Gif is also a raster type of file, same as bitmap images only thing different is that this file is used on WebPages this is because it has lot more smaller size than a bitmap images and do not require a lot of colour depth such as logos, icons, buttons (on websites). Although, it has small size and can save space on your hard drive; the set-back about this file is that it only uses: gray scale and RGB, this mean that this file might not have good quality if other formats but it does support transparency which is good. This type of files is great for animation files this is because this file can only display and store only 256 RGB colours. GIF are widely used on websites and presentation.  Gif images are compressed in a lossless type compression. 

BMP 

        BMP is an uncompressed proprietary format invented by Microsoft. A Bitmap file is a raster type file and is normal are very large image size this is because bitmaps keep each detailed pixel on its memory because of this bitmap has very high-resolution.  Bitmap images can be enlarged but the will lead to decrease of images quality, resolution and will be pixelated. It is important that the file/image is in the original size of that it doesn’t lose the resolution and image quality and look more realistic. Bit map uses 1, 4,8,24 bits and uses RGB colours. Bitmap files can be opened in any editing software even in image viewer and bitmap images are less used on web pages because of the size. Because a bitmap image has a large size this mean that it is made out of numerous pixels.  BMP file format isn’t a compressed file format because of this the usage is limited and are mostly used as a desktop background wallpaper. 

TIFF

       TIFF is, a very adaptable format that can be lossless or lossy. The details of the image storage algorithm are included as part of the file. In practice, TIFF is used almost fully as a lossless image storage format that uses no compression at all. Most graphics programs that use TIFF do not compression. Consequently, file sizes are quite big. (Sometimes a lossless compression algorithm called LZW is used, but it is not commonly supported.)

Photoshop file (PDD, PSD)

        PDD and PSD are Photoshop files format. These files are the normal saving files in Photoshop software. This files let users to go back to the document after saving the design too make more changes such as to edit specific layers, layer mask, change colours and so on. Photoshop file format keep the original quality of the document or image. This means that the quality and colours of the image and resolution will be that same as before. Photoshop file are normally comes in big file sizes and can be only opened by some editing software and by adobe software’s. PDD and PSD are raster and a vector images. Photoshop has maximum pixel support 300,000 by 300,000 pixels per image. This estriction places limits on the print size and resolution available to an image.

RAW

žRaw is an output format that is available on digital camera. Different manufactures have different RAW format for their digital cameras. This is a setback this is because the user might need manufactures software to view the photos.  There are image editing that also offer their own version of raw file format but camera raw file is most used RAW file format.  The advantage about RAW file format is that it contains rage of colour data from the sensor.  Most digital camera user change setting of the file format by changing the file format to JPEGS.

RAW and JPEG

Compression techniques

žLossy and lossless compression is the two compression techniques.

Lossy compression

        Lossy compression is when an image is compressed and it loses the pixel and the resolution, so that the file is small size and that the file can be used more effectively. Lossy compression is a good thing because it will take less bandwidth when uploading an image to the web because the file size will be less but it will lose some picture quality and won’t look as good as before. It stores files and merge them into archives that take up less physical space in memory. This technique makes file size allot smaller than lossless.

žLossless compression

Lossless compression is a compression technique that is when you compress a file and you expect it to be same as it was before. Lossless compression works by packing data into smaller sizes.  For example you might have a file that is 50 MB. Lossless compressions will approximately half the original size and it also depends on the file itself.  This is great compression to share files across the internet because smaller files size transfer quickly than large files and also to create space in your hard drive as it will take less space in your hard drive.