Graphics software

There are many types of graphics software:

• Image manipulating programs

  Let you edit your favourite images – scanned or from your digital camera; and add various filters (special effects) or composite images – combine parts of different images to create a single image. An example – Photoshop, Zoner Photo Studio.

• Painting and drawing programs (illustration packages)

  Offer good facilities for freehand drawing, with a wide choice of pens, brushes, shapes, colours and patterns. Choices are made mainly with a mouse and icons. An example is Windows Paint.

• Business graphics programs (presentation software)

  Let a user import data from a database or a spreadsheet and create pie charts, bar charts, line graphs, x-y graphs or scatter graphs. It offers a range of colours and formats to make a presentation impressive. Typical application is presenting statistics.

• Computer - aided design (CAD)

  Is used to design everything from cars, buildings, engineering drawings to furniture and fashion design. It can generate very accurate drawings which can be reduced in size or enlarged without losing accuracy. Designers start a project making a wireframe – the shape of the object is presented by a layer of joined up triangles or polygons, so the object looks as if it is made of wire. Then they specify and fill the surfaces to give it the appearance of a 3D solid object with a volume – this is called solid modelling. Next texturing follows – adding colour and filters to achieve the desired look and finally rendering which includes lighting and shading and effects which make the object look real.

• Desktop publishing

  Is based on a page layout program which lets you import text from a word processor, clip-art /ready-made pictures) from graphics packages, and images from scanners or cameras, and arrange them on a page. It is used to design and publish books, newspapers, posters, advertisements, etc.

• Digital art (computer art)

  Is used in adverts and TV programmes. Artists and scientists use special graphics applets that use mathematical formulae to create beautiful bright shapes called fractals. A fractal is a geometrical figure with special properties. It is also used to model real objects like clouds or landscapes.

• Computer animation

  Uses graphics programs to create or edit moving pictures. Each image in a sequence of images is called a frame.

• Geographic information system

  Allows cartographers to create detailed maps.