Images

A picture is worth a thousand words.

It is an old saying, but true, that a picture is worth a thousand words. Imagine the following scenario:

You are viewing from one end of a room. The room appears to be on a floor of an old warehouse, of the type it is fashionable to convert into executive apartments. It is lit by sunlight streaming in through one window on the left wall, three on the back wall and two on the right. The light has a distinctly pale blue hue, so much so that it has an almost monochrome effect. Five human bodies are hanging from the ceiling, their heads hidden inside the ceiling so that they appear to be suspended by the neck. The light is behind them and they appear to have no features. There seems to be no pattern to their distribution.

How long did it take you to read that passage?
How clear an idea of the scene do you have?

Now point here.

How long did it take you to view that image?
How clearly do you recognise the scene described?
What do you see that was not mentioned in the text?

That is the value of an image!

Once the decision to use images has been made, there are others to be taken. What format Is to be used? The answer often depends on whether the image to be used is a photographic image or not? Both types are supported by different image formats which allow the file sizes to be compressed in order to allow then to be downloaded quickly on the web.

Non-Photographic images

Non-photographic images are often used in logos and for drawings, they tend to have very few distinct colours, up to 256 and may support transparency.

Photographic images

Photographic images can contain millions of different colours.