The Graphic Formats

In order to be able to learn more about the supported graphic formats The format or formatting (Latin, forma) is designated in word processing as the design of the text document. In this case meaning the selection of character fonts and character style such as bold or italics. or the optimal file size for a printout, we have following collected the most important background information on this subject. This information is especially helpful if you want to create or edit your own graphic or logo yourself.

To be able to integrate a graphic for example as stationary or logo in you layout you will first need a graphic in a special file-format. CARAT supports the formats *.bmp, *.jpg JPEG or JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a committee of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) founded in 1986. In September 1992 the committee developed a standardized procedure for a lossy compression of digital (natural) photographic images, that was subsequently named for them. JPEG is the most common photo format on the Web., *.png and *.tif. The files can be saved in any directory in you network.

Besides the already mentioned graphic formats is for the function stationary also the format PDF The Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) was developed and perfected in the 80's by Adobe Systems. Adobe PDF files contain data from any application, that can be displayed on every computer, and are suitable thereby to be exchanged with users throughout the world. available. This means that you also can scan your original stationary and convert it into a PDF or save a hand design strait from you word processing as PDF, when desired. Subsequently you can use such a PDF directly in CARAT as stationary without having to use an additional Addition (in Latin: addere) is one of four basic operations in arithmetic. In primary school and in common language it is the expression used for the adding of two or more numbers. graphic program.

BMP Windows bitmap (BMP) is a two-dimensional raster graphics format, which was developed for the operating system Microsoft Windows and OS/2, and was introduced with Windows 3.0. The file-extension is *.bmp. (Windows Bitmap)is a two-dimensional raster graphics A raster graphic, also named pixel graphic (Bitmap), is a way to describe an image in a data form readable by computers. Raster graphics exist of arrangements of pixels (picture points) in a grid form, each being assigned a colour. The key features of a raster graphic are the width and height in pixels, also know as resolution, as well as the colour depth. format, which was developed for the operating system An operating system is the software which enables the use of a computer. It administrates operating resources like memory, input and output devices and controls the execution of programs. Microsoft Windows and OS/2, and was introduced with Windows 3.0. The file-extension is *.bmp. With the BMP format you can create an individual raster graphic, in any colour depth The colour depth is given in bits, and gives information about how many colour tones a single pixel can be assigned. The colour depth indicates thus the refinement of the colour shades. from black-and-white up to 24-bit colour depth. The bitmap file-format is compatible with other Windows programs and is widespread. However, BMP does not support data compression, which results in large file sizes. Because of this are BMP-files usually not suitable for websites email dispatch. All in all outweigh the disadvantages of the bitmap data-format the advantages.

PNG Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a graphics format for raster graphics with loss less image compression. Besides different colour depths PNG also supports transparency by alpha. It is an universal, from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recognized format and is supported by all modern web browsers. (Portable Network Graphics) is a graphics format for raster graphics with loss less image compression. It was designed as a free replacement of the older, till 2004 with patent claims burdened, GIF format, and is less complex as TIFF. Besides different colour depths PNG also supports transparency by alpha. The PNG format was never patent restricted, as was the case with GIF till 2004 because of the use of LZW algorithm. It is an universal, from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recognized format and is supported by all modern web browsers.

  • Advantages
    • There are no license fees.
    • The compression is loss less and usually more compact as comparable formats.
    • Support of True colour (24 Bit colour depth) with a maximum of 48 Bit colour depth.
    • Support of Alpha-Transparency (up to 16 Bit, thus 65.536 levels; usual is 8 Bit).
    • Support of Colour and Gamma correction technology, to assure the likeliness of images on different systems.
  • Disadvantages
    • More complexity of the file format compared to GIF.
    • As incomplete alternative to GIF-format, it offers no possibilities for animations.
    • Does not support the CMYK-Colour model, and is therefore not suitable as full replacement of TIFF.
    • With certain types of images (photos) the format achieves by nature not the compression ratio lossy algorithms, such as JPEG.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a file format, which is able to store a graphic with any colour depth. TIFF is probably the most supported graphic file format in the printing industry. Optional The word option (from Latin: optio = free will) used in computing means a choice. In CARAT it is normally used with a list box. compression is supported, but it is not suitable for being displayed in web browsers. TIFF is, besides PDF, an important format for exchange of data in the pre-press at publishing houses and print shops. Within internet the TIFF-format is used, to provide high-resolution pictures in printable, lossless quality to the users, e.g. publishing houses. Therefore is accepted, that these files have the multiple size than a lossy compressed JPEG-picture.

  • Advantages
    • Due to its good quality is TIFF foremost suited for print products.
    • TIFF is an extensively supported format, especially between Macintosh and Windows computers.
    • Optional compression is supported.
    • The expandable format supports various optional functions.
  • Disadvantages
    • TIFF is not supported by web browsers.
    • The expandability results in many different TIFF graphic-types.
    • Not all TIFF-files are compatible with all programs supporting the basis TIFF-standard.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a format independent from platforms, that supports the greatest possible compression. However this compression is very lossy. The JPEG-compression was developed for natural pictures (raster graphics). These are pictures one finds in the photography or with pictures generated by computers. JPEG is not suitable for digital line drawings (for example for a screenshot or a vector graphics A vector graphic is a computer image, that is made up of primitive graphics like lines, circles and polygons. For example, to save the image of a circle, a vector graphic requires a minimum of two values: the location of the centre point of the circle, and its diameter. ), which contain many adjoining pixels Pixel or picture element identifies both, the smallest unit of digital raster graphics and the display of these graphics on a monitor with raster activation. with exact identical colour values, few colours and sharp edges. For those pictures are the formats BMP, TIFF or PDF better suitable by far.

