Professional Transcribing, Typesetting, Digital Design and more!

Posts Tagged ‘file formats’

In the graphic design industry there are two ways to identify an image. There are vector images and rasterized images. Each of these types of files differ a great deal in resolution, file size, color and in file formats. The differences also limit what a graphic artist can do to each image without destroying the integrity of the actual image still use it for the purpose that it is intended to be used for.

Vector Images

Resolution is normally NOT depicted by the pixel size of the image but the mathematical size, giving these images a huge advantage when it comes to resizing the image from very small to very large. This gives this versatility to resizing without losing the integrity of the image.

Color is determined by the object itself, and not per pixel giving you the ability to color inside the lines with a line drawing, much like a cartoon artist would by hand.

File sizes in vector images are typically very small in size, which gives a great more versatility and used widely on line for smooth loading of pages.

File formats can include EPS (Encapsulated Post Script), WMF (Windows Media File), AI (Adobe Illustrator), CDR (Corel Draw) and several others that are used in architecture and other none widely used software.

Rasterized Images

Resolution is determined at what level the image was scanned at or what mega-pixel that the picture was taken at.  Smaller images cannot be up scaled without loss of integrity and scaling down images that are large doesn’t necessarily scale down the size of the image.  Most of the images at 300 DPI (Dot’s Per Inch) are used for printing, and normally anything 72 DPI is used for the Internet for smoother browser loads.

Color depth is important and depending on the scanning quality be it 24-bit depth or 256 depth.  At 24-bit it is using colors so close that most of the time you are unable to tell the difference between the scanned and the original copy.  At the 256 color element, there is a significant difference.  Because of this, the scanner uses a process called ‘dithering’ so that it can approximate the color element and use it to soften the color adjustments.

File size is also a much bigger challenge with rasterized images. Each of these images are much larger in memory size for because of the pixelation, color and elements involved.  The reason being is that the software must remember where each color and each pixel is placed in order to reproduce the image as it should be.

File formats can include BMP (Windows Bit Map), TIFF (Tag Interleave Format), JPEG (Joint Photographics Expert Group), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) , PNG (Portable Network Graphic), PSD (Adobe PhotoShop) and CPT (Corel PhotoPAINT).

By using and having the knowledge of the difference, your graphic artist should be able to manipulate each of these images once they have the right file to fit your needs.  Determining the best image for your project will be just as crucial as determining the best wording for your projects.  A good image gets the right point across in a visual manner that impacts all readers.