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This week's article takes a look at graphics programs - paint packages. It will look at the two basic types - bitmap and vector graphics as well as the most common file types that they use.
There are many different paint packages that you can obtain these days but they all fall into one of two types - bitmap or vector. So what is the difference? Bitmap programs work on individual "dots" (pixels) to make up an image. These are best used for handling photographic images as a single pixel can be any of 16 million colours so making for clear, accurate representations of subjects as you would expect in a photograph. The paint program allows you to set each pixel to whatever colours you want and numerous effects can be achieved with most packages. The key point is - the bitmap package works on pixels. A vector-based program uses mathematics to "draw" images on the screen. Each point is plotted and vector images are scaled to the required size. One big advantage of this is that a vector image can be resized without losing its definition as it is drawn mathematically and not simply by colouring pixels. This is important in the world of publications where a page maybe created at one size (say A4) and then scaled down to A5. Bitmaps don't tend resize very well unless the change is marginal. Make them much larger and each point gets made bigger giving a mosaic effect. Reduce them and they can become "blobby." To sum up then, the advantages and disadvantages are as follows: Bitmaps - Advantages · Great, photo realistic quality · Allows the use of many different styles to get special effects (such as making the picture look like a watercolour) · Can be compressed into quite small file sizes · Can be animated (GIF files) · Scanned images are bitmaps Bitmaps - Disadvantages · Can't be resized very well without distorting or losing picture quality · Native bitmaps (.BMP files) can use huge amounts of disk space · Some compressed formats lose picture quality (although the reduction in file size often makes for an acceptable reduction) Vector Graphics - Advantages · Can be resized from very small to huge without affecting picture quality · Great for pictures that require viewing at different zoom factors (such as a map) where scale is important · File sizes are independent of actual size (so a small picture will take up the same size as a large picture) Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article No Experience Necessary - Part 4 in PC Support is owned by Chris Cruickshank. Permission to republish No Experience Necessary - Part 4 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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