Digital Graphics File Formats

Jack Sullivan

Raster Graphics

Raster graphics are made up of Bitmaps. Bitmaps are made of pixels of a fixed resolution. Resizing raster graphics can cause distortion of images.

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics are made up of vectors. Unlike raster graphics, vectors can be scaled with no loss in definition.

Raster Graphics

JPEGStands For Joint Photographic Experts Group

Used For/Example An image

Advantage When saved as a JPEG the image is in better quality.Good for photographs, ads,.

Disadvantage Degrades over time when saved time after time.Produces larger images than necessary for certain image types.

TIFFStands For Tagged Image File Format

Used For/Example TIFF’s are used for desktop publishing.

Advantage They can be edited with most popular image editing software on the market.No loss of image detail when a save is made.

Disadvantage TIFF images can take up a lot more space than a JPEG.

GIFStands For Graphic Interchange Format

Used For/Example The second most common image format used on the World Wide Wed after JPEG.

Advantage Small file sizes, can be used easily online and still have good quality.GIF’s can show emotions and movement which a still image would not be able to.

Disadvantage They have a maximum colour palette of 256 colours so they can look poorer quality than other types of image.

BMPStands For Bitmap Image File

Used For/Example BMP is a graphics format used commonly as a simple graphics file format on a Microsoft Windows platform.

Advantage Does not degrade in quality when saved multiple times like a JPEG does.Supported by virtually every device.

Disadvantage Lacks all the other features of the other formats.

Vector Graphics

PSDStands For Prevention of significant deterioration

Used For/Example PSD files are able to save layers and page formatting information.

Advantage PSD files large size and capability to save big amounts of file information makes them an excellent choice for working files.

Disadvantage Very few other programmes will understand open or import PSD files.

AIStands For Adobe Illustrator

Used For/Example AI can be used to create graphics which can represent a company.

Advantage The images can be scaled smaller or larger with no loss in definition. The images can be high quality.

Disadvantage Requires special software to open so can be limited to who it is viewed by.

FLAStands For Flash File

Used For/Example FLA files are used to create animations and also games.

Advantage FLA files are high quality, but they only have a small file size, which makes them good for the web because they don’t take long to load.

Disadvantage A limited amount of software can open a flash file.

WMFStands For Windows Media Format

Used For/Example WMF is a file extension for a graphics file used with Microsoft Windows.

Advantage The images saved as WMF can be saved with no loss of definition or quality.

Disadvantage A WMF is only available on Windows platforms.

File Format Capture and Optimising

CompressionDefinition A reduction in a file size by reducing the

amount of information that is saved.

Advantage An advantage to compression is that is reduces the size of the file and memory amount that the file requires.

Disadvantage When an image is compressed it loses it’s quality and looks more pixelated.

Image CaptureMethod Scanner

How is it used for image capture of graphics

A scanner captures images from photographic prints, posters and magazine pages for computer editing and display.

Method CameraHow is it used for image capture of

graphicsCapture images than can be transferred or stored in a memory card or other storage inside the camera.

Method Graphics TabletHow is it used for image capture of

graphicsThis enables a user to hand-draw images, animations and graphics with a stylus pen.

OptimisingWhy would you optimise? Images that are uploaded on the internet

are optimised so they are easily viewed on the web.

How can you optimise? You can optimise an image by resizing an image to the height and width that you intend to display it.

Advantage to optimising By optimising an image the file size can be reduced which means it downloads faster.

Disadvantage to optimising Optimising an image can reduce the amount of pixel information.

Storage

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

An image with a higher resolution produces a better printed image quality.

How could you reduce the file size of a Working Scale document without

affecting quality?

You could make the image smaller by holding ‘shift’ so the pixels don’t get distorted and so it doesn’t affect the quality of the image.

What is an advantage of scaling up images before exporting?

An advantage of this is so the image quality isn’t affected.

What is a disadvantage of scaling up images before exporting?

This could use up time and more memory when scaling up the image.

File Naming ConventionsWhat naming conventions could you use when creating your video game assets?

• I could name mobile smartphone app games as that is the style of game I will be focussing on, so looking at different smartphone games will be really helpful.

Why is it a good idea to accurately name your assets?

It is good to accurately name assets so you know what games you re using to base your game around and so others are informed what the game is based around.

Asset ManagementWhy would you use folders when storing

your assets?I would use a folder so I don’t lose my work and so it is all neatly stored and ordered for when I want to access them.

What folders would you create and what would you save within them

• I would create folders for each sections of my work and save images, power points and research in separate folders.