Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2
File formats ............................................................................................................................................. 2
Bitmap Graphics .................................................................................................................................. 2
Vector Graphics................................................................................................................................... 2
JPEG..................................................................................................................................................... 2
GIF ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
PNG ..................................................................................................................................................... 2
Compression and Compression Techniques ........................................................................................... 3
Lossy Compression .............................................................................................................................. 3
Lossless Compression.......................................................................................................................... 3
Resolution ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Colour depth ........................................................................................................................................... 3
Changes to my Image .............................................................................................................................. 5
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 7
Source: ................................................................................................................................................ 7

Introduction
In this report, I will be defining File Format, Compression Techniques, Resolution and Colour
Depth and discussing the impacts it has on the file size and the quality of my chosen image. I
will show screen shots and explain how the different file types could have impact on the
image.

File formats
Bitmap Graphics
Bitmap graphics are graphics that use millions of pixels that can change in numerous ways.
These kinds of graphics are usually used when using photographs because of how stressfree they are to edit. For example with a picture of a Nike T-shirt, you may take one photo of
one coloured T-shirt yet preview it in any colour you desire.

Vector Graphics
Vector graphics is the use of points, lines and curves that are all embody images in
computer graphics. These images are seen as the most suitable graphics to use when used
for example designing Logos, this is because they allow images to be resized without
making the image lose its quality.

JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is a lossy file format. It supports the full 16 million
colour variation rang, which is best used for photographic images because of the wide range
of colours it can supports. Its compression method allows the photo to stay the same
visually while taking up less data. A way it does this is by removing colours that the user
cant see.
JPEG is also the top file format to use for web browsing due to the compression, which
provides the smallest files for faster loading. JPEG is not good for line drawings, lettering or
simple graphics. This is because there is not a lot of the image that can be thrown out in the
lossy process, so the image loses quality.

GIF
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is best used for images with only a few distinct colours
(256 colours to be exact) such as drawings or black and white pictures because these do not
require a lot of colours and unlike JPEG does. GIF uses lossless compression and the quality
in the simple graphics will not be lost. So this means that web images would be the most
suitable for users to use.

PNG
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a lossless file format, and an image in a PNG file can be
10 to 30% more compressed than in a GIF format. Making PNG file types better to save
images and also supports transparency in 256 degrees. PNG isnt sustained by all web
browsers and due to its lossless nature; it isnt optimised for online use. It is best for simple
images with sharp lines.

Compression and Compression Techniques

File Compression is simply the process of decreasing the file sizes. There two main
Compressions:
Lossy Compression
Lossless Compression

Lossy Compression
This type of compression reduces the size of the file and its quality. It uses partial data
discarding to show content. This is because Loss Compression removes data from the
original file, so this means that the some parts of the image has been deleted, which causes
pixilation to occur.
For example an image containing 256 variations of the colours, for Lossy Compression in this
case, the computer will notice the variations of similar colours, so similar, that the human
eye wouldnt be able to spot difference. The computer will then choose the values of
variations of each colour it wants and then change the values of the colours in the picture to
the new ones; so instead of there being 256 variations of the three colours, the computer
compresses them down to only 75. This makes file size much smaller, since the file now
doesnt have to remember as many different colours and the reason behind you seeing a lot
of little tiny squares when you zoom into the picture.

Lossless Compression
On the other hand Lossless Compression is reduces the size of the image but without
affective the quality of the image. It allows the data picture to be perfectly reconstructed. It
involves using algorithms (Entropy encoding which is used in lossless data compression) that
stores the data, which is change back to the image data when the pictured is recreated.

Resolution
The higher the resolution is, the higher the quality will be. This will make the file size higher
as well. However even higher resolution images will look pixelated when you zoom into the
image, so the resolution of the image is decided on what size the picture is. For example if
you are making an image that will be stretched in a projection, you should save the image at
a high resolution. This is because it will make it more clear and will have the best quality.

Colour depth
This is the maximum amount of colours used within the picture. When a picture is clear, rich
with colour and high in detail, it shows that the picture has a high colour depth. In
comparison low colour depth images, can be seen by the fewer colours the image has and
how low the details are as well. There are different forms of colour depth. The simple one is
called Monochrome, which is the description of different types of picture, for example
paintings and photographs in one colour.

Here some Colour Depth that are used within pictures:

16bit Colour This colour depth format uses two bytes: one of the bytes for the
real colour and the other uses it for the shade of the colour. So the picture will have
256x256 colours.
24bit Colour This format uses a large sum of storage space due to storing more
colour like Red, Green Blue for each pixel. So the picture will have 256x256x256
colours. Making it very clear for people to view the image.
Colour depth has a hug impact on the quality of the image and file size. This is because with
greater colour depths, the colours are denser and thus, the quality of the image increases.
Nonetheless, with higher colour depths, the file size also increases. This causes the image to
use more of the computers storage space

Here is an example of an image of the

different colour depth bits. As you can see,
the highest bit gives a strong clear picture
than the other two bits.

Changes to my Image

Here are the different file types that can be used for this image. Below are how the sizes. As you can see,
each file format has its own file size as well as how long it will take to save the image on the computer.
With GIF file type you can see the type colour depth
With JPEG file type you can see the quality
With PNG-24 you can see that it takes the longest because it gives the best quality.
In my opinion the PNG-24 file type will have a positive impact on the image because as the size is bigger it
shows that the it has a higher resolution together with a higher colour depth. I know this because you are
able to so the how clear the picture the quality of the image really is, compared to the others pictures.

Here you can see that I have made some changes to the image settings to see how different the quality and
the clarity of the images would be and see the effects of it.
By making the GIF file type have less colours and a lower dither, you can see that the size and the
time taken to save the image on your computer, has been shorted. This means that the image has
been Lossy Compressed because both the quality and the size of the file has been decreased.
By increasing the quality to 100 for JPEG file type, it made the size increase and also the loading time.
That means by increasing the quality, it has greatly impacted the image because is has become more
clearer than before.
Instead of using PNG-24 I have chosen to use PNG-8 file type. This made size of the image lower,
which means that the quality of the image has been impacted greatly, due to the size being smaller.

Conclusion
In my report, I have examined the impacts file formats, compressions techniques: Lossy
compression and Lossless Compression, the resolution of the image and the colour depth of
an image can affect the file size and quality of the image. I have given screen shots to
explain how I could change my image and make it better by choosing the file type and how
that change, could have impacts on the compression techniques, image resolution and
colour depth. It is clear that you can see that some file formats are unmistakably better than
other file formats. You are also able to see that some file formats are better for different
uses than other files types, for example the most suitable file type to use on Webpages.
Compression techniques can also be very suitable for images because you are able to make
the size of an image smaller, however its very important to know that, the type of
technique can affect the quality of the image. When it comes to image resolution and colour
depth, it is also important to known how effective it is on the image. If you are able to make
the resolution bigger, the size of the file will also increase but at the same time, it will make
the quality of the image better also. If you make the resolution less the image quality will be
poor and the size of the file will be lower as well. It is the same with colour depth, the better
the colour depth the better the quality but higher the size.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF
http://whatis.techtarget.com/fileformat/JPG-JPEG-bitmap
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/PNG
http://techterms.com/definition/lossy