Unit 3

Text is an important component used in

many multimedia applications. They
are characters that are used to create
words, sentences and paragraphs. Text
alone provide just one source of
information. Yet, text is good at providing
basic information
 Multimedia graphics:
• Bit Images
• Images consist of pixels, or pels— picture elements in digital
images. A 1 - bit image consists of on and off bits only and
thus is the simplest type of image. Each pixel is stored as a
single bit (0 or 1). Hence, such an image is also referred to
as a binary image.
• It is also called a 1 - bit monochrome image, since it contains
no color. The above figure shows a 1 - bit monochrome
image (called "Lena" by multimedia scientists — this is a
standard image used to illustrate many algorithms). A 640 x
480 monochrome image requires 38.4 kilobytes of storage
(— 640 x 480 / 8). Monochrome 1 - bit images can be
satisfactory for pictures containing only simple graphics and
text.
 8 - Bit Gray - Level Images

• Now consider an 8 - bit image — that is, one for

which each pixel has a gray value between 0 and
255. Each pixel is represented by a single byte —
for example, a dark pixel might have a value of 10,
and a bright one might be 230.
• The entire image can be thought of as a two -
dimensional array of pixel values. We refer to
such an array as a bitmap, — a representation of
the graphics / image data that parallels the
manner in which it is stored in video memory.
 Dithering
• Dithering is the most common means of reducing
the color range of images down to the 256 (or
fewer) colors seen in 8 - bit GIF images.
• Dithering is the process of juxtaposing pixels of
two colors to create the illusion that a third color
is present. A simple example is an image with only
black and white in the color palette. By combining
black and white pixels in complex patterns a
graphics program like Adobe Photoshop can
create the illusion of gray values.
 24 - Bit Color Images

• In a color 24 - bit image, each pixel is represented by three

bytes, usually representing RGB. Since each value is in the
range 0 - 255, this format supports 256 x 256 x 256, or a
total of 16,777,216, possible combined colors. However,
such flexibility does result in a storage penalty: a 640 x 480
24 - bit color image would require 921.6 kilobytes of
storage without any compression.
• An important point to note is that many 24 - bit color
images are actually stored as 32 - bit images, with the extra
byte of data for each pixel storing an α (alpha) value
representing special - effect information.
•
 Multimedia file formats
• Multimedia elements (like audio or video) are
stored in media files. The most common way
to discover the type of a file, is to look at the
file extension. Multimedia files have formats
and different extensions like: .wav, .mp3,
.mp4, .mpg, .wmv, and .avi.
 scanning in multimedia
• Scanning refers to the process of converting
tangible documents, for example receipts,
forms, letters, contracts & other documents
into digital copy or electronic scripts which
can be effortlessly attached as a part of
archive database in home or office computers
or may be added to a central database
 Digital Photography

• Digital photography is the process of using

electronic and computing appliances to
capture, create, edit and share digital
images/photographs.
• It encompasses several different technologies
to provide electronic or computer-based
photography services.