Heather Lomas

Investigating File Formats

Vector & Raster

Vector images are an image that is created and made up of paths and nodes. These paths and nodes mean that no matter how much you choose to edit the image by stretching it or resizing it, it will always stay in the same quality and focus. Vector images can only be edited and used on certain programs. Photoshop is not a program that supports vector images but you can edit them on the program, instead there is Adobe Illustrator. You can apply text using Photoshop by using the vector tool and also you can create shapes that all remain 100% in quality. From the pictures situated to the right I have found a photo of a Vector image and enlarged it to show that the quality has stayed the same and has not become pixelated or blurry. On a vector image there are disadvantages compared to raster images.

When it comes to editing your vector image you must convert it into a raster image first. But in comparison to this you are also able to create vector images such as posters in small detail and then when it comes to the real thing you can just enlarge it all and there will be no change in the detail. Raster Images are not like vector

images. When you find a picture that you want to edit you usually copy and paste it into a document on a specific program. You then choose to start resizing and studying the image. When you resize it the image becomes pixelated and blurry when you stretch it. This is a raster image and you find that you need to change the file type for it to be able to stretch without becoming pixelated. A raster image can be any image that is not made up of paths and nodes so it could be a photograph. When it comes to saving Raster images you are allowed

to save them under many file names and file short cuts. From the majority that I know of I am going to give a brief description on each file name and what its purpose is and how the image is saved.

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Paint

Paint is a piece of software that is supported by Windows Microsoft. This graphics program is popular all the time as it is a piece of software built into windows computers. Paint supports bitmap graphic based formats also such as raster images. Paint is successful for users of a young age as it teaches them the basics of creating images. Microsoft Paint is available with two colour modes of either colour or black and white; there is no greyscale mode though. Paint was very popular in the early days of windows such as windows 98 and the later versions following on. As the computers have progressed though paint has become a distant piece of software as people who are more advanced move onto programmes such as Photoshop and other graphic editing software. Paint offers a range of different tools throughout but in a more basic form.

- Pencil- Bucket Tool- Crop- Resize- Outlines- Shapes- Zoom- Eraser- Text

As you can see from above the list I have provided is very basic and there is only a varied amount you can do. Whereas Photoshop you can work in layers, on paint it is more one canvas and that is all. As I have stated paint is based really for the younger generation as there is only a select amount you can do. Many users enjoy paint but as the years have progressed and technology has also increased paint has been forgotten and more and more people are enjoying Photoshop even more.

Photoshop

Photoshop is a raster based program that is very popular for many users that are intrigued in image editing and changing particular parts of an image. Photoshop is a program that allows you to edit bitmap images and then save them into a vector based file. This way you are converting the file from a bitmap to a vector simply and that way when it is saved and exported the image will be in a better overall format allowing it to me stretched and re-sized.

Photoshop comes with a range of different tools that allows you to edit it your image to an advanced level. The tool’s it provides is;

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- Rectangular Marquee Tool- Lasso Tool- Magic Wand Tool- Crop Tool- Eyedropper Tool- Spot Healing Tool- Paintbrush- Clone Stamp Tool- History Brush Tool- Eraser Tool- Gradient Tool- Blur Tool- Dodge Tool- Pen Tool- Horizontal Text Tool- Path Selection Tool- Rounded Rectangle Tool- Object Rotate Tool- Camera Rotate Tool- Hand Tool- Zoom Tool

All of the tools provided above are what Photoshop offers for you. These are only a basic amount that you can use but they are a lot more advanced than in any other program. Within this program you are able to use different layers within the image. This way you can take certain parts of the image that you wish to edit and solely focus on the one particular part you want. This way you can edit the image in as much detail as you choose. Photoshop has a varied amount of file extensions in which you can save your work as. These file extensions are important when it comes to exporting your image as a vector based product.

There are a range of file formats when it comes to raster and vector images. All of which are supported by the file itself. Below I have listed a range of different file extensions that are added to a file upon saving it;

- Bmp - Bmp is short for Bitmap. A bitmap image is made up of loads of uncompressed pixels. Each pixel is a different colour whether it’s a harsh or soft image. If the image is using grey scale then each pixel will be a light or darker shade of grey throughout.

