Cambridge (CIE) A Level Your notes

Computer Science
Multimedia
Contents
Bitmap Images
Vector Graphics
Sound Representation

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 Bitmap Images
Your notes

Bitmap encoding
What is a bitmap?
A bitmap image is made up of squares called pixels
A pixel is the smallest element of a bitmap image
Each pixel is stored as a binary code
Binary codes are unique to the colour in each pixel
A typical example of a bitmap image is a photograph

Humidity sensor bitmap image

The more colours and more detail in the image, the higher the quality of the image and
the more binary that needs to be stored

Image vs screen resolution

Image resolution is the total amount of pixels that make up a bitmap image
The image resolution is calculated by multiplying the height and width of the image (in
pixels)
In general, the higher the resolution the more detail in the image (higher quality)
Screen resolution refers to the total amount of pixels horizontally in a display, such as:
Computer monitors - 1440p means 1440 pixels horizontally compared to 4K which
is 3840 pixels (roughly 4 thousand)

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 TVs - HD (high definition) televisions have a screen resolution of 1080p, 1080 pixels
horizontally compared to newer 4K televisions with 3840 pixels
Your notes
YouTube - The quality button allows a user to change the video playback resolution
from 144p (144 pixels horizontally) up to 4K
Another consideration of screen resolution is the physical size of the of the display
The number of pixels per square inch (PPI) is known as pixel density
Pixel density can mean images to need to be scaled up or down to fit, sometimes
causing loss in quality

Case Study
A consumer purchases a new 65" 4k television
The screen resolution is 3840 x 2160
To calculate the pixel density of the screen we add together the squares of the
resolution
(38402 + 21602) = (14 745 600 + 4 665 600) = 19 411 200
Find the square root ( 19 411 200 = 4405.814)
Divide by the screen size (4405.814 / 65 = 68)
The television has a pixel density of 68 pixels per inch (PPI)
Watching 4K content from a normal viewing distance means the image will
appear crisp and sharp
However, if you sit too close, you may start to see:
The pixel grid
A loss of fine detail
Modern smartphones have very high screen resolutions in much smaller screens
This gives them a much higher PPI, often over 300 PPI
This means they can be viewed up close without losing quality or seeing
pixelation

Colour/bit depth
Colour depth is the number of bits stored per pixel in a bitmap image
The colour depth is dependent on the number of colours needed in the image
In general, the higher the colour depth the more detail in the image (higher quality)
In a black & white image the colour depth would be 1, meaning 1 bit is enough to create a
unique binary code for each colour in the image (1=white, 0=black)

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 Your notes

In an image with a colour depth of 2, you would have 00, 01, 10 & 11 available binary
codes, so 4 colours

As colour depth increases, so does the amount of colours available in an image

Colour depth can also refer to the number of colours that can be represented in an
image
It is calculated using the formula:
Colour depth = 2n (where n = number of bits)

Colour/bit depth Number of colours Example

1 bit 21 = 1 B&W

2 bit 22 = 4 Icons/logos

4 bit 24 = 16 Early computer graphics

8 bit 28 = 256 GIFs, retro games

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24 bit (True colour) 224 = 16 777 216 High-quality images
Your notes

Calculating the size of a bitmap file

How do you calculate the size of a bitmap image?
Estimating the size of a bitmap image can be carried out with the following formula:
Resolution x colour/bit depth

Example
Image Files

(Resolution) x (Colour Depth)

Size of bitmap image =

Resolution 250,000 Resolution = width x height

Colour depth 24 bits 24 bits = 3 bytes

250,000 x 24 = 6,000,000 bits

(bit to bytes) /8 750,000 bytes
(bytes to KiB) /1024 732 KiB
or or
(bytes to KB) /1000 750 KB

250000 x 3 = 750,000 bytes

(bytes to KiB) /1024 732 KiB
or or
(bytes to KB) /1000 750 KB

When bitmap images are saved, a file header is created

This contains:
File type (.bmp or .jpg)
File size
Image resolution

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 Colour depth
Any type of compression if used Your notes

