D2

1) File Format

GIF

JPEG

2) Compression
The compression of an image is used to minimize the size of an image file without losing the quality of an image to an unacceptable level. Image compression reduces the amount of time required for images to be sent over via the internet which allows users to navigate at a quicker rate. The compression of an image is usually determined by 5 different options and they are; low, medium, high, very high and maximum. The compression of an image can be changed when an image is used on a website/email so that the image doesn't take a large amount of time when loading the webpage/email. Image compression is normally most suited for a JPEG image as it is a format for compressed image files.

JPEG

3) Colour Depth
The colour depth is used to indicate the different colours used in a single pixel in an image. When chaning the colour depth of an image, the file size will change according to how good or how bad the quality of the image is. The colour depth is normally measured by the amount of colours used in an image  and they can range from 2 to 256, although the ones shown below are 8, 32 and 256. The colour depth of an image can be changed so that it can be loaded easily onto the internet quicker and more efficiently. Colour depth is most suited for a graphics interchange format or a GIF image as they are more compressed to reduce the amount of time used to transfer the image.

GIF

4) Resolution
The resolution of an image is determined by the number of pixels in an image and is normally measured by pixels per inch (ppi), dots per inch (dpi) or megapixels (MP). The more pixels used in a image, the more quality the image will have although this also means that the image will have a larger file size which will take longer to load on websites/emails via the internet. If the resolution of a smaller image is changed from a smaller resolution to a higher resolution, there may be some quality loss as there are not enough pixels in the original image which creates a blurry effect. For example below you can see that when an image with a web resolution of 72 ppi is changed to a print resolution of 300 ppi, the image appears much larger and loses some of its quality as the resolution has been made a lot bigger. The resolution of an image is normally changed when someone wants to lower the file size to allow the image to be put onto a website/email or when someone wants to print off an image via a printer.

Web Resolution - 72 ppi

Print Resolution - 300 ppi

D1

Vinyl cutters and laser cutters for signage

Vinyl cutters and laser cutters are normally used to create signage for things like buildings and vans. They can also be used for vehicle wrappings. An example of this can be the Sky vans which use vinyl cutters/laser cutters to create images and text on the side of the vans such as Sky Sports & TV shows like The Simpsons. In the early stages of vinyl cutters, they were required to have lots of different pieces of vinyl to get different colours onto the print. Although now the vinyl cutters have been developed so that only one piece of vinyl can be used for all different types of colours for the print. The image will need to either be a vector so it can be enlarged to any size without losing quality or it will have to be a bitmap with a very high resolution which will allow the image to keep its quality when printed out onto vinyl.

Inkjet & wide format printing for bitmap displays and posters

Inkjet & wide format printing is normally used for bitmap displays for things like posters, signs and billboards. This printing is ideal for outdoor areas as the printing is weather-proof and can print onto almost any surface including glass and plastic.

Laser printers for leaflets and flyers

Laser printers are normally used to produce leaflets and flyers as it is a fast process that can be simply done. The printing process is created by a laser beam projecting an image onto a page and an electrically charged rotating drum printing the image onto the page via direct contact and heat, which fuses the ink to the paper. Laser printers use dry ink which use the colours CMYK, which stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

3D Printing

3D Printing is normally used to produce three dimensional shapes from a digital model. The shapes are normally created via a computer aided design package or by a 3D scanner and the manual modelling process are similar to plastic arts such as sculpting. The file type which is compatible with a 3D printer is an STL file which is recognized as a 3D printable file format.

P6

Legal Pitfalls

Copyright issues

Copyright refers to laws that regulate the use of the work of the creator of graphics. Copyright issues occur when the graphics are copied, distributed and altered. Unless the author of the work has stated that the graphics can be used, the author retains the copyright. For a copyright to apply to a graphic image, it must be an original idea that is put to use. The idea of the image cannot be copyrighted, but the physical use of the idea is covered under the copyright law. In order for someone to use a copyrighted image they must get the permission of the author so that they are not breaking the copyright law.

Trademark

A trademark is a symbol or logo that legally distinguishes one company’s product from any others. Any infringement on a trademark is illegal and a company can sue the infringing party if there is any illegal activity. If a company steals another company’s trademark then they can be punished under the trademark law. An example of a well-known trademark would be Nike’s swoosh or Coca-Cola’s wave.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is the ownership of intangible and non-physical goods. This includes ideas, designs, symbols and artwork. There are 4 different types of intellectual property; they are patents, trademarks, designs and copyright. Intellectual property is usually created to be sold on to different companies who would then use it as their own graphics.

P5

P4

M2

P3