Assignment 1

Unit 54 Assignment 1

File Formats:

Raster: a raster graphic is a file format which has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to being used to create images through different programs. Raster images are images which are made up of tiny coloured pixels which are all built together to build an image. The advantage of this file format is it creates an image which is detailed and looks good when it’s zoomed out. The image looks great to look at but it’s full of disadvantages. The image can’t be zoomed or compressed because once it is zoomed; the image loses all of its quality. I’ll give you an example;

The image to the left is an image which uses the raster file format. It shows what happens when it is zoomed. All of the pixels are shown for how they really look when the image is zoomed in more. Although the raster file format is an acceptable format for images on several programs, it has so many problems. The main thing is that the quality just isn’t good enough to hold an image together. It’s not sharp or crisp enough to make it an image to be used, but it’s simple enough if you’re just using it for a simple task.

Raster based applications: most image based editors started off by using raster because it was near enough the perfect image from a far.

MS Paint is a simple program on any Windows computer for anyone that just wants to mess around with. The basic controls and easy layout make it a fun exercise. The problems with MS Paint are it’s in no way as sophisticated as any other image based program on the market. Way too simple, and boring to use, it doesn’t even look remotely realistic when an image has been produced.

Photoshop is the only program on the Adobe package which uses raster. The rest of the programs only use vector. Photoshop has always been the favourite though because of how easy yet extremely advanced its editing can be. Photoshop is a program which uses both raster and vector though. This is something you can change in the options of the programs, but the difference is eye opening.

Vector: a vector graphic file format is what makes raster look so poor in comparison. Vector is the file format which makes images look at their best. The images look crisp, clean and cut to perfection.  The difference which makes vector so much better is you can zoom into an image and the image won’t pixelate whatsoever. The image to the right shows exactly what I mean. The top right image is the vector image when it’s zoomed in.  The writing which is at the top of the bottle is too small to read so it needs to be zoomed in.

Vector based applications: the vector graphic has become the most popular graphic on any computer based program and it’s not surprise.

Corel Designer is one of the earliest programs that use the vector package. The program is mainly used to create engineering drawings for engineers to keep track of the work schedule. Corel Designer is flexible enough to be used in most vector graphic designs anyway.

The Adobe Package: most of the Adobe programs such as Fireworks, Flash and Freehand use the vector graphic too. Fireworks is a program which uses a vector editing software with bitmap editing

Vector is not always useful when it comes to graphics. Cameras and scanners all use Raster graphics. This means the images cannot be edited using vector.W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard for vector graphics and images is SVG. It’s a very complex standard and extremely slow, but many web browsers have support programs for rendering SVG but are still very rare.

Metafile: a metafile is a term for something which can store multiple amounts of data, its specific types of data though. A metafile includes graphic file formats which contain various amounts of graphic files like raster and vector. A metafile is mainly used to support operating systems on computer graphics.

File Extensions: File extensions can be considered types of metafile data because they contain many types of files just like a metafile but they can also hold more. This means that the file can be extended to hold more onto the device or computer could be anything with a memory. Some file systems limit the length of an extension such as the FAT file system. When the file extension was first created, it was only used to determine the files type and nothing else, but since has improved and been upgraded to something which is much more productive and useful.

Different media formats: most think that formats like raster and vector are only used for image based applications. They actually couldn’t be more wrong. Image formats are used in a various amount of media devices, outlets and others. For example, video games these days are full of beautiful and colourful imagery which must use an image based application. It isn’t something which gamers consider most of the time but it’s everything which makes a game work. Most games use vector these days because it is the best application for higher graphics.

Films are another format just like video games which use graphics to achieve the perfect look. Obviously I’m talking about animation when it comes to film, which produces billions around the world each year. So applications for image editing doesn’t just come from image based programs. The obvious part about it is, most things that are made with vector and raster like films and video games, actually are produced from computers.