The grade of compression of JPEG-files can be increased or decreased, however the picture quality is reduced to the benefit of the file size. The JPEG-compression provides good results for photo-realistic picture-material. For simpler picture-material with few colours, sharp contrasts, fixed frames or wide monochromatic areas the JPEG-compression does not produce outstanding results.

The graphic formats *.bmp, *.jpg, *.png and *.tif can usually be created or edited with any good graphic program. An example of a simple graphic program is the Paint program, which included in the operating system of Microsoft Windows. With this, you can create simple logos yourself or edit and save imported images from a scanner or digital camera. Please refer to the online help of your particular graphical software Software denotes all nonphysical functional components of a computer, which contains at least one microprocessor. This primarily includes computer programs, as well as data used with computer programs., for the detailed steps you have to take.

A graphic, like a logo for example, should on your forms usually be printed on a specific location, in a fixed size. The correlation between image size, print size and file size should absolutely be considered, in order to obtain the most optimal print of the graphic possible, but at the same time keep the file size as small as possible, in order not to slow down the printing unnecessarily.

Term

Description

Image size

 Image size means the actual area of the image. The image size of a graphic is always given in pixels. An image size of 100 x 50 means that this image is 100 pixels wide and 50 pixels high. This area thus comprises 5000 individual colour pixels (100 x 50 = 5000).

File size

 The file size identifies the memory requirements to save the file on a data medium A data medium is a data storage device, often known as a non-specific storage medium, used to save data or rather information. like for example a hard drive A hard drive (hard disk drive = HDD) is a ferromagnetic storage medium in computer technology, to which binary data is written on the surface of a rotating platter. The hard magnetic coating of the platter is magnetized with the relevant information as the platter rotates.. The file size is usually measured in kilobytes (KB 1 KB (Kilobyte) (1.000 Byte) A unit to indicate the total available memory capacity. One byte means an addressable memory unit, which has the capacity to store any character, e.g. A, B, C... = 1,000 bytes) or megabytes (MB 1 MB (Megabyte) (1.000.000 Byte) A unit to indicate the total available memory capacity. One byte means an addressable memory unit, which has the capacity to store any character. = 1,000,000 bytes). A byte can simplified be understood as the smallest unit to be stored. A byte can for example, be a single colour value like red, green or blue. However, in order to save a pixel, you need a minimum of 3 bytes, since all colours shown on a monitor A monitor is a output device and/or a part of an output device used for displaying information or pictures. It is thus a display in a technical sense. or printer are made up of mixed colours, which must be created from the base colours mentioned above.

Print size

 The print size means the actual size of the printed image. It is measured in millimetres or centimetres. For example, in order to completely fill a DIN A4 page with an image, an area of 210 mm width and 297 mm height must be printed.

Dpi The relative resolution is the quantity of picture basic elements (pixels or dots) per unit of length (dpi = dots per inch); this is also called point or pixel density. With inch is the international inch of 2,54 cm meant.

Dpi means the measurement unit dots per inch The inch became more and more out of use with the implementation of the metric system, only in the English language area (and with non-metric threads) is the inch still in use, which is in 1956 defined as international or English Inch on exactly 25,4 mm. The unit symbol for the inch is „in“ or the inch character ("), which is the same as the second symbol.. Normally, this unit is used to specify how many individual image pixels a printer can print in the length of an inch. The higher the value, the finer and sharper the print result normally will be. Experience has shown, that for fonts and simple graphics, a resolution Commonly the picture resolution means the quantity of pixels (picture points), which make up a digital image. Normally values are given in width x height. of 300 dpi sufficient is for a good print quality. Because a printer resolution of 300 dpi equals recalculated about 12 pixels per millimetre printed, and the individual pixels can no longer be recognized with the naked eye.

Image size (in pixels)

Print size (in mm at 300 dpi)

File size (in kilobytes)

236 x 236

472 x 472

945 x 945

1,890 x 1,890

3,780 x 3,780

20 x 20 mm

40 x 40 mm

80 x 80 mm

160 x 160 mm

320 x 320 mm

168

653

2,618

10,469

41,861

As you can see from the table, a doubling of the image size usually quadruples the file size. An image size of 472 pixel would be completely sufficient to be able to print for example, a graphic of 40 mm in width, with a dpi of 300. You can of course also print a larger file with an image size of 945 pixel for example, in 40 mm width. The print quality will however not be improved and the corresponding graphic file will need four times more memory space for printing than necessary.

In order to keep the file size as small as possible, you should adapt the image size to the desired print size. As example should be determined how wide a graphic in pixel should be, that should be printed as logo of 5 cm width with a resolution of 300 dpi. The following formula should clarify the calculation method for you.

Print size (cm) / Factor (inches) * Dpi value = Pixel
5 / 2.54 * 300 = 590

The desired print size of 5 cm is divided by a factor of 2.54 to convert from centimetres to inches. The value resulting is subsequently multiplied Multiplication (from Latin: multiplicare = multiply, also know as times) is one of four basic operations in arithmetic. with the desired value of 300 Dpi. As a result you will get the necessary pixel for the desired print width. You can of course also calculate the height of a graphic using the same method. Logically, you can use any dpi value. However, a dpi value of 300 has proved to work in practice. A higher dpi value does not result in a clearly better image, but raises the file size substantially. A value clearly lower than 300 dpi, normally reduces the print quality.

If you already have a graphic, you can calculate the optimal print size easily by converting the already known formula from the image size.

Pixel / Dpi value * Factor (inches) = Print size (cm)
945 / 300 * 2.54 = 8

First divide the pixel value, for example the width of the graphic, by the dpi value desired. We calculate in our example with 300 dpi. The resulting value is subsequently multiplied with the factor 2.54 to convert the value from inch to centimetres again. In this case a value of about 8 cm results.