Unit 30 - M1

Unit 30 - D2

Describe and evaluate the impact that file format, compression techniques, image resolution and colour depth have on file size and image quality.

(D2) 

File format – File format has an impact on file size and image quality because there are different file types for different compression methods, and this affects the quality of the image in a few ways. For example, if you save your file as a BMP file, the image is uncompressed, and every pixel is left in its place which leaves the file size big, but the quality is at a maximum. If you save your file as a JPG for example, the file size is smaller, but the quality of the image isn’t that much of a high quality. JPG uses a compression method that analyses blocks of 8x8 pixels and, but depending on what the image is, this could reduce the quality of pixels within a block. It is important to always save the compressed picture as a copy and keep the uncompressed image original because it is impossible to get the original quality back.As shown in the picture below, if you save your image as a JPEG, it will take fewer pixels to save and it saves up a lot of data compared to if you saved it as a GIF or PNG. The image is also a lot better than the others so you can see why people would prefer to save it as a JPEG instead of the other files.

Compression techniques – Compression techniques impact on file size and image quality because any type of compression will reduce the size of an image. There are two main types of compression which describe how they affect images, I researched this and found out that one of them is called ‘Lossy’ compression. This type of compression reduces the size of the image by removing some data from it; this means it will affect the quality of the image. The other compression type is ‘Lossless’ compression, this type of compression reduces the size of the image by changing the way in which the data is stored, so this shouldn’t make any changes to the image that has been made.

Image resolution – image resolution will have an impact on file size and image quality because changing Image resolution is measure in DPI, which is Dots Per Inch, this means that if you increase the resolution then the DPI will increase and the quality of the image will get better because there are more pixels that make up the image, so this should make this image more professional. When the image resolution is increased the image has more pixels, and as I found out this means that the file will get a lot bigger as the number of pixels increases. But decreasing the resolution will make the image quality lower but will reduce the file size.

Colour depth – Colour depth has an impact on file size and the image quality because it is used to describe the maximum number of colours that are used in the image. If there is a high amount of colours then the image will look more realistic when it is done. With bitmap images, the colour depth will affect the final file size. The amount of colours an image can contain depends on the bit depth of its pixels. The higher the bit depth value, the more colour information each pixel can display and the greater the number of colours the image can contain. When finding out how colour depth has an impact on file size and image quality, I learnt that the RGB colour mode contains 8 bits in each of its three colour channels which are red, green and blue, this gives the RGB image a colour depth of 24 bits (8 bits per channel x 3 channels). These will affect the quality of the image because it is up to you how much colour you want to put on the image, you can make it more shaded in other parts, or maybe add affects which could turn it black and white or even in a faded like image.

Unit 30 - D1

 D1 - Describe and evaluate the ongoing developments in these printing/output techniques:

There are developments going on in lots of technical machines nowadays, especially things to do with I.T, there are developments going on for Vinyl cutters and laser cutters to make signage a lot better. This is something that is good to develop because there are lots of signs such as direction signs and symbols that are always needed, and when they are developing on these sorts of things, it makes it easier for us to understand and use in our everyday way of living. Vinyl cutters and laser cutters are really good for signage, they make everything nice and bold so everyone can understand and it can cut to basically any size, so to keep developing on these kind of things is really important because they will be able to make new designs that they can cut out for more things that need improving on, such as road signs for example.

There are other ongoing developments in printing techniques such as Inkjet & wide format printing for bitmap displays and posters. They have developments such as the Acuity LED 1600, this is a wide- format UV inkjet printer used for producing large posters and winder displays. In the development of this, they have brought out a FUJIFILM technology group; this includes chemical technology and image processing technology to make the final image more professional and clear when it is being printed off. I think these developments are really good to improve on because if they aim to build an effective inkjet printer, then everything will combine together to make a high image quality. This will also make printing a lot easier because no one will have to worry about the quality of the image when it comes out the printer because it will be in such high quality. The only thing I could think of that would hinder this development would be the cost of it all, as the image resolution of printing gets better, the price will increase which could make it a negative, but other than that, this is a great technical advantage to have when developing it.