- Png - Png stands for Portable Network Graphic which is a graphic that was made to step up from a Gif image. This file type uses index colours to create an aid of transparency for the overall saved image.

- Gif - Graphical Interchange Format. This is the most common graphics file format that can be found on the internet. Gif file formats can also be animated once others files have been

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combined. Unlike other file formats this is not a popular format to use but is still widely used across the internet.

- Tiff - Tagged Image File Format is a high quality graphic. This file format is usually used to save images with a lot of colour quality. These files can be often saved in an uncompressed format.

- Jpg – Joint Photographic Experts Group. This graphic is a 24 bit graphic. Mainly used to store photographs and putting images onto the internet.

- Psd - Adobe Photoshop Document. This file supports many different colour graphics such as RGB, Multichannel, Lab and Indexed Colour, CMYK, Greyscale and monochrome modes. This file format can also support image adjustments on layers, layer masks, annotations to the file and any other Photoshop elements.

- EPS – Encapsulated Postscript. This uses a description language to describe images and then use them on desktop publishing programmes. Also this file extension is able to mix pixel images with vector graphics and then put them into a single file size, but it will be rather large.

- AI – Adobe Illustrator. This is the default format for Adobe Illustrator meaning when you save a file from that programme it will be saved in an ‘AI’ format. ‘AI’ is a format that understands both Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator meaning files can be exported into both programmes.

- FLA – This file shortcut is known to work on Adobe Flash. This is an animation programme that is used widely across the animation world. It is also used on Vector based websites. Overall the file sizes from this are smaller meaning that download times are shorter which is popular to the modern industry.

Lossy Compression

When it comes to understanding lossy and lossless compression the facts are simple. Lossy compression is when you get a high quality image that then begins losing quality every time you save the image. This is because when you open the image it begins to lose data as it compresses. Every time you save it into a smaller file size the image becomes more and more compressed. The data that’s lost is the pixels which are needed to keep the quality high. As the pixels reduce the image becomes poor and the remaining pixels because more obvious so the quality has been reduced. Lossy compression relates back to a raster image, a few pages ago I showed a give way sign that when zoomed in by 70% you could see the pixilation occurring at the edge of the image. This can correspond to Lossy compression as you are losing pixels and destroying the image saturation.

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Lossless Compression

Lossless Compression is when you compress a file without the data being lost. Unlike Lossy compression Lossless keeps all the necessary data that is needed when it comes to shrinking a file. When it comes to saving a file Lossless compression then compresses the file where it saves the data but keeps it and nothing is lost. Therefore the quality stays the same no matter what the size of the picture is.

Metafiles

This is a file format that can hold many types of data within it. Raster and vector images are both supported by this file format. This file format can also support graphic files which is why it supports raster and vector images. These are text files that link web based content to a web server. Windows media metafiles have three different file extensions these include .wvx, .wax, or .asx. All of these extensions will be found when your file turns into a metafile. Whenever one of these file extensions is downloaded off a browser alongside the file you are downloading, it will open Windows Media Player which locates and plays the content you are downloading. Metafiles can also include a mix of raster and vector the way they do this is by having vector as the outline to the image and raster (bitmap) as the infill.

Adobe illustrator

Adobe illustrator is a graphic file creation program can create any sort of vector image. As raster and vector are two different types of image, as we now know raster when zoomed in shows all the pixels deep within the image and eventually when the image is zoomed in a large amount it will look like it is made up of tiles. Vector images though are smoothed out at the edges and the image is much smoother and appears better. Adobe illustrator smooth’s out the image at the end of each drawing. Adobe illustrator is a great software package to use when wanting a vector image that can be exported and the quality will still remain the same. When creating in adobe illustrator the tools are pretty much the same as Photoshop and the basics of paint.

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Flash

Adobe Flash is a piece of software where you can create animations and interactive products with ease. Although the program can fail a couple of times the overall outcome is effective. Adobe Flash uses its software to produce many different effects to the World Wide Web. Within adobe flash it manipulates vector graphics to provide all sorts of multimedia components such as text, animation etc. Flash uses Auto script within the program which supports anything you put into it. Flash can also be used to input video, speech based through the microphone and also images that you import with a supported file format.