Hardware and software used in digital graphics

Hardware and software used in digital graphics

Software

Paint – Paint is one of the most basic  graphic creation and editing software package, the software has the advantage of coming free with all of the windows operating systems this gives the user the advantage of having free graphic manipulation software free with there PC, another advantage of with software is the simplistic nature of the software, as it is very easy for the average computer user to work with, however this also works as a limitation of the software as it gives the user less choices on ways to create, edit and manipulate an image with it than if you were creating an image with a more advanced software package but because the program is free the user cant really complain much about the limitations of the package.


Key functions and features of paint – Paint as the name suggests in its most basic form is a blank canvas that users of the program can use to create an image from scratch using the tools that are provided on the program or they can do very basic edits to an existing image by opening it with paint.
In paint you can use a variety of tools to create and edit images, for creating an image you can use the pencil tool - this tool allow you to draw freely with the mouse cursor also you can change the thickness of the line that you are drawing the disadvantage to this is that what you draw is only as straight as you hand is steady, there is also the brush tool which works in the same way as the pencil tool but the difference is that you can choose a variety of styles and thicknesses of brushes that can make the image you are creating or editing look more unique looking, this tool has the same disadvantage as the pencil tool being that the image you create with the tool is only as straight as your hand is steady.
The eraser tool allows you to delete/rub out anything that you have drawn in the paint program similar to how you can rub out pencil in real life, you can change the size of how much the eraser tool erases by clicking on the different size lines in the size tool to make it erases

The picture above shows the use of auto shapes and the eraser rubbing out parts of an auto shape, also it shows the pencil tool and some of the different brush types also in the screen shot you can see some of the different options you have with paint such as the brush sizes, the color of what is being drawn on screen and the text box.

Sumo paint 

Sumo paint is a free online image editing program that offer all of the image editing functions that paint has on top its own functions that allows the user of the program to go into greater detail with image editing. The best thing about the program is that it is free so this means that almost everyone in the world has access to an online image editor that is not online free and offers all of the functions of Paint but has far more of its own functions. The only limitation/disadvantage of this software is that without the help of a guide it is very hard for the user to figure out how to work all of the image editing tools. (paint being very easy for the user to figure out how to use)

Once the user has gone on to the sumo paint website they click on open sum paint and this opens the program in a new browser and then the user can open a new image on to sumo paint.

The image that is opened will appear on screen and it will also be represented in the layers box, this box allows the user to place one or more images on different layers according to what order the user wants the images to appear in for example a background image and a foreground image.

The layers box will also contain any image effects that the user decides to include on the image for example if the users hovers the cursor over layers and when the drop down box appears clicks on layer effects they will be able to chose different effects for the image layers for example clicking on inner glow it will a box will appear allowing the user to change the settings of the effect then after they have choose the settings and clicked ok the effect will change the image.

Another tool that is available with sumo paint is the clone tool. With the clone tool say you have two images open in sumo paint -

-and you like the colour/texture of one image and want to use it on an other, well with the clone tool you go to the colour/texture/image you wish you use and hold down the "Ctrl" and "Alt" keys and then hover over the areas that you wish to copy with the clone tool-

-After this you let go of the key and then select a brush style of your choice you will then be able to paste the copied portion of one image onto another image, this offers a great advantage in image creation as it allows the user to take textures and colours from other images and make use of them in the creation of their own image, this allows the user to create very unusual, creative, and unique images.

Hardware for creating/getting these creations on to the computer 

Graphics tablet - In digital graphic there are many different ways for the user to create and manipulate images and the graphics tablet offers a lot of advantages for the user in the creation of images and animations. 

The main function of the graphic tablet is that once plugged into the computer and the correct hardware having been installed on to the computer the tablet takes over the functions of the mouse with the use of a stylus pen.

This offers a huge amount of advantages for graphic creators and artists as it allows them to be able to draw what they want straight on to the computer (providing the correct software is open for example MS Paint) with pin point accuracy with how they would be able to draw with their own skills with a pencil and a piece of paper, on top of this it allows the user to change the style of the image they are creating with the software they are using for example in MS paint the user has access to different brush types, once selected that brush type no becomes what the user draws with so it offers a wide range of different brush like tools that the user has access to, not only this but the user can also change the colours that they are using to draw an image at anytime for example if you are drawing an image in MS paint in the colour black and you wish to colour in want you have with a different colour you can click on a different colour and brush style and then colour in the selected area just like you would in real life with the stylus.

Graphics tablet also play a major role for the animators of cartoons as the tablet allows the artist to create a character for an animation with out having to draw it out and then scanning it on to the computer and converting it on to the relevant software in order for it to be edited instead of this the drawn character is already on the computer as soon as the animator has drawn it, this offers the advantage of saving time as the animator does not have to spend time scanning an image on to the computer.

Scanner 

The scanner is a piece of hardware that allows the user of it to scan anything that will fit into the scanning tray on to the computer where from there it can be used for a wide range of graphic editing software such as sumo paint. 

To use a scanner the user has to first make sure it is connected to the PC usually by a USB lead and then turn the scanner on, the computer should recognize the scanner if the relevant software and then once this has happened the scanner should then be ready to use. 

In comparison to each other both a scanner and a graphics tablet offer the user the ability to get/create images on to the computer the main advantage that a scanner has over a graphics tablet is the wide range of things that the user is able to get on to the computer with it, with a graphics tablet the user has to create or manipulate an image with the stylus and this is good for users who have skills with art but for those that don't it allows them to take anything from photos to leafs and get them on to the computer for use in an image editing program. 

A user of a graphic's tablet for the most part can only create an image with the skills that they have as an artist and with these skills they can go a long with with the hardware and software that they are using for an image but to recreate something as an image depends on what they are drawing for example if they wish to draw a leaf depending on their skills they could draw a very accurate representation of it but how ever they would not be able to recreate every last detail of the leaf including the exact colours of it and it texture but with the use of a scanner the user can have the object in this case a leaf scanned on to the computer depending on the quality of the scanner an almost exact replica of the leaf can be brought on to the computer from here the user can bring it into a program such as sumo paint and use the clone tool to take the colour and textures of it and paste them on to another image that is opened in the program other things can be scanned in for this purpose to such as fabrics, wallpapers, etc 

A scanner allows the user to take pictures and things like magazine images and put them on to a computer from here the user can open them in photo editing software and use them to bring certain object featured in the picture on to another image that is open in the software for example scanning a car to edit in sumo paint. 

The main limitation's of a graphics tablet is that the image that the user creates with it rely's on the user's art skills for the quality of the image but with the scanner exact image can be scanned on to the PC. 

The main limitation's of a scanner is that the quality of the image that get scanned on to the computer depends on the quality of the scanner for example a high end scanner will produce a very life like copy of an object/photograph on to the computer for use but a low end scanner will produce the copy on to the computer but it will have less quality and textures than it would have in real life, also in lower end scanners scanned image's and objects can become blur'ed during the transfer on to the computer and if you want to get the highest quality copy of something on to a computer using a scanner you will need to use a high end scanner which can be quite costly for some one to go out and buy and it may be hard to find a service close by that has a high end scanner available for use.