Introduction to Multimedia

Unit - III

Unit – III
Ø Introduction to multimedia
Ø Images
Ø Sounds
Ø Video
Ø Desktop Publishing Basics
Ø Page Layout Programs
Ø Text Generation
Ø Graphics for DTP
Ø Print Production
Introduction to Multimedia

Introduction to Multimedia
Multimedia means that computer information can be represented through audio,
video, and animation in addition to traditional media (i.e., text, graphics/drawings,
images).Multimedia is the field concerned with the computer controlled integration of text,
graphics, drawings, still and moving images (Video), animation, audio, and any other media
where every type of information can be represented, stored, transmitted and processed
digitally.

Applications of Multimedia
Multimedia finds its application in various areas including, but not limited to,
advertisements, art, education, entertainment, engineering, medicine, mathematics, business,
scientific research and spatial temporal applications. Several examples are as follows:
Creative industries
Creative industries use multimedia for a variety of purposes ranging from fine arts, to
entertainment, to commercial art, to journalism, to media and software services provided for
any of the industries listed below. An individual multimedia designer may cover the
spectrum throughout their career.

Commercial
Much of the electronic old and new media utilized by commercial artists is multimedia.
Exciting presentations are used to grab and keep attention in advertising. Industrial, business
to business, and interoffice communications are often developed by creative services firms
for advanced multimedia presentations beyond simple slide shows to sell ideas or liven-up
training. Commercial multimedia developers may be hired to design for governmental
services and nonprofit services applications as well.

Entertainment and fine arts

In addition, multimedia is heavily used in the entertainment industry, especially to develop
special effects in movies and animations. Multimedia games are a popular pastime and are
software programs available either as CD-ROMs or online. Some video games also use
multimedia features. Multimedia applications that allow users to actively participate instead
of just sitting by as passive recipients of information are called Interactive Multimedia. In the
Arts there are multimedia artists, whose minds are able to blend techniques using different
media that in some way incorporates interaction with the viewer.
Education
In Education, multimedia is used to produce computer-based training courses (popularly
called CBTs) and reference books like encyclopedia and almanacs. A CBT lets the user go
through a series of presentations, text about a particular topic, and associated illustrations in

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various information formats. Edutainment is an informal term used to describe combining

education with entertainment, especially multimedia entertainment.
Learning theory in the past decade has expanded dramatically because of the introduction of
multimedia. Several lines of research have evolved (e.g. Cognitive load, Multimedia
learning, and the list goes on). The possibilities for learning and instruction are nearly
endless.
Engineering
Software engineers may use multimedia in Computer Simulations for anything from
entertainment to training such as military or industrial training. Multimedia for software
interfaces are often done as collaboration between creative professionals and software
engineers.
Industry
In the Industrial sector, multimedia is used as a way to help present information to
shareholders, superiors and coworkers. Multimedia is also helpful for providing employee
training, advertising and selling products all over the world via virtually unlimited web-
based technologies.
Mathematical and Scientific Research
In Mathematical and Scientific Research, multimedia is mainly used for modeling and
simulation. For example, a scientist can look at a molecular model of a particular substance
and manipulate it to arrive at a new substance. Representative research can be found in
journals such as the Journal of Multimedia.

Medicine
In Medicine, doctors can get trained by looking at a virtual surgery or they can simulate how
the human body is affected by diseases spread by viruses and bacteria and then develop
techniques to prevent it.

Images
Still images are the important element of a multimedia project or a web site. In order
to make a multimedia presentation look elegant and complete, it is necessary to spend ample
amount of time to design the graphics and the layouts. Competent, computer literate skills in
graphic art and design are vital to the success of a multimedia project.
Digital Image
A digital image is represented by a matrix of numeric values each representing a
quantized intensity value. When I is a two-dimensional matrix, then I(r,c) is the intensity
value at the position corresponding to row r and column c of the matrix.

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Digital Image Format

There are different kinds of image formats in the literature. We shall consider the
image format that comes out of an image frame grabber, i.e., the captured image format, and
the format when images are stored, i.e., the stored image format.
Captured Image Format
The image format is specified by two main parameters: spatial resolution, which is
specified as pixelsxpixels (eg. 640x480)and color encoding, which is specified by bits per
pixel. Both parameter values depend on hardware and software for input/output of images.
Stored Image Format
When we store an image, we are storing a two-dimensional array of values, in which
each value represents the data associated with a pixel in the image. For a bitmap, this value is
a binary digit.

