Chapter One

Welcome to a new world of digital imaging! This book will serve as your guide to both the how and the why of digital imaging with SilverFast, with information on pixels, color correction, image restoration, and much more. The first two chapters are not specifically about the use of SilverFast, but the background information you'll obtain about the digital imaging process is absolutely essential if you're to make informed, appropriate choices during the scanning process. In this first chapter, the following topics are covered:

* Bitmap vs. vector

* Parts of an image

* Capture bit depth, channels, and shades of gray

* The resolution concept

* Color theory and color modes

* File formats for print or the Internet

Bitmap vs. Vector

In today's information-packed world, we are bombarded with graphic images from television sets, computer screens, billboards, and magazines. As you float in this stream of digital content, contemplate this fundamentally important bit of information: Despite the wide variety of visual communication methods used to disseminate these images, every graphic brought to you through digital processes can be placed into one of two categories; it is either vector or bitmap.

Vector graphics are composed of a series of points and lines connecting the points (see Figure 1.1). Although some of these lines may be perfectly straight, it is more likely that any two points are joined by a line featuring one or more curves. The specific shape of these straight or curving lines and the coordinates of all the points thes