UNIT 54DIGITAL GRAPHICS FOR PRINT

By Dan Hans

Introduction

This PowerPoint will be about the different types of graphic files and formats, these are:

Raster files

Vector files

Metafiles

File extensions

Raster files Raster files are digital images that use pixels, this means the image

is made up of lots of tiny little squares that each have their own colour.

If you were to zoom into a raster image, it would become distorted and illegible, allowing you to view the little squares.

  You can edit raster files with computer software such as painter,

Photoshop MS paint and GIMP.   Raster file are more likely to be photos rather than computer

graphic designed images.   Colours are constructed by adding the values of red green and blue.

An advantage of Raster files is that you can use photos and manipulate them in raster editors such as Photoshop.

Raster Files

I have used raster files whilst making my mixmag front cover.

The main image on the front cover is a Raster file and I edited it on Photoshop as it is an advanced raster graphic editor and allows me to manipulate raster files.

When I changed the colour of the onesie there were some pixels which didn’t change so I had to zoom in and change the squares individually. This was originally

brown.

Vector Files

Vector graphics are based on mathematical expressions that use lines, curves, shapes or polygons to represent images in computer graphics.

Each Vector editing software has its own file format, however EPS and SVG are the primary vector formats for exchange. EPS is more commonly used in printing, while SVG was designed for Web use.

Vector graphics are unlike raster graphics appear smooth at the edges no matter how they are sized, whereas raster graphics appear jagged, or pixilated, when up-scaled.

The disadvantage of a Vector graphic is that if scaled down to much then parts of it like lines will disappear.

Vector Files

Here is an example of a Vector graphic that I used in my mixmag cover.

I used this because it was easier to re-size without it going pixilated as it is smooth.

I created it on Adobe Illustrator and then saved it as a .EPS file extension.

Metafiles

Metafiles are a type file that can contain both Vector and Raster graphics.

Windows Metafiles are intended to be portable between applications and may contain both vector graphics and Raster components.

A file format and extension of a metafile is windows metafile (.WMF)

The advantages of a Metafile are that you can combine both raster and vector graphics into the one document making your final product much better that just using one or the other.

The disadvantages of Metafiles is that if they are not exported correctly they can become corrupt and you lose it.

How i created a Metafile

I then dragged it into photoshop

Finally I saved the document as a .WMF which is a suitable metafile format

To create a metafile I first had to make a vector graphic in adobe illustrator

File Extensions

File extensions are the format that a file is being saved as.

This depends on the different software you are using

If you were using word you would save your document as .Doc or .Docx

In terms of graphics the common file extension of a Raster file is .JPEG or .BITMAPThe common file extension for a Vector graphic would be .EPS

These are the types of file extensions I used when making my mixmag magazine. Also I used .PSD .IID

Examples of file extensions I used

I used this file extension so I could put my VIP pages into a different format than InDesign so I could print it off.

This is .PSD which is the standard Photoshop file extension. I used this for my front cover to manipulate my images.This is .WMF which is a file extension for a Metafile format, this was so I could have both vector graphics and raster in the same document. I used this so my cover could contain raster and vector.

And finally this is .JPG which is the file extension for a JPEG image which is a raster file. I used this file extension when using images for my front cover and VIP page.