Introduction to

Computer graphics
 Computer graphics

It is the creation and manipulation of graphic images by means of a

computer.
▪ Computer graphics started as a technique to enhance the
display of information generated by a computer.
▪ This ability to interpret and represent numerical data in pictures
has significantly increased the computer’s ability to present
information to the user in a clear and understandable form.
▪ Large amount of data are rapidly converted into bar charts, pie
 Architecture of a Graphics
• TheSystem
components of a raster system contains display processor,
display-processor memory, frame buffer, video controller, and
input/output devices.
 Pixel (picture element)
a pixel is the smallest piece of information in an image.
▪ Pixels are normally arranged in a regular 2D grid, and are often
represented using dots or squares.
 Pixel (picture element)
Each pixel is a sample of an original image, where more samples typically
provide a more accurate representation of the original.

▪ The intensity of each pixel is variable; in color systems, each pixel has
typically three or four components such as red, green, and blue, or cyan,
magenta, yellow, and black.
 Display Processor
Purpose: frees the CPU from the graphics routine task.
Major task: digitizes a picture definition given in an application
program into a set of pixel values for storage in the frame buffer.

This digitization process is called scan conversion.

Straight lines and other geometric objects are scan converted
into a set of discrete points, corresponding to screen pixel
locations.
 Display Processor
Characters can be defined with rectangular pixel grids,or they
can be defined with outline shapes. The array size for character
grids can vary from about 5x7 to 9x12 or more for higher quality
displays.
 Display Processor
A character grid is displayed by superimposing the rectangular
grid pattern into the frame buffer at a specified coordinate
position.
For characters that are defined as outlines, the shapes are
scanned converted into the frame buffer by locating the pixels
positions closest to the outline
 Frame Buffer
Each screen pixel corresponds to a particular entry in a 2D array
residing in memory. This memory is called a frame buffer or a bit
map.
The number of rows in the frame buffer equals to the number of
raster lines on the display screen.
The number of columns in this array equals to the number of
pixels on each raster line.
The term pixel is also used to describe the row and the column
location in the frame buffer array that corresponds to the screen
location. A 512x512 display screen requires 262144 pixel memory
locations.
 Frame Buffer
Whenever we wish to display a pixel on the screen, a specific
value is placed into the corresponding memory location in the
frame buffer array.
Each screen pixel’s location and corresponding memory’s
location in the frame buffer is accessed by nonnegative integer
coordinate pair (x, y).
The x value refers to the column, the y value to the row position.
 Frame Buffer
The origin of this coordinate system is positioned at the bottom-
left corner of the screen or it is positioned at the upper-left
corner of the screen.
 Video controller
Video controller is used to control the operation of the display
device (Monitor/Screen). Video controller accesses the frame
buffer to refresh the screen. In figure, the basic refresh operations
of the video-controller are shown.
 Video controller
Two registers are used to store the coordinates of the screen
pixels.
Initially, the x register is set to 0 and the y register is set to the
value for the top scan line.
The contents of the frame buffer at this pixel position are then
retrieved and used to set the intensity of the CRT beam.
Then the x register is incremented by 1, and the process is
repeated for the next pixel on the top scan line.
 Video controller
This procedure is continued for each pixel along the top scan
line.
After the last pixel on the top scan line has been processed, the
x register is reset to 0 and the y register is set to the value for the
next scan line down from the top of the screen.
Pixels along this scan line are then processed in turn, and the
procedure is repeated for each successive scan line.
 Video controller
After cycling through all pixels along the bottom scan line (y=0),
the video controller resets the registers to the first pixels position
on the top scan line and the refresh process starts over.
The screen must be refreshed at a rate of at least 60 frames per
second.
 Input and Output Devices
The user of an interactive graphics system communicates with
the graphics program by means of input devices such as
keyboard, mouse, joystick, light pen, graphics tablet (digitizer),
touch panels, voice systems, and scanners.
Typically, the primary output device in a graphics system is a
video monitor such as Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) and Liquid
Crystal Display (LCD). We can obtain hard-copy output for our
images in several formats for presentations or archiving. Hard
copy devices include slides film, printers, and plotters.
 Computer display standard
Various computer display standards or display modes have
been used in the history of the personal computer.
They are often a combination of
Display resolution: specified as the width and height in pixels,
Color depth: measured in bits, and
Refresh rate: expressed in hertz.
 Computer display standard
A computer image is usually represented as a discrete grid of
pixels.
The number of pixels determines the resolution of the image.
Typical resolutions range from 320x200 to 2000x1500
The color depth: is the number of distinct colors that can be
represented by a pixel depends on the number of bits per pixel
(bpp).
A 1 bpp image uses 1 bit for each pixel, so each pixel can be
either on or off.
 Computer display standard
Each additional bit doubles the number of colors available, so a 2
bpp image can have 4 colors, and a 3 bpp image can have 8 colors:
1 bpp, 21 = 2 colors (monochrome)
2 bpp, 22 = 4 colors
3 bpp, 23 = 8 colors
...
8 bpp, 28 = 256 colors
16 bpp, 216 = 65,536 colors (Highcolor )
24 bpp, 224 ≈ 16.7 million colors (Truecolor)
 Computer display standard
For color depths of 15 or more bits per pixel, the depth is normally
the sum of the bits allocated to each of the red, green, and blue
components(RGB).
Highcolor, usually meaning 16 bpp, normally has five bits for red
and blue, and six bits for green, as the human eye is more
sensitive to errors in green than in the other two primary colors.
 Computer display standard
For applications involving transparency, the 16 bits may be
divided into five bits each of red, green, and blue, with one bit
left for transparency.
A 24-bit depth allows 8 bits per component.
On some systems, 32-bit depth is available: this means that each
24-bit pixel has an extra 8 bits to describe its opacity (for
purposes of combining with another image).
 Applications of Computer
• Graphics
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
• Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD)
• Entertainment (animation, games, etc.)
• Computer Art
• Presentation Graphics
• Education and Training
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Visualization (Scientific Vis., Inform. Vis.)
• Medical Visualization
• Image Processing
• Graphical User Interfaces
THANK YOU