Graphics are defined as any design or a drawing or a special network that pictorially represents some meaningful information. Computer Graphics is applied where a set of images needs to be manipulated or the creation of the image in the form of pixels and is drawn on the computer. Computer Graphics can be used in digital photography, film, entertainment, electronic gadgets, and all other focus technologies which are required. It is a huge subject and area in the field of computer science. Computer Graphics can be applied in UI design, rendering, geometric objects, animation, and many more. In most areas, computer graphics is a shorten of CG. There are several designs used for the implementation of Computer Graphics. The basic is the <graphics.h> header file in Turbo-C.
Types of Computer Graphics
The computer graphics contains two types. They are-
Raster Graphics
Raster graphics, also called bitmap graphics, a type of digital image that uses tiny rectangular pixels, or picture elements, arranged in a grid formation to represent an image. Because the format can support a wide range of colors and depict subtle graduated tones, it is well suited for displaying continuous-tone images such as photographs or shaded drawings, along with other detailed images.
Raster graphics have origins in television technology, with images constructed much like the pictures on a television screen. A raster graphic is made up of a gathering of tiny, uniformly sized pixels, which are arranged in a two-dimensional grid made up of columns and rows. Each pixel contains one or more bits of information, depending on the degree of detail in the image. For example, a black-and-white image contains only one bit per pixel (a binary bit can be in one of two states; thus, a single bit can represent white or black); an image with shading and color commonly contains 24 bits of information per pixel—with 224, or more than 16 million, possible states per pixel. Known as “true color,” 24-bit colour can realistically depict color images. The number of bits keeps in each pixel is known as the color depth. The number of pixels in a set out, called resolution, affects how much detail can be depicted in an image. Resolution is often expressed as the number of pixels in a column times the number of pixels in a row (for example, 800 × 600).
Detailed images often result in large file sizes, although file size can be managed through data compression. Compression can be either lossy (meaning that some data is discarded) or lossless (no data is lost). Popular raster file formats include GIF (graphics interchange format) and JPEG (joint photographic experts group), which are lossy formats, and BMP (Windows bitmap) and TIFF (tagged image file format), which are lossless.
Although raster graphics saw some use in the 1970s and ’80s, it was mostly limited to expensive graphics workstations (i.e., high-end computers that were specially optimized for working with graphics). As the graphics capability of personal computers improved in the 1990s, raster graphics became widely used. Images produced from optical scanners and digital cameras are raster graphics, as are most images on the Internet. A commonly used graphics program for working with raster images is Adobe Photoshop.
Vector Graphics
Vector graphics, composed of lines defined by mathematical formulas, were first used in computer displays in the 1960s and ’70s. The displays were essentially modified oscilloscopes, and vector graphics were used because the memory that would be needed for displaying raster graphics, or bit-mapped graphics, was too expensive. Vector graphics were also used in early arcade games such as Asteroids. By the 1980s, raster graphics, which apply dots called pixels to create an image, had all but replaced vector graphic displays.
Vector graphics made a comeback, however. Graphic designers design vector graphics to create graphics that need to be scaled. The nature of vector graphics, where each line, curve, shape, and color is mathematically defined, lends itself to creating images that can be scaled down for a business card or up for a billboard. The popularity of vector graphics led the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to create a graphics language called scalable vector graphics (SVG). SVG is a royalty-free language that contains vector shapes and text and can contain embedded raster graphics. One common application for vector graphics in general, and SVG specifically, is in geographic information systems (GIS). SVG is used in GIS applications to produce maps that are scalable and interactive.
Applications of computer graphics
Some of the applications of computer graphics are:
Computer Art:
Using computer graphics we can create fine and commercial art which include animation packages, paint packages. These packages give facilities for designing object shapes and specifying object motion. Cartoon drawing, paintings, logo design can also be done.
Computer Aided Drawing:
Designing of buildings, automobile, aircraft is done with the help of computer aided drawing, this helps in providing minute details to the drawing and producing more accurate and sharp drawings with better specifications.
Presentation Graphics:
For the preparation of reports or summarizing the financial, statistical, mathematical, scientific, economic data for research reports, managerial reports, moreover creation of bar graphs, pie charts, time chart, can be done using the tools present in computer graphics.
Entertainment:
Computer graphics finds a major part of its utility in the movie industry and game industry. Utilize for creating motion pictures , music video, television shows, cartoon animation films. In the game industry where focus and interactivity are the key players, computer graphics helps in providing such features in the efficient way.
Education:
Computer generated models are extremely useful for teaching huge number of concepts and fundamentals in an easy to understand and learn manner. Using computer graphics many educational models can be created through which more interest can be generated among the students regarding the subject.
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