File Format Research

BMP (.bmp):

BMP Stands for bitmap. It’s the most basic graphic format. To use this format, you have to use either Windows or OS/2. The word bitmap comes from computer programming, meaning simply a map of bits. Bitmap images use many little tiny squares on your computer screen called Pixels. Every pixel is given a different task to see if it’s supposed to reflect the background colour, foreground colour, or any other colour. Bitmaps store lots of imformation, which can make amazing quality images, but they don’t re-size very well. If it is increased, the image goes very pixelated and blotty, although if the picture is decreased, the picture loses it’s clarity, so it’s harder for you to see. Bitmap is a good suffix for you to use if you have a very detailed picture, but you don’t need to rescale it.

TIFF:

TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format. A company called Aldus paired together with Microsoft and created it, although now it’s under the ownership of Adobe. Tiff is a popular suffix that people use for Colour, Grey-scale or Black and White pictures. All PCs and Macs can read this format. TIFF is also formally known as TIF. They are the same thing. TIF files are usually quite large, although it is usually a plus, and not a disadvantage, as it means that you get better quality.

JPEG:
JPEG is an extension created by the JPEG Group. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. The standard JPEG specifies in both codec, and the file format used to contain that stream. The compression method means that visual quality is lost in the process, although there are changes on the standard JPEG which don’t change the visual quality.  The JPEG is popular with internet users. It lets the average internet user to send photos to other people without the file size being too big. It’s used by websites too. 

GIF: 
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It’s a bitmap image often used on the internet for low resolution images and animation. Introduced in 1987 by CompuServe, it’s used on the web often, because of it’s wide support and portability. GIFs are suitable for short animations and sharp-edged line art such as logos. GIFs are made up of a palette of up to 256 colours from the 24-bit RGB colour space. The colour limitation makes the GIF format unsuitable for reproducing colour photographs and other images with many different colours, but is perfect to use for simple graphics usually with a solid colour.

 

 

There is a difference between Vector images and Raster images.

Raster graphics are data structures, which represent a rectangle of pixels. Raster images are commonly stored in image files. When a raster image is rescaled, it distorts and cannot go back to proper size, without being different. Bitmap images are examples of Raster images.
Vector images can be re-scaled without distorting the original image, unlike Raster images, which work on pixels and when resize an image, distorts it.

As shown in the example above, the top right image is how the image would look rescaled as a Vector, whereas bottom left shows how it would look as a Raster (bitmap) image.
Adobe illustrator and Macromedia Freehand are two applications that let us make vector images, whereas Adobe Photoshop is a perfect example of a programme that let us make raster images. Raster based images are best to work with when you’re editing a photograph.

Colour space

Greyscale:

In computing, greyscale means when the value of one pixel is a single sample. When an image is changed to greyscale, the image changes from colour to greys, blacks and whites. Greyscale pictures are distinct from Black and White images as when an image is put in black and white, black and white are the only colours in it, whereas in greyscale, there are greys in the image. Although, in photography, a greyscale photograph is often known as “black-and-white photography” although the image is greyscale.

RGB;

RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue. “The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.” – source, Wikipedia

YUV;

Defines a colour space in terms of one luma and two chrominance componants. Black and white systems used to use only luma (Y) information. Colour information (U and V) was later on added so that black and white users would still be able to see the image in black and white and normal colours. YUV models are different to RGB models as they see colour in a different way. Y stands for luma (the brightness) and U and V are the colour componants.

HSV;

Hue, saturation and value.