Copyright © 2000 by Michael
Segers, All rights reserved
If you've raved along with me for the past year, you know I like to rove around the Internet to find information that I need and use on a daily basis (for instance, can cats and parrots get along?). This time, I’m staying home, within my computer, to share with you some ideas on how you can access and modify images (of a parrot, perhaps) within your computer to display on your monitor screen, to print, to post to your web page, or to e-mail. With various software applications, you can create your own greeting cards, preserve and restore family photographs, and share pictures as readily as you send e-mail.
By the way, in doing research for this article, I found some amazingly thorough references on the Internet. The article that you are reading, a very general introduction to software and hardware, is much broader than I had originally planned, with the references (links) at the end of the article giving you, among other materials, whole books about digital photography available online for free.
Like all information that a computer can use, pictures must be digital, that is, in reality, a combination of zeros and ones (just like the text you are reading now) and so, these are "digital images." There are three main sources of digital imagery: the Internet or a scanner or a digital camera. There are advantages and disadvantages with each of these sources.
The simplest, cheapest source of digital images is the Internet. You can save any image that you find on the Internet for your own use. Getting images from the Internet is cheap and easy, but you are limited to what you can find on the Internet. Chances are, you won't find a picture of your new parrot there or of Great-aunt Maude either, and many images on the Internet are protected by copyright. To get images from the Internet, however, just position your cursor on the image, click the right mouse button, and "Save as—" whatever you want to name the image. That's it.
Before long, you will want use your computer to share your own pictures. For this purpose, most people will buy a scanner, a device that "reads" a picture, translating it into a digital form that your computer can access. Of several kinds of scanners, the most common and most useful is the flatbed scanner, which you can purchase with the appropriate software for less than a hundred dollars. (Check the links at the end of this article.) Place your picture on the scanner, run the scanner from your computer, and then you can e-mail your photos from the office party to blackmail your co-workers. You can also use a scanner for OCR (optical character recognition) to input text to your computer without having to type it in. A scanner is much cheaper than a digital camera, but the disadvantage is that you have to have your film processed before you can use your photos in your scanner.
Finally, you can purchase a digital camera. There are several factors to consider in purchasing a digital camera, which probably will be the most expensive peripheral (additional hardware) that you will purchase for your computer system. First is resolution—in other words, how clear the photo is. The higher the resolution, the clearer the photograph, but the higher the resolution, the more memory that photo takes (and the more expensive the camera). If a picture is worth a thousand words, a high-resolution picture is worth two thousand words.
If you are mainly going to use your photos in electronic format—to view on your monitor, to send by e-mail, or to post on a web page—you will prefer a lower resolution, because the photos will not take so long to load. On the other hand, if you mainly want to print your photos, you will do better to have a higher resolution. You also may want to purchase a better printer as well as photographic paper, but you will have a whole new hobby, a whole new art form, as you create one-of-a-kind photographic cards and gifts.
Another consideration is how the photos are saved. Most digital cameras require various sorts of connections (that is, more cables) to your computer. I chose a Sony digital camera because as far as I know, only Sony digital cameras use standard floppy disks. I can take pictures, pop the disk out of the camera, and then insert it into my computer to view the photos without any special software. When traveling, I am not limited to a certain number of photos; I just change the disk the way I would change the film in a traditional camera. I can give the disk to someone, who will not have to have any special attachments or software to use it.
For now, the major drawback to digital cameras is cost. But for that cost, you get the flexibility and freedom that digital cameras offer. If you are considering such a purchase, do check the links at the end of this column.
Once you have your digital image, you will probably want to modify it in some way. Various software programs allow you to crop the image, change a color image to black and white, add various special effects, even convert a photo to a line drawing. The most basic and common graphics software is "Paint," available from the "Accessories" in the "Programs" menu of Windows. Among the more sophisticated are the various Adobe programs. In the links below, you will find information about many such programs. You don't have to spend a great deal of money to get good graphics software. The program I use most often came with my scanner.
So, once you get these digital images, what will you do with them? You can print them, and you can use them to create your own greeting cards with various software programs. You can insert them into word processing documents or your web pages. One of the most common uses of digital photographs is in e-mail. With your e-mail program, just attach the graphic file the way you would attach any other file.
This time, even more so than usual, I commend the links to you. I’ve tried to rove rather lightly over a great big field. I haven’t even mentioned the different kinds of image files, so that you can look a "gif" horse in the mouth or squeeze a "jpeg" into a round URL. To begin at the very beginning, and I know you are tired of this, please look at the appropriate About.com site, this time on "Desktop Publishing":
Here, you’ll find all kinds of information, not only about digital imaging, but also about clip art, fonts, layout, design, and—oh, just check it out. For digital imaging, specifically, look at:
http://desktoppub.about.com/compute/desktoppub/msubmenu17.htm
Working through the links here, I’ve found three sites that just about give you enough material to get a job in the field of digital imaging. First, this "Complete Guide to Scanning":
Finish up with "Tips and Techniques for Scanning":
Notice that these last two are ".com" sites, and they are honestly trying to sell what they are trying to sell. But, you still can find at these sites a lot of information that you can use with any equipment and software.
Then, "Short Courses in Digital Photography" may be short courses, but truthfully, they are full books of information. Even if you do not have a digital camera (by the way, you can find tips and hints on choosing a digital camera here), you can find all kinds of technical and practical information on digital imaging at:
One of my most reliable "search engines" is my brother Mark, who recently sent me word of this site, which allows you to access some digital imaging software for free:
Here’s another ".com" site (for Hewlett-Packard) that packs a lot of information and software in with the commercial messages:
This is a site you need to spend some time with. Look at "Fonts," and if you have never downloaded a font (a type style), you might want to try one at:
www.hp-creativeworld.com/tipstools/fonts.asp?lang=e&ort=cw
I was thinking about updating my glossary of Internet terms, but I don’t have to. This site includes such a thorough glossary that with it, you can deal with your own "gif" horse, even if you don’t have a "bitmap":
www.hp-creativeworld.com/tipstools/glossary.asp?lang=e&ort=cw
These links give you plenty of room to rove in, lots of stuff to rave about. So, do keep your feet (and your digital cameras) dry, your hearts full of noble thoughts, with plenty of digital imagery to document it all. And, if you are lucky enough to have a gentle little companion like this (whose digital photo was the inspiration for this column) to share your rovin’ with, then consider yourself especially blessed. The first image is a photo taken with my Sony camera, cropped and lightened with Adobe PhotoDelux. The second is a line drawing based on the same photo also made with PhotoDelux, which you can learn more about at:
Rovin' on the Internet: Online Adventures