Images consist of tiny pixels (picture elements). The higher the number of pixels, the higher the resolution of the image and the higher the storage space.

Vector Image

  • Coordinate based, mathematical
  • Does not lose resolution when scaled
  • Does not store a binary value for each pixel, much more efficient than a bitmap
  • Geometrical shapes such as lines and curves are used to represent an image
  • A representation of mathematical data—not a direct mapping
  • Consists of a drawing list in the file header including:
    • A command that describes the shape of the object
    • Attributes of each object (e.g. position)
    • Line colour
    • Line thickness
    • Fill colour
    • etc
  • Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an example of a vector image. It is an open standard.
  • Vector graphics are widely used in animated movies, PDFs, etc.
  • Vector images are more efficient with larger images, with very small images a bitmap may be more efficient.
  • Example:
    • `Circle(centre = 0,0; radius= 5; fill = green; bordercolour = black; weight = 2px;“)
    • Rectangle(position= 3,10;width = 10;height= 5;fill = blue;bordercolour = None)
  • An vector image cannot be printed, so must be converted to a bitmap before printing

Bitmap Image

  • Raster Images or Pixel Maps
  • Each pixel is stored on a grid—directly representing each element.
  • Blurs when zoomed into
  • JPG, PNG, GIF are examples of bitmap images
  • Used by digital cameras and smartphones
  • Each pixel colour is stored as a binary value
  • More realistic than a vector image

Storing a black and white image

A simple 2 colour image can be stored using 1 bit per pixel. So a 0 could be black and a 1 could be white.

Colour Depth

1 bit ⇒ 2 possible colours (42K) 2 bits ⇒ 4 possible colours 4 bits ⇒ 16 possible colours 8 bits ⇒ 256 possible colours (420KB)

24 bits ⇒ 16 million possible colours (1.2MB)

As the number of bits increases, more colours can be used.

An image with colour depth n can represent 2^n colours.

RGB

Luminosity: Red: 24 bits Green: 24 bits Blue: 24 bits

Each channel has 24 bits, to allow very precise colours.

Screen resolution is horizontal pixels * vertical pixels.

Resolution

  • The pixel density of an image is measured in dots per inch or pixels per inch. It is the number of pixels or dots in a unit.
  • Magazines and books have higher resolution compared to the images on computer screen.
  • An image on a website is usually 72dpi. An image in a book has a resolution of 300 or even up to 600 dpi.

Pixel Density

  • Pixel density for a screen is calculated using the following steps.
  • Calculating the pixel density of a Samsung Galaxy S10 phone which has a resolution of 1440 x 3040 pixels and a 6.1 inch display.
    • Add the squares of resolution sizes, 1440^2 + 3040^2 = 11315200
    • Take the square root of the result = 3363.81
    • Divide by the screen size, 3363.81 / 6.1 = 551ppi (pixels per square inch)

Estimating the size of an image file

  • Multiply the width and height of the image by the colour depth.
  • Example:
    • 1010 x 562px
    • Colour Depth = 8
    • 1010 x 562 x 8 = 45409060 bits
    • 45409060 / 8 = 567620 bytes
    • 567620 / 8 = 0.568 megabytes

Practice

600 x 800 pixels 16 bit colour

600 x 800 = 567620 x 16 = 9081920 bits = 0.96 MB

Run Length Encoding (RLE)

  • RLE is lossless compression
  • We count the number of bits in a row that have the same value, and then store them as one entry rather than by storing each pixel individually.

Metadata

“Data about data”

  • Some examples of metadata for an image include:
    • Filename, format
    • Dimensions resolution, and colour depth of the image
    • Date and place the photo was taken
    • Time and date when the photo was changed
    • Camera settings when the photo was taken

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