Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023

By: Younis Elhaddad

Introduction to Computer Graphics

The term computer graphics has been used to define "almost everything on the
computer, including text or sound." Generally, the term computer graphics refer to the
following things:

 Computer representation and manipulation of image data.

 Various technologies for creating and manipulating images.
 Computer graphics study is a sub-field of computer science that studies methods for
digitally incorporating and manipulating visual content.

Definition of Computer Graphics

Computer graphics can be a sequence of images which is called a video or single image.
Computer graphics is the technology that concern with designs and pictures on computers.
That’s why, computer graphics are visual representations of data shown on a monitor made
on a computer. “Computer graphics is the use of a computer to define, store, manipulate,
interrogate, and represent the graphic output.” An image in computer graphics is made up of
a number of pixels.

Applications of Computer Graphics

Some applications of computer graphics are mentioned below:
1. Graphical User Interface (GUI)
2. Art
3. Entertainment
4. Presentations
5. Engineering Drawings
6. Education and Training
7. Medical Imaging
8. Flight Simulator
9. Satellite Imaging

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
By: Younis Elhaddad

Computer graphics can be categorised in two ways:

 Interactive Computer Graphics which is interactively used by users, like computer
games.
 Passive Computer Graphic which has no option for users to interact or use computer
graphics like movies.

Graphics System
A computer graphics system is a computer system which must have all the components of a
general-purpose computer system. Considering the high-level view of a graphics system,
there are six major elements in the Graphics system:
1. Input devices
2. Central Processing Unit
3. Graphics Processing Unit
4. Memory
5. Frame buffer
6. Output devices

Fig1 : A Graphics System

The modern display of graphics is very simple to build. It is composed of three components:
 Display controller or video controller
 Digital memory or frame buffer
 Television monitor

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
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1. Display controller or video controller- It's a Memory Buffer and TV Monitor interface.
Its task is to pass Frame Buffer's contents to the monitor. The display controller reads each
continuous byte of Memory frame buffer data and converts 0's and 1's into appropriate video
signals. In today's term, the display controller is recognized as a display card, and one of our
choices can be a VGA(Video Graphics Array) card with a resolution of 640x480. Display
Controller is also capable of displaying the image in colours. The display controller also
adjusts and makes allowances for the differences in the operating speeds of the various
devices

2. Digital memory or frame buffer-This is a place where images and pictures are stored as
an array (matrix of 0 & 1, 0 represents darkness, and 1 represents image or picture). It is also
called a frame buffer. In today's term frame buffer is called V-RAM (video RAM), and it
helps to store the image in bit form. It helps to increase the speed of graphics.

3. Television monitor- Monitor helps us to view the display, and they make use of
CRT(Cathode ray tube) technology.

Representation of graphics
We can represent the graphics by the following two ways:

1. Raster Graphics: In raster graphics, the image is presented as a rectangular grid of

colored squares. Raster images are also called bitmap images. Bitmap images are stored as
the collection of small individual dots called pixels. Bitmap images require high resolution
and anti-aliasing for a smooth appearance. For example- Paint, Photoshop, etc.
2. Vector Graphics: In vector graphics, the image is represented in the form of continuous
geometric objects: line, curve, etc. Vector images are not based on pixel pattern. They use
mathematical formulas to draw line and curves. The lines and curves can be combined to
create an image. For Example- PowerPoint, Corel Draw, etc.
Display Devices in Computer Graphics
The display device is an output device used to represent the information in the form of
images (visual form). Display systems are mostly called a video monitor or Video display
unit (VDU). Display devices are designed to model, display, view, or display information.
The purpose of display technology is to simplify information sharing.

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
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Today, the demand for high-quality displays is increasing. There are some display devices
given below:
1. Cathode-Ray Tube(CRT)
2. Color CRT Monitor
3. Liquid crystal display(LCD)
4. Light Emitting Diode(LED)
5. Direct View Storage Tubes(DVST)
6. Plasma Display
7. 3D Display

Monitor resolution:
Describes the visual dimensions of any given display, expressed in terms of width and height,
monitor resolution is comprised of a specific number of pixels.
In the case of a monitor with an industry-standard Full HD 1080p resolution, this display has
a resolution of 1920 x 1080. This means that the screen will have a width of 1,920 pixels
while the height of the screen will be 1,080 pixels. This results in a grand total of 2,073,600
pixels on-screen.

Fig2. Monitor resolution

The higher a monitor’s resolution is, the more detailed an image can be, because a higher
resolution monitor will be made up of more pixels than a lower resolution monitor. This will,
of course, depend on the resolution of the content you are viewing. Additionally, more
viewable content can fit onto a higher resolution computer screen than on a lower resolution
screen.

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
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What Are Pixels?

Pixels, or picture elements, are the smallest physical points on a display, as well as the base
components. Pixels are therefore the building blocks of any image you see on your screen.
Pixels and resolution are directly correlated and a higher resolution equals a higher number of
pixels on a monitor screen. To visualize this, we can think of pixels as puzzle pieces; each
one makes up a small piece of a bigger picture. Moreover, the more pixels a monitor has, the
more detailed images can be.

Pixel Coordinates
A digital image is made up of rows and columns of pixels. A pixel in such an image can be
specified by saying which column and which row contains it. In terms of coordinates, a pixel
can be identified by a pair of integers giving the column number and the row number. For
example, the pixel with coordinates (3,5) would lie in column number 3 and row number 5.
Conventionally, columns are numbered from left to right, starting with zero. Most graphics
systems, number rows from top to bottom, starting from zero. Some, including OpenGL,
number the rows from bottom to top instead.

Fig3. Pixel Coordinates

What Is DPI / PPI?

