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Notes
General Rules About Bitmapped Images Appendix A
Although we refer to some kinds of photographs as black and white, in reality they
are actually composed of varying shades of gray. In fact, if you look closely at a
B&W photograph you will notice that the number of grays is virtually unlimited and
that the changes between these shades of gray is subtle and continuous. In other
words, you don’t always see the transition between one gray shade and the next.
This effect explains why the graphics industry refers to B&W photographs as
“continuous tone” or “contone” images.
Using Screens Since the invention of the printing press 500 hundred years ago
the printing process — although refined — has basically
remained unchanged. We still put ink on paper in much the
same way as Gutenberg. With all the modern printing
technology at our disposal it is still impossible to reproduce
continuous tone photographs on a printing press.
Instead, photographs must first be converted into dot patterns
that create an optical illusion of the original photograph. The
various subtle shades of gray are actually simulated by dots of
black ink. This conversion technique is called “screening,”
because it originally was performed using wire screens of
various densities to create the dot patterns. The resulting
“screened” image is called a “half-tone.” Wherever you look,
whether its in your local newspaper or your favorite monthly
magazine, you see half-tones in everyday use. Although
traditional screens are still used, it’s more likely that
newspapers, magazines, and other publications electronically
scan and edit images and generate the needed screens using
computer programs like Adobe Photoshop CS2.
Unfortunately, it is not as simple as replacing one technology
(screening) for another (scanning). For a photograph to make
the transition into the computer you first have to address a set
of limitations and restrictions.
High resolution
laser printers
For laser printers of higher-
resolution (600,1200 dpi or
higher), check with the oper-
ator/owner manual or
contact the manufacturer to
determine the default
screening resolution. Then,
simply multiply that resolu-
tion by 2 to determine an
appropriate scanning
resolution.
To provide the highest level of productivity and to improve system reliability you
0
The gold standard for all monitors are the display resolutions that they support.
Look for resolutions of 1024 x 768 at vertical refresh of 75Hz or higher. Often
cheap monitors claim to support resolutions as high as 1600 x 1200 pixels. But
when you check the refresh rates at that setting it is a dismal 55Hz.
Why do we care? The refresh rate is an indicator of the quality of the monitor and
the quality of the image displayed. The higher the refresh frequency the more stable
the image is, which means less flicker, which means no headaches after 10 hours of
staring at pixels. If at all possible before you buy a monitor test it out at the highest
resolutions and refresh frequencies at which you may use it. If you see it flickering,
don’t buy it. Also, check the return policy. If they won’t take it back when you don’t
like it after two days, then don’t take it in the first place.
The recommended minimum resolution for image editing is 1024 x 768 at
24-bit color.
Hard drive – The hard drive and the computer bus are the two most underrated
components of a microcomputer. Yet, the combination of a fast hard drive and fast
bus can increase data throughput and program performance by several factors. If
you intend to produce many bitmapped images a day, purchase a hard drive as
large and as fast as you can afford. Access time for the hard drive should be
13 milliseconds or faster.
Hard drives used to come in many flavors. Now only a few types exist. Typical off
the shelf drives are based on the ATA form. These are cheap, reliable, and large.
Drives larger than 500 GBs are easily affordable. Desktop ATA drives operate at
speeds of 7200 RPM or higher. Laptops have drives that typically run at 5400 RPM,
although some run more slowly.
SCSI hard drives are still the fastest drives on the market. But the speed offered is
often not worth the cost. SCSI drives are also available at speeds of 10,000 and
15,000 RPM. One downside is that SCSI drives usually require an add-in SCSI
controller card. SCSI drives and controllers are not cheap. Yet, if you need the
ultimate in speed and throughput, go SCSI all the way.
The latest technology for hard drives made its debut in the Macintosh G5. Serial
ATA (SATA) drives offer some of the speed of SCSI at a much lower cost. SATA
drives are promising speeds of 7200RPM with throughput of 150Mbps. Other
Additional Storage
Today, hard drives have never been cheaper. You can get fast ATA and SCSI drives
in hundreds of gigabyte in sizes for a fraction of the price-per-megabyte several
years ago. However, even the largest hard drive can get filled up quickly working
on high-resolution color images with sizes ranging from 10MB-100MB.
Although multi-gigabyte hard drives do exist, at what point does it become unwise
to put all those eggs in one basket? Even the best and most expensive drives will fail
eventually with the potential of losing all your precise data!!!
One solution is to link multiple hard drives together in what are called “arrays.” The
data written to one drive can be mirrored to another to provide instant backup. But
arrays are expensive and, for most applications, unnecessary.
Several manufacturers offer a variety of on-line or off-line storage devices or
services, ranging from external drives to removable hard drives that can be
Good luck!