Creating Images

Image Files | Creating Images

Creating Images

There are many excellent commercial products for creating graphics on a Macintosh. They are broadly divided into two groups: (1) painting programs and (2) drawing programs.

Painting Programs and Drawing Programs

Programs in the first category build up an image by assigning a color to every pixel of the screen that falls inside the boundaries of the image. Programs in the second category build up an image by assembling lines, arcs, etc. that are considered by the program to be distinct objects rather than just a set of unrelated pixels. Paint programs are generally easier to learn to use, but drawing programs can give higher quality results for many forms of graphics. Some programs combine both painting and drawing capabilities.
MacPaint belongs to the first category, Freehand and Illustrator are professional graphics level examples of the second.

Native Formats for Saved Images

In many cases the programs save graphics images in their own "native" format that is specific to that one program. It is normally wise to save a version of the file in this format since you may wish to modify it later. However, in many instances, the native format for the graphics program cannot be used directly for images to be displayed by Web browsers.

Exporting Other Image Formats

In addition to saving an image in native format, graphics programs usually also give you the option of saving the image in a format that can be used in other programs (but such saved files often cannot be further modified by the program you used to create the image). As we noted earlier, many graphics programs on the Macintosh allow you to save an image in PICT format (often by choosing "Save As" from the File menu and selecting PICT format for the saved file, but this depends on the program). Since you are then saving an image for use by another program outside of the one that created the image, the process of saving a file in such a format is often referred to as "exporting" the image. As we will now discuss, PICT format can be converted to the GIF and JPEG formats that are most useful for Web images.


			Image Files \| Creating Images
		Creating Images There are many excellent commercial products for creating graphics on a Macintosh. They are broadly divided into two groups: (1) painting programs and (2) drawing programs. Painting Programs and Drawing Programs Programs in the first category build up an image by assigning a color to every pixel of the screen that falls inside the boundaries of the image. Programs in the second category build up an image by assembling lines, arcs, etc. that are considered by the program to be distinct objects rather than just a set of unrelated pixels. Paint programs are generally easier to learn to use, but drawing programs can give higher quality results for many forms of graphics. Some programs combine both painting and drawing capabilities. `MacPaint` belongs to the first category, `Freehand` and `Illustrator` are professional graphics level examples of the second. Native Formats for Saved Images In many cases the programs save graphics images in their own "native" format that is specific to that one program. It is normally wise to save a version of the file in this format since you may wish to modify it later. However, in many instances, the native format for the graphics program cannot be used directly for images to be displayed by Web browsers. Exporting Other Image Formats In addition to saving an image in native format, graphics programs usually also give you the option of saving the image in a format that can be used in other programs (but such saved files often cannot be further modified by the program you used to create the image). As we noted earlier, many graphics programs on the Macintosh allow you to save an image in PICT format (often by choosing "Save As" from the File menu and selecting PICT format for the saved file, but this depends on the program). Since you are then saving an image for use by another program outside of the one that created the image, the process of saving a file in such a format is often referred to as "exporting" the image. As we will now discuss, PICT format can be converted to the GIF and JPEG formats that are most useful for Web images.