DPI (dots per inch) indicates the number of dots found within a one-inch line of a scan or
print. For monitors and displays, using PPI (pixels per inch). While PPI is the correct term
when referencing monitors and other displays devices. PPI or DPI is a description of a

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
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monitor screen’s pixel density. A higher pixel density will mean that there are more pixels
packed into every square inch of your screen.

Fig4. Pixel Coordinates

Screen resolution
Screen resolution refers to the number of pixels a screen can display within a given area.
Screen resolution is usually expressed in pixels per linear inch of screen. Most personal
computer displays have resolutions that vary from 72 to 96 pixels per inch (ppi). The
resolution of the display screen is dependent on how the monitor and display card are
configured, but it's safe to assume that most users fall into the lower end of the range, or
about 72 to 80 ppi.

Color depth
Alternatively referred to as bit depth, pixel depth, color depth refers to the number of bits per
pixel on a computer monitor to represent a specific color, and it is referred as bits per pixel
(bpp). The more bits per pixel, the higher color variety and quality of the monitor. The first
graphics cards and monitors supported 1-bit color, which was monochrome (most commonly
black and white). Today, most computers support at least 32-bit color, which allows for up to
16.7 million colors.
As technology and available system resources have increased, so has the color depth. Below
is a listing of all the different color depths over the history of computers.

 1-bit (21 or 2 colors) - Monochrome displays.

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
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 2-bit (22 or 4 colors) - Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) displays.

 4-bit (24 or 16 colors) - Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) displays.
 8-bit (28 or 256 colors) - Video Graphics Array (VGA) displays.
 16-bit (216 or 65,536 colors) - Extended Graphics Array (XGA) displays.
 24-bit (224 or 16,777,216 colors) - Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) displays.
 32-bit (16,777,216 colors + Alpha channel (232 or 4,294,967,296 color
combinations))
 48-bit (248 or 281,474,976,710,656 colors)

The RGB color model:

The RGB color model or color space is one of the most widely used color representation
method in computer graphics. It uses a color coordinate system with three primary colors:

Red, Green and Blue

Color Value Value

(triple)

0,0,0 Black

0,0,1 Blue

0,1,0 Green

0,1,1 Cyan

1,0,0 Red

1,0,1 Magenta

1,1,0 Yellow Fig5. pixel depth

1,1,1 White

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
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Pixels and the Frame Buffer

Virtually all modern graphics systems are raster based. The image we see on the output
device is an array—the raster—of picture elements, or pixels, produced by the graphics
system. An image that is presented on the computer screen is made up of pixels. The screen
consists of a rectangular grid of pixels, arranged in rows and columns. The pixels are small
enough that they are not easy to see individually. At a given time, each pixel can show only
one color. Most screens these days use 24-bit color, where a color can be specified by three
8-bit numbers, giving the levels of red, green, and blue in the color. Any color that can be
shown on the screen is made up of some combination of these three “primary” colors. Early
computer screens used indexed color, where only a small set of colors, usually 16 or 256,
could be displayed. The color values for all the pixels on the screen are stored in a large block
of memory known as a frame buffer. Changing the image on the screen requires changing
color values that are stored in the frame buffer. The screen is redrawn many times per second,
so that almost immediately after the color values are changed in the frame buffer, the colors
of the pixels on the screen will be changed to match, and the displayed image will change. Its
resolution—the number of pixels in the frame buffer—determines the detail that you can see
in the image. The depth, or precision, of the frame buffer, defined as the number of bits that
are used for each pixel, determines properties such as how many colors can be represented on
a given system. For example, a 1-bit-deep frame buffer allows only two colors, whereas an 8-
bit-deep frame buffer allows 28 (256) colors. In full-color systems, there are 24 (or more) bits
per pixel. Such systems can display sufficient colors to represent most images realistically.
They are also called true-color systems, or RGB-color systems, because individual groups of
bits in each pixel are assigned to each of the three primary colors—red, green, and blue

Resolution and aspect ratio

The display resolution or display modes of a digital television, computer monitor or display
device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension, for exmple 1024x768. This means
that the display device has 1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels tall. The aspect ratio is the ratio

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
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between the width and height (expressed width:height).The aspect ratio of a device
determined by dividing the resolution width by resolution height and then simplifying the
fraction, so, for example, if your device has a resolution of 1024x768, the aspect ratio would
be as follows:

Here, the fraction 4/3 is the aspect ratio 4:3.

The following diagram provides a list of common aspect ratios and related resolutions:

Fig4. List of common aspect ratios and related resolutions

A megapixel (MP) is a million pixels; the term is used not only for the number of pixels in an
image but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the
number of display elements of digital displays. For example, a camera that makes a 2048 ×
1536 pixel image (3,145,728 finished image pixels) typically uses a few extra rows and
columns of sensor elements and is commonly said to have "3.2 megapixels"

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Introduction to computer graphics (CS461) 2022-2023
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The Graphics Pipeline

The functioning of a standard graphics system is typically described by an abstraction called
the graphics pipeline. The term “pipeline” is used because the transformation from
mathematical model to pixels on the screen involves multiple steps, and in a typical
architecture, these are performed in sequence; the results of one stage are pushed on to the
next stage so that the first stage can begin processing the next polygon immediately. Each
object comprises a set of graphical primitives. Each primitive comprises a set of vertices. We
can think of the collection of primitive types and vertices as defining the geometry of the
scene. In a complex scene, there may be thousands—even millions—of vertices that define
the objects. We must process all these vertices in a similar manner to form an image in the
frame buffer. If we think in terms of processing the geometry of our objects to obtain an
image, we can employ the four major steps in the imaging process:

1. Vertex processing

2. Clipping and primitive assembly

3. Rasterization

4. Fragment processing

Fig5 :- The :Pipeline Architecture of Graphics Package

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