LECTURE-2

Graphic Communication (9673)

SUBJECT NAME OF THE TROPICS CLASS DURATION

Graphic 1. Image Retouching 45 minutes
Communication 2. Image Compression
(9673) Process
3. Graphics Multimedia
4. List of sound editing
software

Retouch
Retouch is the Photo manipulation (also called photoshopping or—before the rise of Photoshop
software—airbrushing) is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to
create an illusion or deception (in contrast to mere enhancement or correction) after the original
photographing took place.

Types of digital photo manipulation

In digital editing, photographs are usually taken with a digital camera and input directly into
a computer. Transparencies, negatives or printed photographs may also be digitized using a
scanner, or images may be obtained from stock photography databases. With the advent of
computers, graphics tablets, and digital cameras, the term image editing encompasses
everything that can be done to a photo, whether in a darkroom or on a computer. Photo
manipulation is often much more explicit than subtle alterations to color balance or contrast
and may involve overlaying a head onto a different body or changing a sign's text, for
examples. Image editing software can be used to apply effects and warp an image until the
desired result is achieved. The resulting image may have little or no resemblance to the photo
(or photos in the case of compositing) from which it originated. Today, photo manipulation
is widely accepted as an art form.

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 Retouched, Retouching, Retouches
1. To add new details or touches for correction or improvement.

2. To improve or change (a photographic negative or print), as by adding details or removing flaws.

3. To color (recent growth of hair) to match hair that was tinted, dyed, or bleached at an
earlier date.

Retouch
1. (Art Terms) to restore, correct, or improve (a painting, make-up, etc) with new touches

2. (Photography) to alter (a negative or print) by painting over blemishes or adding details

3. To make small finishing improvements

Retouch - give retouches to (hair); "retouch the roots"

color, color in, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour - add color to; "The child
colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film"

Retouch - alter so as to produce a more desirable appearance;

"This photograph has been retouched!"

Image Compression
Image processing compression involves reducing the amount of space an image occupies
when written to a physical file or when being held in memory. The general concept behind
most compression algorithms is that images have repeating patterns or similar parts that can
be specially encoded and then symbolically referenced, avoiding the need to explicitly
rewrite an already encoded pattern.

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There are two broad categories in image processing compression, namely

1. Lossless compression
2. Lossy compression

In lossless compression, the image and all its pixels and color information are stored in a way so it
can be perfectly reconstructed.

Lossy compression involves either manipulating some parts of the image to make it easier to
compress or using algorithms that can occasionally cause some pixel information not to be accurately
encoded.

The difference in image processing compression rates between lossless and lossy algorithms can be
dramatic. Lossless compression usually achieves a much higher compression percentage, at the cost of
the image being slightly degraded each time it is re-compressed. The properties of an actual image
also can affect the amount of compression that can occur. An image that has many disparate,
differently colored pixels in random alignments will not benefit much from being compressed and
might actually cause an increase in the file size with certain file formats. Images that have large areas
of flat color, or a limited number of colors, can benefit the most from compression.

JPEG Image Compression

The JPEG lossy image compression standard is currently in worldwide use, and is becoming
a critical element in the storage of digital images captured with the optical microscope. This
interactive tutorial explores compression of digital images with the JPEG algorithm, and how
the lossy storage mechanism affects file size and the final image appearance.

Positioned to the right of the Specimen Image window is a JPEG Compressed Image
window that displays the captured image at a variety of compression levels, which are
adjustable with the Image Compression slider.

To operate the tutorial, select an image from the Choose A Specimen pull-down menu, and
vary the image compression ratio with the Image Compression slider. The ratio of original
image file size to that of the compressed file is presented directly above the slider. By
default, the tutorial performs JPEG compression on color images. When the Grayscale
Image checkbox is selected, a grayscale version of the image will be loaded into the tutorial
and the compression algorithm will be performed on the grayscale image. To view the
differences between the compressed and original image, activate the Difference Image
radio button. The root-mean-square (RMS) error in compression and the JPEG quality
factor are provided in a box below the JPEG Compressed Image window.

The JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image compression standard has become an
important tool in the creation and manipulation of digital images. The primary algorithm
underlying this standard is executed in several stages. In the first stage, the image is
converted from RGB format to a video-based encoding format in which the grayscale
(luminance) and color (chrominance) information are separated. Such a distribution is

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desirable because grayscale information contributes more to perceptual image quality than
does color information, due to the fact that the human eye uses grayscale information to
detect boundaries. Color information can be dispersed across boundaries without noticeable
loss of image quality. Thus, from a visual standpoint, it is acceptable to discard more of the
color information than grayscale information, allowing for a greater compression of digital
images.

