Digital Graphics

File Formats
Sjon Barnes

Raster Graphics
An image made up of bitmaps, which
represent each pixel for that image
file. Each pixel records the colour or
information for that small square of
that image. Bitmaps have a set
resolution like 300dpi on Photoshop.
This means changing the size of the
image can result in distortion.

Vector Graphics
Vector Files are made up of vectors
which are also known as paths and
strokes. These are made up with
curves and angles and take up little
space. This means you can resize a
vector and it will not become
pixelated, these are useful for
drawing shapes on a document and
for logos that can be resized for
billboards and business cards.

Raster Graphics

JPEG
Stands For

Joint Photographic Experts Group

Used For/Example

Photographs that are uploaded to

the internet like Facebook or
Instagram etc

Advantage

Its the universal file format for

photos on the internet, so
everyone can see them without
having to convert the file format

Disadvantage

Loses quality after many edits,

because of compression or
recompression

TIFF
Stands For
Used For/Example

Advantage

Disadvantage

Tagged Image File Format

PC publishing on Adobe InDesign
which is good for graphic
designers for magazine covers
TIFF contains lossless compression
so the photo doesnt lose quality
during compression

Files have a big size due to the

lossless compression

GIF
Stands For
Used For/Example

Advantage

Disadvantage

Graphics Interchange Format

Short animation images, like a
short video. Often found on the
internet.
A GIF is smaller than a video, so it
was quicker to upload a GIF rather
than uploading a video

Bad quality series of images,

plays like a bad quality video.

BMP
Stands For
Used For/Example

Advantage

Disadvantage

Bitmap Image File

Similar to TIFFs and JPEGs, that it
saves images
No loss in compression, so it can
be sized anyway you want.

Due to the no loss in compression,

this causes the image to have a
large file size

Vector Graphics

PSD
Stands For
Used For/Example

Photoshop Document
Used in Adobe Photoshop for
image manipulation for front
covers of magazines.

Advantage

Saves the image in layers, and it

supports transparency.

Disadvantage

Due to the image saving in layers

the file size can be large.

AI
Stands For
Used For/Example

Adobe Illustrator Art

Used to create logos for
companies

Advantage

Can be scaled in whatever way as

vector files dont lose definition,
so it can fit a billboard or a
business card

Disadvantage

Not good for any person who cant

draw or do art, that wants a logo

FLA
Stands For

Flash File

Used For/Example

Can be used to create animations

and flash games

Advantage

You can have a very high quality

file with a small file size which
includes sound and video

Disadvantage

Can only play these animations

and games on 1 type of media
player, Flash

WMF
Stands For
Used For/Example

Windows Metafile
Similar to AI, it makes logos or
Clipart.

Advantage

Vectors have no loss in definition

so it can be scaled to whatever
size the person wants.
Used for people who cant exactly
draw on AI

Disadvantage

Only useful on clipart, which isnt

popular anymore

File Format
Capture and
Optimising

Compression
Definition

Advantage

Disadvantage

Compression is where images

become more pixelated, the more
they are compressed, as there is
small amounts of coloured pixels
in the image
With vectors you can make the
image whatever size you want
without having compression

With Raster images, the picture

can become more pixelated
making it worse if you use a small
image and resize it to an A4 size
for a poster.

Image Capture
Method
How is it used for image
capture of graphics

Scanner
Scan physical drawings and
photos to use on the PC

Method

Camera

How is it used for image

capture of graphics

Takes an image of it which you

then use an SD card to put it onto
the PC

Method

Graphics Tablet

How is it used for image

capture of graphics

Allows you to control the mouse

like a pen, allowing for enhanced
control for digital sketches

Optimising
Why would you optimise?

You would optimise an image to

make the image a smaller size file
allowing for easy viewing on the
web

How can you optimise?

You can optimise on Photoshop by

changing the image size on the
menus. Images should be 500
pixels wide max with a resolution
of 300

Advantage to optimising

Disadvantage to optimising

The download of an image is

decreased to allow for easy
viewing on the internet
This can skew up a big image so
when someone sees it

Storage

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

If the file size is too big then the

file takes up too much space,
which can cause many problems
for if you want to create another
document. This is because of the
layer build up on the Photoshop
document

How could you reduce the file

size of a Working Scale
document without affecting
quality?

To keep it working scale, you could

use the bicubic sharper to keep
the image quality high during
scaling of the image

What is an advantage of
scaling up images before
exporting?

This allows the image to be

resized without losing quality after
exporting

What is a disadvantage of
scaling up images before
exporting?

Scaling up also allows for a large

file size which is harder to send
and publish

File Naming Conventions

What naming conventions
could you use when creating
your video game assets?

I could name the asset whatever

the video game is called to
remember what the file is on a
later date, rather than leaving the
document name as Untitled(1)

Why is it a good idea to

accurately name your assets?

Not accurately naming these

assets can cause a load of
unfindable documents, so when
you want to find a particular
document its extremely hard to
find.

Asset Management
Why would you use folders
when storing your assets?

I would use folders to store assets

that are similar to each other for
example my Photoshop
documents and Video Games are
separated into different folders

What folders would you create I would create folders for each
and what would you save
topic to not confuse myself with
within them
what topic this file is about