Image File Formats

Tagged Image File Format
TIFF is, in principle, a very flexible format that can be lossless or loss. The details of
the image storage algorithm are included as part of the file. In practice, TIFF is used almost
exclusively as a lossless image storage format that uses no compression at all. Most graphics
programs that use TIFF do not compression.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

PNG is also a lossless storage format. However, in contrast with common TIFF usage,
it looks for patterns in the image that it can use to compress file size. The compression is
exactly reversible, so the image is recovered exactly.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

GIF creates a table of up to 256 colors from a pool of 16 million. If the image has
fewer than 256 colors, GIF can render the image exactly. When the image contains many
colors, software that creates the GIF uses any of several algorithms to approximate the colors
in the image with the limited palette of 256 colors available. Better algorithms search the
image to find an optimum set of 256 colors. Sometimes GIF uses the nearest color to
represent each pixel, and sometimes it uses "error diffusion" to adjust the color of nearby
pixels to correct for the error in each pixel.

JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPG is optimized for photographs and similar continuous tone images that contain
many, many colors. It can achieve astounding compression ratios even while maintaining
very high image quality. GIF compression is unkind to such images. JPG works by analyzing

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images and discarding kinds of information that the eye is least likely to notice. It stores
information as 24 bit color.

RAW
RAW is an image output option available on some digital cameras. Though lossless, it
is a factor of three of four smaller than TIFF files of the same image. The disadvantage is
that there is a different RAW format for each manufacturer, and so you may have to use the
manufacturer's software to view the images.

Bitmap Picture
BMP is an uncompressed proprietary format invented by Microsoft. There is really no
reason to ever use this format.

PSD (Photoshop Document)

PSD are proprietary formats used by graphics programs. Photoshop's files have the
PSD extension, while Paint Shop Pro files use PSP. These are the preferred working formats
as you edit images in the software, because only the proprietary formats retain all the editing
power of the programs. These packages use layers, for example, to build complex images,
and layer information may be lost in the nonproprietary formats such as TIFF and JPG

Digital Audio
Digital audio is created when a sound wave is converted into numbers – a process
referred to as digitizing. It is possible to digitize sound from a microphone, a synthesizer,
existing tape recordings, live radio and television broadcasts, and popular CDs.

Editing Digital Recordings

Once a recording has been made, it will almost certainly need to be edited. The basic
sound editing operations that most multimedia procedures needed are described in the
paragraphs that follow
1. Multiple Tasks: Able to edit and combine multiple tracks and then merge the tracks
and export them in a final mix to a single audio file.
2. Trimming: Removing dead air or blank space from the front of a recording and an
unnecessary extra time off the end is your first sound editing task.
3. Splicing and Assembly: Using the same tools mentioned for trimming, you will
probably want to remove the extraneous noises that inevitably creep into recording.
4. Volume Adjustments: If you are trying to assemble ten different recordings into a
single track there is a little chance that all the segments have the same volume.
5. Format Conversion: In some cases your digital audio editing software might read a
format different from that read by your presentation or authoring program.

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6. Resembling or down sampling: If you have recorded and edited your sounds at16 bit
sampling rates but are using lower rates you must resample or down sample the file.
7. Equalization: Some programs offer digital equalization capabilities that allow you to
modify recording frequency content so that it sounds brighter or darker.
8. Digital Signal Processing: Some programs allow you to process the signal with
reverberation, multitap delay, and other special effects using DSP routines.

Audio File Formats

A file format determines the application that is to be used for opening a file.
Following is the list of different file formats and the software that can be used for opening a
specific file.
1. *.AIF, *.SDII in Macintosh Systems
2. *.SND for Macintosh Systems
3. *.WAV for Windows Systems
4. MIDI files – used by north Macintosh and Windows
5. *.WMA –windows media player
6. *.MP3 – MP3 audio
7. *.RA – Real Player
8. *.VOC – VOC Sound
9. AIFF sound format for Macintosh sound files
10. *.OGG – Ogg Vorbis

MIDI audio
Ø MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) that enables electronic musical
instruments, such as keyboard controllers, computers and other electronic equipment,
to communicate and also to control and synchronize with each other.
Ø MIDI allows computers, synthesizers, MIDI controllers, sound cards, samplers and
drum machines to control one another, and to exchange system data.
Ø MIDI does not transmit an audio signal or media — it transmits event messages such
as the pitch and intensity of musical notes to play, control signals for parameters such
as volume.

