File formats work

1. Digital Graphics
File Formats
Your name here

2. Raster Graphics
• Raster Graphics are a type of digital graphic
that are made up of pixels. Each pixel records
a colour for that particular part of the image.
The more pixels that an image contains the
higher the quality that the image tends to be.
They have a fixed resolution and will lose
quality if they are scaled.

3. Vector Graphics
• Vector graphics are a type of digital graphic
that is made up of paths and curves between
two points. This could either be: a line, curve,
triangle or curvy shape. When a vector is
scaled it does not lose quality which makes it
perfect for a company logo for example as it
can be placed on different sized documents
without losing quality.

4. Raster Graphics

5. JPEG
Stands For Joint Photographic Experts group
Used For/Example It is a photograph and web format that is
often used to store and display images on
websites such as facebook.
Advantage This format is incredibly universal and can
be run on the vast majority of machines. It
also has a very small file size so it will be
easy to open and access and will not clog
up a hard drive or memory pen.
Disadvantage When JPEG images are scaled they can
loose quality. It is also a lossy form of
compression so when a file is converted to
a jpeg some of the quality will be lost in
the compression.

6. TIFF
Stands For Tagged Image File Format
Used For/Example This is a format that is popular with
designers. It can be used for graphics as it
keeps the images in high quality.
Advantage This format can save multi page
documents under one file. It can also have
the option of being lossless compression
which means that the file size can be
reduced if it is converted without a loss of
quality.
Disadvantage This format is not very universal and
special software may have to be used to
view it. It also has a very large file size.

7. GIF
Stands For Graphic Interchange Format
Used For/Example Used for short digital animations that are
often posted on the internet.
Advantage They are small files so can be loaded and
viewed quickly and are useful if the device
that you are does not play video files. The
small files also make sure that they do not
take up much space in folders or in a
harddrive.
Disadvantage The animations have poor quality as they
have been heavily compressed and cant
play sound along with them.

8. BMP
Stands For Bitmap image file
Used For/Example They are used for high quality images in
programs such as paint.
Advantage They have no loss in quality when they are
compressed so quality is consistent with
large images.
Disadvantage They file sizes of products is very large and
can cause problems when opening the file
or when storing the file.

9. Vector Graphics

10. PSD
Stands For Photoshop Document
Used For/Example It is used for high quality images that have
been manipulated or have several layers
such as magazine covers.
Advantage It saves layers, page formatting, swatches
etc. This allows you to keep images that
you can keep edited images exactly as you
edited them. It allows you to keep a
transparent background for the image you
produce.
Disadvantage The files size of the documents are very
large and can be difficult to store. You may
also need to purchase Photoshop to view
the documents.

11. AI
Stands For Adobe illustrator
Used For/Example It is mostly used to create graphics and
logos that can be drawn with styluses. This
is due to the detail that can be included.
Advantage The images can be scaled without losing
quality. A high level of detail can be kept
even when scaled to extremes.
Disadvantage You can only view the file with the
program itself which limits its use to
machines with adobe illustrator installed.

12. FLA
Stands For Flash File
Used For/Example Used for animation and games as it can
keep them high quality.
Advantage It can produce high quality files with a
small file size as well which means that
they can be loaded up quickly making
them perfect for the web as it can be
opened up quickly even if someone has a
slow computer. They can also include
sound and video.
Disadvantage It is a specialist software so you would
have to download flash to edit it which
could limit the people that could receive it.

13. WMF
Stands For Windows Metafile
Used For/Example It is used for clip art on programs such as
word.
Advantage It can be scaled to any size without losing
quality. It contains both vector and bitmap
elements.
Disadvantage The images themselves are very simplistic
in design and are usually very poor.

14. File Format Capture
and Optimising

15. Compression
Definition When a file is compressed you are
reducing the amount of data that makes
up the file by coding it more efficiently.
Advantage The file can be opened, accessed and sent
more quickly as less data is being sent. You
can store more files on a hard drive or
memory pen.
Disadvantage Some of the quality may be lost when a
file is compressed.

16. Image Capture
Method Scanner
How is it used for image capture of
graphics
You can scan and digitise physical images,
photographs and items.
Method Camera
How is it used for image capture of
graphics
You can capture images and put them onto
a computer digitally.
Method Graphics Tablet
How is it used for image capture of
graphics
You can draw on images using a stylus as if
you were drawing with a pen.

17. Optimising
Why would you optimise? To make sure that an image is able to
opened quickly on all devices that it is
opened on.
How can you optimise? You can reduce file size, resolution and
compress a file to get it optimised.
Advantage to optimising The file can be opened quickly and fits on
the page in a suitable place even if it is
opened on a different platform to the one
intended
Disadvantage to optimising Some of the quality from the original file
may be lost during the process.

18. Storage

19. File Size
What could affect a Working Scale
(Photoshop) document file size?
What format you save it in could decide
whether it is lossy or lossless
compression. Lossy compression would
affect the quality if the image is scaled.
How could you reduce the file size of a
Working Scale document without
affecting quality?
Use a method of lossless compression.
What is an advantage of scaling up images
before exporting?
So that they are in a higher resolution
when they are exported which means they
would not have to scaled as much.
What is a disadvantage of scaling up
images before exporting?
The image would maybe need to be scaled
down a great deal if it is too large; this
would make it loose quality.

20. File Naming Conventions
What naming conventions could you use
when creating your video game assets?
• You would name layers in documents
to appropriate names eg. Face, eyes.
• You would name files appropriate
names so that you don’t mix up files
and they can be found among each
other.
Why is it a good idea to accurately name
your assets?
So that you can find the files that you are
looking for among a crowd and don’t lose
them. It can also help group several files
together if they are all work on the same
project.

21. Asset Management
Why would you use folders when storing
your assets?
So that you can group together files that
are based around the same project and
can access them all together if needs be.
What folders would you create and what
would you save within them
• Folders for different tasks such as for
each project and each sub task within
them.