Worked Example
The following section of a bitmap image is 10 pixels wide and 5 pixels high. In this
example, each colour is represented by a letter, e.g. O is orange.
The complete image can have up to 256 colours

a) Identify the smallest number of bits that can be used to represent each colour in the
complete bitmap image. [1]
b) Calculate an estimate for the file size of the section of the bitmap image shown,
giving your answer in bytes. Use your answer from part a and show your working. [2]
Answer
8 [1 mark]
10 x 5 = 50(pixels), 50 x 8(bits) = 400 // 400 ÷ 8(bits) = 50 [1 mark]
50 (bytes) [1 mark]

Image quality & file size

What is the relationship between image quality and
file size?
As the resolution and/or colour depth increases, the bigger the size of the file
becomes on secondary storage
The higher the resolution, the more pixels are in the image, the more bits are stored
The higher the colour depth, the more bits per pixel are stored
Striking a balance between quality and file size is always a consideration
Compression can be used on high quality images to help reduce the file size

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 Your notes

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 Vector Graphics
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Vector graphics
What is a vector graphic?
A vector graphic is created from mathematical equations and points
Only the mathematics used to create the image are stored
For example, to create a circle the data stored would be:
Centre point (x, y coordinates)
Radius
Typical examples of vector images are logos and clipart

Vector images are infinitely scalable

Ideal for situations where the same image will be made bigger and smaller and a loss of
quality is unacceptable
For example, the same logo used on both a pencil and a billboard
A vector graphic contains a drawing list (included in the file header)
A typical drawing list will contain:
Commands used to create each object in the image
Attributes that define the properties of each object
Relative position of each object

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 Dimensions of the image are not defined, meaning scaling up does not result in a loss of
quality

Bitmap vs vector Your notes

Feature Bitmap Images Vector Images

Made from Pixels (tiny coloured squares) Shapes and lines using maths
(vectors)

File size Larger (depends on resolution) Smaller (uses formulas, not pixels)

Scalability Loses quality when resized Can be resized without losing

(pixelates) quality

Best for Photographs, detailed images Logos, icons, text graphics

Editable with Paint software (e.g. Photoshop, Drawing software (e.g. Illustrator,
GIMP) Inkscape)

Common file .jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif .svg, .ai, .eps

types

When choosing to use a bitmap or vector based image, the following should be
considered:
Does the image need to be resized?
Does the image need to be drawn to scale?
Does the image need to look real?

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 Sound Representation
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Sound encoding
How is sound encoded in a computer system?
Computers represent all data in binary, including sound that we record using a
microphone (input) or sound that we playback from a speaker (output)
For this to happen, analogue sound must be sampled and stored

Analogue sound
Sound waves begin as analogue and for a computer system to understand them they
must be converted into a digital form
Measurements of the original sound wave are captured and stored as binary on
secondary storage
This process is called Analogue to Digital conversion (A2D)
The process begins by measuring the loudness (amplitude) of the analogue sound wave
at a point in time, this is called sampling
The higher the amplitude, the louder the sound
Each measurement (sample) generates a value which can be represented in binary and
stored
Using the samples, a computer is able to create a digital version of the original analogue
wave
The digital wave is stored on secondary storage and can be played back at any time by
reversing the process

In this example, the grey line represents the digital wave that has been created by
taking samples of the original analogue wave

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 In order for the digital wave to look more like the analogue wave (black line) the
sampling rate, sampling resolution and sample interval can be changed
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Sampling rate vs sampling resolution
Sampling rate
The sampling rate is the amount of samples taken per second of the analogue wave
Samples are taken for the duration of the sound
The sampling rate is measured in Hertz (Hz)
1 Hertz is equal to 1 sample of the sound wave

In the example above, the higher the sample rate, the closer to the original sound wave
the digital version looks

Sampling resolution
Sampling resolution is the number of bits used to represent each sound sample
Sampling resolution is closely related to the bit depth of a bitmap image, they measure
the same thing in different contexts

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 The sample rate of a typical audio CD is 44.1kHz (44,100 Hertz or 44,100 samples per
second), a sampling resolution of 16 and is recorded in stereo sound
Your notes
Using the graphic above to compare common sampling resolutions, the question, “Why
does telephone hold music sound so bad?” can now be answered

Impact of sampling settings

What are the impacts of sampling settings?
Factor Effect of playback quality Effect on file size

Sampling rate ⬆️higher = more detail, better ⬆️higher = more data, larger file
sound quality size

Sampling ⬆️higher = bigger range, better ⬆️higher = more data per sample,
resolution sound quality larger file size

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