Comparing MIDI with digital audio

Ø The digital audio files store all kinds of audio data in the form of numerical samples
that are converted back to audio waves during playback.
Ø A whole lot of ADC and DAC conversions are involved in this transformation cycles.
MIDI stores just music data and records data as musical notes and instruments.
Ø Both techniques are widely used in multimedia audio applications and both have their
own inherent blessings and limitations.
Ø The following table shows the differentiating MIDI from digital audio

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Factor Digital audio MIDI

File size Huge Very less
Quality of music Varies. Susceptible to noises Mostly stable. No
and disturbances noises or disturbances
Editing and manipulation Inflexible Highly flexible
RAM and processing power More Less required
Playback Highly consistent Inconsistent
Audio All kinds of sounds Only music
Knowledge of music Required, but not compulsory Compulsory

Video
Ø Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing,
transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in
motion.
Ø The term video commonly refers to several storage formats for moving pictures:
digital video formats, including Blu-ray Disc, DVD, QuickTime, and MPEG-4; and
analog videotapes, including VHS and Betamax.
Ø Video can be recorded and transmitted in various physical media: in magnetic tape
when recorded as PAL or NTSC electric signals by video cameras, or in MPEG-4 or
DV digital media when recorded by digital cameras.

Video Standards
Four broadcast and video standards and recording formats are commonly in use
around the world: NTSC, PAL, SECAM, and HDTV. Because these standards and formats
are not easily interchangeable, it is important to know where your multimedia project will be
used.

NTSC (National Television System Committee)

The United States, Japan, and many other countries use a system for broadcasting and
displaying video that is based upon the specifications set forth by the 1952 National
Television Standards Committee. These standards define a method for encoding information
into the electronic signal that ultimately creates a television picture. As specified by the
NTSC standard, a single frame of video is made up of 525 horizontal scan lines drawn onto
the inside face of a phosphor-coated picture tube every 1/30th of a second by a fast-moving
electron beam.

PAL (Phase Alternate Line)

The Phase Alternate Line (PAL) system is used in the United Kingdom, Europe,
Australia, and South Africa. PAL is an integrated method of adding color to a black-and-
white television signal that paints 625 lines at a frame rate 25 frames per second.

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SECAM
The Sequential Color and Memory (SECAM) system is used in France, Russia, and
few other countries. Although SECAM is a 625-line, 50 Hz system, it differs greatly from
both the NTSC and the PAL color systems in its basic technology and broadcast method.

HDTV
High Definition Television (HDTV) provides high resolution in a 16:9 aspect ratio.
This aspect ratio allows the viewing of Cinemascope and Panavision movies. There is
contention between the broadcast and computer industries about whether to use interlacing or
progressive-scan technologies.

Desktop Publishing Basics

Ø Using a personal computer or workstation to produce high-quality printed documents.
Ø A desktop publishing system allows you to use different typefaces, specify various
margins and justifications, and embed illustrations and graphs directly into the text.
Ø The most powerful desktop publishing systems enable you to create illustrations,
while less powerful systems let you insert illustrations created by other programs.
Ø As word-processing programs become more and more powerful, the line separating
such programs from desktop publishing systems is becoming blurred.
Ø In general, though, desktop publishing applications give you more control over
typographical characteristics, such as kerning, and provide more support for full-color
output.
Ø A particularly important feature of desktop publishing systems is that they enable you
to see on the display screen exactly how the document will appear when printed.
Systems that support this feature are called WYSIWYGs (what you see is what you
get).
Ø Once you have produced a document with a desktop publishing system, you can
output it directly to a printer or you can produce a PostScript file which you can then
take to a service bureau.
Ø Offset printing produces higher-quality documents, especially if color is used, but is
generally more expensive than laser printing.

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Page Layout Programs

Word pad
WordPad can format and print text, but lacks intermediate features such as a spell
checker, thesaurus, and support for tables. As such, it is suitable for writing letters or short
pieces, but underpowered for work that relies heavily on graphics or longer works such as
books.
WordPad natively supports the Rich Text Format, though it does not support all the
features defined in the RTF/Word 2007 specification. Previous versions of WordPad also
supported the "Word for Windows 6.0" format, which is forward compatible with the
Microsoft Word format.

MS Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. A full-featured word
processing program in Windows from Microsoft is term as Microsoft word. Included in the
Microsoft application suite, it is a sophisticated program with rudimentary desktop
publishing capabilities that has become the most widely used word processing application on
the market. The first versions of Word came out under DOS and provided both graphics-
based and text-based interfaces for working with a document. For a tutorial on the essentials
of Microsoft Word

Notepad
Notepad is a simple text editor for Microsoft Windows. It has been included in all
versions of Microsoft Windows. Notepad is a common text-only (plain text) editor. The
resulting files—typically saved with the .txt extension—have no format tags or styles,
making the program suitable for editing system files that are to be used in a DOS
environment.
Notepad supports both left-to-right and right-to-left based languages, and one can
alternate between these viewing formats by using the right or left Ctrl + Shift keys to go to
right-to-left format or left-to-right format, respectively.

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