In the second stage, the luminance and chrominance information are each transformed from
the spatial domain into the frequency domain. This process consists of dividing the
luminance and chrominance information into square (typically 8 x 8) blocks and applying a
two-dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) to each block. The cosine transform
converts each block of spatial information into an efficient frequency space representation
that is better suited for compression. Specifically, the transform produces an array of
coefficients for real-valued basis functions that represent each block of data in frequency
space. The magnitude of the DCT coefficients exhibits a distinct pattern within the array,
where transform coefficients corresponding to the lowest frequency basis functions usually
have the highest magnitude and are the most perceptually significant. Similarly, cosine
transform coefficients corresponding to the highest frequency basis functions usually have
the lowest magnitude and are the least perceptually significant.

In the third stage, each block of DCT coefficients is subjected to a process of quantization,
wherein grayscale and color information are discarded. Each cosine transform coefficient is
divided by its corresponding element in a scaled quantization matrix, and the resulting
numerical value is rounded. The default quantization matrices for luminance and
chrominance are specified in the JPEG standard, and were designed in accordance with a
model of human perception. The scale factor of the quantization matrix directly affects the
amount of image compression, and the lossy quality of JPEG compression arises as a
direct result of this quantization process. Quantizing the array of cosine transform
coefficients is designed to eliminate the influence of less perceptually significant basis
functions. The transform coefficients corresponding to these less significant basis functions
are typically very small to begin with, and the quantization process reduces them to zeros in
the resulting quantized coefficient array. As a result, the array of quantized DCT coefficients
will contain a large number of zeros, a factor that is employed in the next stage to deliver
significant data compression.

In the fourth stage, a process of run-length encoding is applied to each block of quantized
cosine transform coefficients. A zigzag pattern is employed in the run-length encoding
scheme to exploit the number of consecutive zeros that occur in each block. The zigzag
pattern progresses from low-frequency to high-frequency terms. Because the high-frequency
terms are the ones most likely to be eliminated in the quantization stage, any run-length
encoded block will typically contain at least one large run of zeros at the end. Thus, the
amount of space required to represent each block can be substantially reduced by
representing a run of zeros as (0, n), where n is the number of zeros occurring in the run.
The process of run length encoding of an 8 x 8 DCT block is illustrated in Figure 1. In the
fifth and final stage, the resulting data may be further compressed through a loss-less
process of Huffman coding. The resulting compressed data may then be written to the
computer hard drive in a file for efficient storage and transfer.

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In the tutorial, as the Image Compression slider is moved to the right, the compression ratio
of the original image to the compressed image is irregularly increased. The compression
ratio is dependent upon the characteristics of the image selected, but these ratios will
typically range between 1.1 : 1 to 50 : 1. The JPEG quality factor is a number between 0
and 100 that associates a numerical value with a particular compression level. As the quality
factor is decreased from 100, image compression improves, but the quality of the resulting
image is significantly reduced. As the Image Compression slider is moved to the right
(increasing the compression ratio), additional low-frequency luminance information is
discarded and image detail is lost. At the highest compression ratios, 8 x 8 blocking
artifacts occur, which mask many of the image features. The consequences of high
compression can be seen quantitatively by observing the RMS error, which consists of the
sum of the per-pixel intensity differences between the original image and the compressed
image. As the RMS error increases, the amount of difference between the original and
compressed images also increases.

Compression of images by the JPEG algorithm should be limited to those intended strictly
for visual display, such as presentation in Web pages or distributed in portable document
format (PDF). Digital images captured in the microscope that are destined for serious
scientific scrutiny with regard to dimensions, positions, intensities, or colors of features
should never be subjected to lossy compression before analysis. Cameras utilized in
scientific or forensic work should have any lossy compression options turned off. It is not
possible to examine a compressed image and determine what has been lost, and the losses
are distributed very nonuniformly throughout the image, depending upon the amount of local
detail.

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Multimedia

As the name implies, multimedia is the integration of multiple forms of media. This includes
text, graphics, audio, video, etc. For example, a presentation involving audio and video clips
would be considered a "multimedia presentation." Educational software that involves
animations, sound, and text is called "multimedia software." CDs and DVDs are often
considered to be "multimedia formats" since they can store a lot of data and most forms of
multimedia require a lot of disk space.

Due to the advancements in computer speeds and storage space, multimedia is commonplace
today.

List of Sound Editing Software

1. My Sound Editor Edition 5.2.1
2. Wavepad Sound Creation for Mac 5.60
3. Wavepad Audio editor for Mac 5.09
4. Sound Expert4.1.1
5. Photo Editor 1.55
6. Wavosaur Audio Editor 1.0.2.0
7. Photo Pos Lite Photo Editor 1.86
8. PhotoPad Image Editor 2.32
9. Image Editing Utility 3.32
10. Wave Editor 3.2.0.0
11. WavePad Audio Editor for Mac OS 3.14