Pen Is Tool

Thursday, March 5, 2015

NOTES: Understanding File Format

Understanding File Format

File Formats

All computers docs, or files are packaged in different formats
The format is determined often buy the files origin, such as a software program like Photoshop, or a device such as a digital camera
Graphic files such as a photo, video or artwork can be reduced in file size by using image compression formats

Lossy vs, Lossless

Graphic images under 2 categories on compression, Lossy and Lossless
With lossy, data is lost or reduced to be a smaller file, but lose resolution, compression artifacts.
Lossless retains data but larger files

Graphic Formats

TIF,JPG and GIF are the 3 most common formats. Printing, scanning, ect.
PNG is a common web format, high rez and can contain alpha (transparency) channel
Each format has its own advantages and disadvantages

File Format: TIF

Stands for Tagged Image Format
Common format for desktop publishing, print, photo and graphic design
Is a LOSSLESS file format. It retains image data for max quality
Can result in larger files, not fit to display over images

File Format: JPG

Stands for Joint Photography Expert Group
Created for digital photography and works best for photo content
Is a LOSSY format
Can reduce an image file size by 10 without showing significant compression.
The level of compression is adjustable

File Format: GIF

Stands for graphic Interchange Format
Id best for graphics or images that have flat color or even tone, such as a cartoon
Reduces images by “indexing” color from 3 channels to I
Is adjustable by changing color bit levels from 1 to 8
COntains no DPI (Dots Per INch) data for printing. Not a proper format for print.

Which Format to Use?

Photographic images: TIF PNG best quality, GIF worst choice
Graphics: PNG or TIF best quality, JPG worst choice

Know your Pixels

Tif and JPG are bests for images with pixels that blend in color, these are called “contiguous pixels” Anti-Aliase
GIF best for images with flat even tone, or “non-contiguous pixels” Aliase

NOTES: Vector v. Bitmap

Vector vs. Bitmap

Bezier Curves/NURBS

What is Raster?

Image or images created with pixels
can be photo or video
jpg,gif,psd,tiff,mpg,mov,wmv,mp4

Features of Raster

Image file format standard for photography and video
are resolution dependent
more pixels = higher rez
can be reduced in size but doesn't scale up without loss of quality
Raste is a pixel-based image

What is Vector?

Vector is a mathematically based method for creating line data
popularized by Pierre Bizier to help with automobile manufacturing techniques for Renault.
vector files are scalable without losing image quality
because they are math based, vector files are smaller in file size generally
vector files aren’t internet browser friendly, require the proper software for display such as Adobe Flash

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics can be stored in different formats,AI,PDF,WMF,FLC
Font data is stored as vector
Are resolution “independent”

Vector vs. Bitmap

Vector is scaleable, bitmap loses quality when scaled up
Bitmap is best for photographs and video
Fonts are stored as vector to ensure image quality at any size

What is color? What's so special about about it huh? Well let me begin at the basics. There are three types of color, primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary colors include red, yellow, and blue. When various combinations of those colors are mixed then you get the secondary colors: green, purple, and orange. For example, blue and yellow combine to create green. Tertiary colors, to go even deeper, are all the colors between the primary and secondary colors. There can also be this great thing called additive and subtractive color models. Subtractive color comes from a pixel generated model and additive is derived from light generated models. Color can also be very powerful. The types of colors we choose for our art can evoke differing feeling. For example Black might be associated with death and blue could be associated with sadness.