Digital Graphics File Formats

Ellie Dawson

Raster Graphics

• Raster graphics are digital images created or captured made up of bitmaps.

• Some examples of raster graphics are; JPEG,TIFF and GIF.

Vector Graphics

• Vector graphics is the use of points, lines, squares, triangle or a curvy shape. All of which are based on a start and an end point. Which represent images in computer graphics.

• Some examples of vector graphics are PSD, AI, and FLA.

Raster Graphics

JPEGStands For Joint Photographic Experts Group.

Used For/Example Photographs and web formats. For example photos on Facebook.

Advantage You can use JPEG pretty much anywhere without being restricted as it is universal.

Disadvantage It loses quality with multiple edits due to compression and recompression each time it is edited.

TIFFStands For Tagged Image File Format.

Used For/Example Desktop publishing. Could be used for magazine layout.

Advantage No quality lost from compression. Adobe InDesign documents can save multipage documents to a single file.

Disadvantage Not as universal as JPEG meaning that you may not be able to open TIFF files everywhere.

GIFStands For Graphics Interchange Format.

Used For/Example Short digital animation. An example of where it is used is on the internet and things like Facebook. Gifs are used as a quick download/viewing for entertainment using a number of images played in a loop to create the appearance of a video.

Advantage It is a quick download.

Disadvantage they only have a maximum colour palette of 256 colours so therefore can sometimes look of a poorer quality than other types of file or image. This can lead to the images having more ‘blocky’ colours and also looking slightly pixelated.

BMPStands For Bitmap Image File

Used For/Example Bitmap graphics are used for photographs, graphics with a wide range of colours and graphics with effects e.g. buttons with drop shadows.

Advantage No loss in compression meaning you can change the sizing and crop it with no pixilation. It also has a large file size.

Disadvantage One of the disadvantages associated with a bitmap image is that it does not tend to resize very well. It is not easy to enlarge the image without the image becoming pixelated.

Vector Graphics

PSDStands For Photoshop Document.

Used For/Example Image manipulation/ Front cover images for magazines.

Advantage Saves layers page formatting information, swatches etc. and supports transparency.

Disadvantage You cant view it everywhere, good for small bits of text but not like an article, and it also has no spellcheck.

AIStands For Adobe Illustrator Art

Used For/Example Logo creation. From any size Logo from a photo stamp to a billboard.

Advantage Scaled big and small as vectors have no loss in definition.

Disadvantage Any AI file requires specialist software to open which limits where it can be viewed.

FLAStands For Flash File

Used For/Example Animation and games.

Advantage High quality files with a small size and can include sound and video.

Disadvantage Flash Websites require installing the Flash player plugin. If the player is not installed or if it is not the correct version then the user will be required to download or upgrade the Flash player.

WMFStands For

Windows Metafile

Used For/Example Logos / billboards

Advantage Scaled big and small with no loss in definition. Also can contain both vector and bitmap components.

Disadvantage Big files meaning slow download from the internet.

File Format Capture and Optimising

CompressionDefinition Lossy compression is the way in which file

sizes are reduced by reducing the amount of information that is saved.

Advantage It reduces the file size and the amount of memory in which the file requires.

Disadvantage Images become more pixelated as they are compressed as they save smaller amounts of colours squares each time.

Image CaptureMethod Scanner

How is it used for image capture of graphics

An image scanner is able to scan and capture text, imagery and objects and then turn them into a digital image.

Method Camera

How is it used for image capture of graphics

A digital camera is a camera that takes video or/and photographs digitally by recording images by using an electronic image sensor. A camera creates an original copy of an image.

Method Graphics TabletHow is it used for image capture of

graphicsA piece of technology that allows you to control the mouse, allowing for advance control of drawing/selection and digital handwriting.

OptimisingWhy would you optimise? Because when you optimise you get the

picture to its best possible standard.

How can you optimise? • Reducing image size• Reducing bit depth• Reducing resolution• Compressing images

Advantage to optimising Optimised files are smaller meaning a quick download. Whereas an un-optimised file is large meaning a long download.

Disadvantage to optimising They are no more than 500 pixels wide.

Storage

File SizeWhat could affect a Working Scale (Photoshop) document file size?

The amount saved in the file, as it easily becomes large meaning it may need to be compressed meaning possible loss in quality.

How could you reduce the file size of a Working Scale document without

affecting quality?

Use Adobe Illustrator Art because their files are scaled big and small with no loss in definition.

What is an advantage of scaling up images before exporting?

This allows them to be re-sized without any loss of quality which makes resizing easier.

What is a disadvantage of scaling up images before exporting?

Because doing so makes the image much harder to send and publish.

File Naming ConventionsWhat naming conventions could you use when creating your video game assets?

• Using differently named files can benefit when creating different copies and layers for your work as it is easy to recognise what each file is, especially when a project involved a lot of computer work, having folders for different projects and files can ensure there will be no work lost.

Why is it a good idea to accurately name your assets?

So that work is easily found and not lost. Without naming your assets your files could become very messy and things could become very hard to locate. You may also have different versions of files, for example a rough draft of something then a final draft.

Asset ManagementWhy would you use folders when storing

your assets?So your files are organised into different categories and easily found and you can guarantee none of your work will be lost.

What folders would you create and what would you save within them

• Photoshop – my Photoshop creations and any evaluation of them.

• Digital graphic narrative – my PowerPoint of different file types and my children’s book folder within that folder.

• Work related learning – All the work I create in WRL.