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Computer Graphics
Lecture#2 – Digital Images

Digital Images:
A digital image is a numeric representation of a two-dimensional image. It is a sampled and quantized
version of a real image.

Digital images can be created by a variety of input devices and techniques, such as digital
cameras, scanners, and more. They can also be synthesized from arbitrary non-image data, such as
mathematical functions or three-dimensional geometric models.

Digital images are the main focus of many computer graphics processes. They are used in visualization,
interaction, and in modeling. All processes of computer graphics use digital images.

Elements of a Digital Image:

The two main elements of a digital images are;
 Pixel coordinates
 Color information in each pixel
These two define the resolution of the image. Other information such as opacity and color depth can
also be added to a digital image.

How are Digital Images Made:

A digital camera directly stores a digital representation of the image in its memory, which is read by the
computer and then displayed. When you scan an image, its digital image is created on computer.
Creating an image on computer such as Paint or Photoshop, directly makes it a digital image.
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Characteristics of Digital Images:

Digital images have several basic characteristics.

 Color Model: One characteristic of digital images is the type of the image. For example, a black
and white image records only the intensity of the light falling on the pixels. A color image can
have three colors, normally RGB (Red, Green, Blue) or four colors, CMYK (Cyan, Magenta,
Yellow, blacK). RGB images are usually used in computer monitors and scanners, while CMYK
images are used in color printers. There are also non-optical images such as ultrasound or X-ray
in which the intensity of sound or X-rays is recorded.

 Resolution: Resolution is expressed in the number of pixels per inch (ppi). A higher resolution
gives a more detailed image. A computer monitor typically has a resolution of 100 ppi, while a
printer has a resolution ranging from 300 ppi to more than 1440 ppi. This is why an image looks
much better in print than on a monitor.

 Color Depth: The color depth (of a color image) or "bits per pixel" is the number of bits in the
numbers that describe the brightness or the color. More bits make it possible to record more
shades of gray or more colors. For example, an RGB image with 8 bits per color has a total of 24
bits per pixel ("true color"). Each bit can represent two possible colors so we get a total of
16,777,216 possible colors.

 Opacity: In digital images, opacity is often used in graphics software to define how
"nontransparent" an image is. In other words, the more transparent an image or image layer is,
the lower its opacity.

How are Digital Images Stored:

Computer-generated images can be stored in several different formats and differing resolutions. But all
computer files, whether numbers, words or graphics, are stored as digital information.

Translating Digital Images: What computers do is translate the image into digital code for storage and
then interpret the file back into an image for display. In order to translate the image into numbers, it is
divided into small areas called pixels (picture elements). For each pixel, the imaging device records a
number, or a small set of numbers, that describe some property of this pixel, such as its brightness (the
intensity of the light) or its color. The numbers are arranged in an array of rows and columns that
correspond to the vertical and horizontal positions of the pixels in the image.

Digital images are usually stored as pixels, where each pixel contains information for the image.
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Digital Images File Formats:

Computers store graphic information in several formats. There are JPEGs (pictures for computer
screens), TIFFs (quality images for printing presses), and MOVs (movie video files), among many others.
Each format uses different types of digital data to represent, store and display the graphic image. JPEG
and GIF images are the most common bitmap formats used on the Web and may be considered cross-
platform, as all browsers will display them.

 GIF and PNG: GIF (graphic interchange format) images are limited to 8 bits of color depth, or a
palette of 256 colors while PNG (Portable Network Graphics) images may contain 24 bits of color
depth. GIF files are used for line art and images that contain large areas of the same color. PNG
was developed as a new “open” format (not requiring fees) to replace GIF. But PNG does not
support animation. It only uses the RGB color model, PNG images may not print well. The GIF
and PNG allow for a selected transparency color.

 JPEG: JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) is used for photorealistic images or for storing
photographs. You cannot make a JPEG file transparent. JPEG and PNG use a powerful but lossy
compression method that produces files as much as ten times more compressed than GIF. Lossy
means that information in the original image is lost in the compression process and cannot be
retrieved.

 Other formats: Windows uses device-independent bitmaps (DIBs) as its common image file
format, usually written as BMP files. TIFF, or Tagged Interchange File Format, was designed to
be a universal bitmapped image format and is also used extensively in desktop publishing
packages. Adobe’s popular PDF (Portable Document File) file manages both bitmaps and drawn
art (as well as text and other multimedia content), and is commonly used to deliver a “finished
product” that contains multiple assets. Vectors are stored as SVG or PDF.

How are Digital Images Displayed:

A digital image is stored as numeric values or pixel information in a computer. To display this image on a
screen computer has to reconstruct the image from the numeric information. The digital image can be
recreated on some sort of display device such as CRT computer monitor, TV set, LCD, portable computer
or a printer. This step requires mathematical modeling.

Image Abstract Paradigms:

In order to represent and manipulate images on a computer we must define appropriate mathematical
models.

Abstraction is the act of representing essential features without including the background details or
explanations. In basic terms, to abstract means to simplify an image to recreate it on computer easily.

Paradigms mean a pattern or model.

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Hence image abstraction paradigms are models that can be used to mathematically model images on a
computer. There are several models used to synthesize and display digital images using different
techniques.

Image Abstraction Model:

One of the most commonly used image abstraction paradigm uses four levels of abstraction.

 The Physical universe contains the real objects we want to study.

 The Mathematical universe contains abstract representation of the object from real world.
 The Representation universe contains discrete or numeric data associated with the
mathematical representation.
 In Implementation universe we use the data to represent the digital version of image.

This model involves taking a physical object and representing in form of numbers or digital data. When
the image has been converted to a digital image, it can be reconstructed to view it on a computer
screen.

Representation involves applying mathematical formulas to create a digital version of an image, while
reconstruction converts the discrete representation of an image back into the mathematical universe.
Reconstruction converts one representation of an object to another.