Laser printer for leaflets and flyers is also a printing technique that is being developed on all the time. Some would say that this way of printing is better than inkjet printing because laser printer is a digital printer which produces specifically high quality printing. A laser beam projects an image of the page onto an electrically charged rotating drum coated with selenium or, more common in modern printers. Making developments in this printing technique will be really useful because it is quicker than inkjet printing and is cheaper in the long run. Also the sizes that laser printing can cut out in are larger than other printing techniques so this would be very useful to improve on.

I think all of these techniques have affecting the creation of graphics because it allows us to do more things and create more images on larger items. Without all of these techniques, we wouldn’t be able to make things such as a road sign so I think it is very important that we keep making developments on these types of things so then we can keep making more things that we didn’t think we could. Technology keeps getting better each year, so having these printing/output techniques on the go all the time will make sure that we can keep creating more graphics. I think this has mainly affected the creation of graphics in the way we make them because road signs are really important to everyone, and the different sizes that they can be made nowadays is really useful to everyone.

Unit 30 - P6

P6 - Explain some of the legal pitfalls in using and editing graphics.

Essentially, this is about copyright issues and gaining permission to use copyright products.

There are quite a few legal pitfalls in using and editing graphics. First of all, all graphic images are made by someone and the creators of an image or piece of work will have some sort of protection and this is called Copyright. Copyright is used by creators to prevent someone using their work then claiming that it is theirs. Having this protection of copyright is useful for the creators of the images because it doesn’t allow anyone to use their images and work on them without their permission. So this is something that everyone has to be careful with when using and editing graphics, because they could be using someone’s work when it is under copyright and this could end up in them breaking the law.

The copyright is mainly there to protect the images and work that have been created by people and to protect them from other people wrongly using their work when not granted permission. There are lots of examples of people breaking the copyright law in the UK, such as when downloading a song, if people are downloading a song when they don’t have to pay for it then they are downloading it illegally, the correct way to do it would be to pay for it when downloading it, but lots of people do it in a way where they don’t have to. If anyone is caught doing something like this then they would have to face something serious, even though that It isn’t such a big thing. Plagiarism is a problem basically caused by the user of the image because it just shows that they haven’t got it properly protected, because if they did no one would be able to use it and edit it.  

When the user wants to edit images, the first thing they should do is find out the ownership of that graphic and whether it can be used or not. Most of the time this can be done quite quickly without any troubles because owners print their names or copyright on or close to the image. If there is no name printed on the image, then the image isn’t protected and can be used because most likely it is on the webpage or book where the image can be found.

If you break the copyright law by using and editing a graphic image when not allowed, the owner of the image is allowed to sue you, and this normally ends up in the person paying a fine. But sometimes this is only a let off for the person who has broken the copyright law, it mostly depends on what damage you have done to the persons work and how much success you have got from it, because in some cases the person who has broken the copyright law can face a prison sentence of a maximum of 10 years, or even a massive fine, they are both things that no one wants to get done to them so it is very important that people take care when they are using graphical images. 

There is also the intellectual law that users need to look at before they edit graphics. There should be a contract with this law and any contract should clearly state what the client is purchasing rights to, what those rights are, and what the designer is retaining. Most designers never sell rights to sketches or notes, they are always retained and the client is purchasing the final image/design only. The designer will sell the rights to the final product if it's negotiated, and this is mainly for files such as Photoshop or Illustrator.

People editing graphics also have to look at the Trademark law. The main purpose of a trademark is to entitle the source of goods or services. The trademark is the substitute for someone’s signature. To have protection, a trademark must be distinctive rather than descriptive or generic, also it has to be attached to a product that is actually sold in the marketplace and it has to be registered with the Trademark Office.

Unit 30 - P4

Unit 30 - M2

Unit 30 - P3