IMAGE TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS

There are two types of images,

• Analog
• Digital

Analog images

Images that we, as humans, look at. They include such things as photographs, paintings,
TV images, and all of our medical images recorded on film or displayed on various display
devices, like computer monitors. What we see in an analog image is various levels of
brightness (or film density) and colors. It is generally continuous and not broken into
many small individual pieces.

Digital images

Images that are recorded as many numbers. The image is divided into a matrix or array of
small picture elements, or pixels. Each pixel is represented by a numerical value.
The advantage of digital images is that they can be processed, in many ways, by computer
systems.

Digital images are a necessary element in all modern medical imaging methods. Functions
that can be performed with digital images include:

• Image reconstruction
• Image reformatting (Multi-plane,
multi-view reconstructions)
• Wide (dynamic) range image data
acquisition (CT, digital
radiography, etc)
• Image processing (to change
contrast and other quality
characteristics)
• Fast image storage and retrieval
• Fast and high-quality image
distribution (teleradiology)
• Controlled viewing (windowing,
zooming, etc)
• Image analysis (measurements, calculation of various parameters, computer aided
diagnosis, etc)
Computer graphics fall into two main categories-BITMAP and VECTOR.

The most elementary kind of image in any discussion of vector and bitmap is the
bitmap image, which sounds like something from the early days of computing, a map of
bits. A bitmap image is quite literally a collection of squares that, taken together, make
up the image. The squares might be of different colors, but they are all the same size.
Reduce any bitmap image to its parts and you'll see this in detail.

BITMAP IMAGES

These are technically called raster images-it use agrid of colours known as pixels to
represent an image.Each pixel is assigned a specific location and colour value.when we
work with bitmap images one should edit pixels rather objects.

Bitmap images are the most common electronic medium for continous tone images,such
as photographs or digital paintings,because they can represent subtle gradations of
shades and colour.

Bitmap images are resolution dependent i.e. they contain a fixed number of pixels. As a
result, they can loose detail and appear jagged if they are scaled on screen or if they are
printed at lower resolution then they were created for.

It can be difficult to resize bitmap images in some cases. When a bitmap images is
reduced in size, some dots must be eliminated, lowering the resolution. When enlarged,
a bitmap image can appear blocky if it does not have a high enough resolution to supply
the information for the image's details.

Vector graphics

It is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or
polygon(s), which are all based on mathematical equations, to represent images in
computer graphics.
Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics, which is the
representation of images as an array of pixels, as it is typically used for the
representation of photographic images.

Vector graphics are resolution- independent—i.e. they can be scaled to any size and
printed at any resolution without loosing detail or clearity.as a result vector graphics are
the best choice for representing bold graphics that must retain crisp lines when scaled to
various sizes –for eg. Logos.

These are good for producing crisp outlines as in logos or illustrations.they can be
printed or displayed at any resolution without loosing detail.

IMAGE SIZE AND RERSOLUTION

To produce high quality image one should have knowledge of pixel data of
images.

PIXEL DIMENSION- The number of pixels along the heaight and wodth of a
bitmap image. The display size of an image on-screen is determined by the
pixel dimensions of the image plus the size and setting of the monitor.

IMAGE RESOLUTION-The number of pixels displayed per unit of printed lenth

of an imageusually measured as ppi(pixels per inch)

Eg. In photoshop the resolution can be changed and in image ready the
resolution is always 72 ppi.

Because a bitmap image is this collection of squares, it doesn't hold up well to

expansion.. That is how many dots per inch an image has. The more dots per
inch, the better the resolution of the image. The higher the resolution, the better
detail the image generally has; conversely, the lower the resolution, the less
detail the image has.

It can be difficult to resize bitmap images in some cases. When a bitmap

images is reduced in size, some dots must be eliminated, lowering the
resolution. When enlarged, a bitmap image can appear blocky if it does not
have a high enough resolution to supply the information for the image's details.

The other half of the vector and bitmap equation is the vector image. This kind
of image is much more sophisticated because it has more moving parts. Each
vector image is made up of a handful of smaller images, just like the bitmap,
except that the vector image's parts are scalable. This means that designers can
change the resolution of a vector image in both directions, making a high-res
image lower or making a low-res image higher. If designers are looking for an
image that can be easily scaled in both directions, then their choice between
vector and bitmap should be an easy one.

Something else to keep in mind in any discussion of vector and bitmap images
is that the vector images are not restricted to a rectangular shape, as are the
bitmap images. A designer who places a vector image on top of another image
won't cover up any of the detail of the
image underneath. A bitmap image does
this because it is entirely made up of
square pixels, even the white ones in the
background that we don't realize are
there. This is another point to keep in
mind when choosing between vector
and bitmap.

Example showing effect of vector

graphics versus raster graphics. The
original vector-based illustration is at the
left. The upper-right image illustrates
magnification of 7x as a vector image.
The lower-right image illustrates the
same magnification as a bitmap image.
Raster images are based on pixels and
thus scale with loss of clarity, while vector-based images can be scaled
indefinitely without degrading quality.