CHAPTER FOUR: IMAGES
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this chapter the learner shall be able to;
i. Create his own image
ii. Describe the use of colors and palettes in multimedia
iii. Describe the capabilities and limitations of vector images.
iv. Use clip arts in the multimedia presentations
4.1 Introduction
Still images are the important element of a multimedia project or a web site. In order to make a
multimedia presentation look elegant and complete, it is necessary to pend ample amount of time
to design the graphics and the layouts. Competent, computer literate skills in graphic art and
design are vital to the success of a multimedia project.
4.2 Digital Image
A digital image is represented by a matrix of numeric values each representing a quantized
intensity value. When I is a two-dimensional matrix, then I(r,c) is the intensity value at the
position corresponding to row r and column c of the matrix. The points at which an image is
sampled are known as picture elements, commonly abbreviated as pixels. The pixel values of
intensity images are called gray scale levels (we encode here the “color” of the image). The
intensity at each pixel is represented by an integer and is determined from the continuous image
by averaging over a small neighborhood around the pixel location. If there are just two intensity
values, for example, black, and white, they are represented by the numbers 0 and 1; such images
are called binary-valued images. If 8-bit integers are used to store each pixel value, the gray
levels range from 0 (black) to 255 (white).
Digital Image Format
There are different kinds of image formats in the literature. We shall consider the image format
that comes out of an image frame grabber, i.e., the captured image format, and the format when
images are stored, i.e., the stored image format.
Captured Image Format
The image format is specified by two main parameters: spatial resolution, which is specified as
pixelsxpixels (eg. 640x480)and color encoding, which is specified by bits per pixel. Both
parameter values depend on hardware and software for input/output of images.
Stored Image Format
When we store an image, we are storing a two-dimensional array of values, in which each value
represents the data associated with a pixel in the image. For a bitmap, this value is a binary digit.
4.3 Bitmaps
A bitmap is a simple information matrix describing the individual dots that are the smallest
elements of resolution on a computer screen or other display or printing device. A one-
dimensional matrix is required for monochrome (black and white); greater depth (more bits of
information) is required to describe more than 16 million colors the picture elements may have,
as illustrated in following figure. The state of all the pixels on a computer screen make up the
image seen by the viewer, whether in combinations of black and white or colored pixels in a line
of text, a photograph-like picture, or a simple background pattern.
Where do bitmap come from? How are they made?
Make a bitmap from scratch with paint or drawing program.
Grab a bitmap from an active computer screen with a screen capture program, and
Then paste into a paint program or your application.
Capture a bitmap from a photo, artwork, or a television image using a scanner or video
capture device that digitizes the image. Once made, a bitmap can be copied, altered, e-
mailed, and otherwise used in many creative ways.
Clip Art
A clip art collection may contain a random assortment of images, or it may contain a series of
graphics, photographs, sound, and video related to a single topic. For example, Corel,
Micrografx, and Fractal Design bundle extensive clip art collection with their image-editing
software.
Multiple Monitors
When developing multimedia, it is helpful to have more than one monitor, or a single high-
resolution monitor with lots of screen real estate, hooked up to your computer. In this way, you
can display the full-screen working area of your project or presentation and still have space to
put your tools and other menus. This is particularly important in an authoring system such as
Macromedia Director, where the edits and changes you make in one window are immediately
visible in the presentation window-provided the presentation window is not obscured by your
editing tools.
4.4 Making Still Images
Still images may be small or large, or even full screen. Whatever their form, still images are
generated by the computer in two ways: as bitmap (or paint graphics) and as vector-drawn (or
just plain drawn) graphics. Bitmaps are used for photo-realistic images and for complex drawing
requiring fine detail. Vector-drawn objects are used for lines, boxes, circles, polygons, and other
graphic shapes that can be mathematically expressed in angles, coordinates, and distances. A
drawn object can be filled with color and patterns, and you can select it as a single object.
Typically, image files are compressed to save memory and disk space; many image formats
already use compression within the file itself – for example, GIF, JPEG, and PNG. Still images
may be the most important element of your multimedia project. If you are designing multimedia
by yourself, put yourself in the role of graphic artist and layout designer.
Bitmap Software
The abilities and feature of image-editing programs for both the Macintosh and Windows range
from simple to complex. The Macintosh does not ship with a painting tool, and Windows
provides only the rudimentary Paint (see following figure), so you will need to acquire this very
important software separately – often bitmap editing or painting programs come as part of a
bundle when you purchase your computer, monitor, or scanner.
Capturing and Editing Images
The image that is seen on a computer monitor is digital bitmap stored in video memory, updated
about every 1/60 second or faster, depending upon monitor’s scan rate. When the images are
assembled for multimedia project, it may often be needed to capture and store an image directly
from screen. It is possible to use the Prt Scr key available in the keyboard to capture a image.
Scanning Images: After scanning through countless clip art collections, if it is not possible to
find the unusual background you want for a screen about gardening. Sometimes when you search
for something too hard, you don’t realize that it’s right in front of your face. Open the scan in an
image-editing program and experiment with different filters, the contrast, and various special
effects. Be creative, and don’t be afraid to try strange combinations – sometimes mistakes yield
the most intriguing results.
4.5 Vector Drawing
Most multimedia authoring systems provide for use of vector-drawn objects such as lines,
rectangles, ovals, polygons, and text. Computer-aided design (CAD) programs have traditionally
used vector-drawn object systems for creating the highly complex and geometric rendering
needed by architects and engineers.
Graphic artists designing for print media use vector-drawn objects because the same mathematics
that put a rectangle on your screen can also place that rectangle on paper without jaggies. This
requires the higher resolution of the printer, using a page description language such as
PostScript. Programs for 3-D animation also use vector-drawn graphics. For example, the
various changes of position, rotation, and shading of light required to spin the extruded.
How Vector Drawing Works: Vector-drawn objects are described and drawn to the computer
screen using a fraction of the memory space required to describe and store the same object in
bitmap form. A vector is a line that is described by the location of its two endpoints. A simple
rectangle, for example, might be defined as follows: RECT 0,0,200,200
4.6 Color
Color is a vital component of multimedia. Management of color is both a subjective and a
technical exercise. Picking the right colors and combinations of colors for your project can
involve many tries until you feel the result is right.
Understanding Natural Light and Color: The letters of the mnemonic ROY G. BIV, learned
by many of us to remember the colors of the rainbow, are the ascending frequencies of the
visible light spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Ultraviolet light, on
the other hand, is beyond the higher end of the visible spectrum and can be damaging to humans.
The color white is a noisy mixture of all the color frequencies in the visible spectrum. The cornea
of the eye acts as a lens to focus light rays onto the retina. The light rays stimulate many
thousands of specialized nerves called rods and cones that cover the surface of the retina. The
eye can differentiate among millions of colors, or hues, consisting of combination of red, green,
and blue.
Additive Color: In additive color model, a color is created by combining colored light sources in
three primary colors: red, green and blue (RGB). This is the process used for a TV or computer
monitor
Subtractive Color: In subtractive color method, a new color is created by combining colored
media such as paints or ink that absorb (or subtract) some parts of the color spectrum of light and
reflect the others back to the eye. Subtractive color is the process used to create color in printing.
The printed page is made up of tiny halftone dots of three primary colors, cyan, magenta and
yellow (CMY).
4.7 Image File Formats
There are many file formats used to store bitmaps and vectored drawing. Following is a list of
few image file formats.
Chapter Review Questions
1. What is a digital image
2. Discuss various digital image formats
