Graphic Design

Graphic Design - graphic designers and graphic design firms in the United States

Computer Graphics The transfer of pictorial data into and out of a computer. Using analog-to-digital conversion techniques, a variety of devices-such as curve tracers, digitizers, and light pens-connected to graphic computer terminals can be used to store pictorial data in a digital computer. By reversing the process through digital-to-analog conversion techniques, the stored data can be output on a mechanical plotting board, or plotter, or on a televisionlike graphic display terminal. Raster graphics stores and displays images as a bit map, a series of closely spaced dots (or pixels) arranged in rows and columns. Vector, or object-oriented, graphics stores the images as mathematical formulas. Images are displayed by calculating the coordinates of the end points and then drawing lines between them. Computer graphics capabilities range from the simple display of digital tabulations as line graphs and pie charts to complex animation and elaborate special effects for television and motion pictures. Computer graphics are used in architecture, art, computer-aided design, electronic games, flight simulators for pilot training, and molecular modeling.