Bits, Bytes, & Pixels
Humans have always struggled with visualizing and communicating the realities in the real world. Even the human construct of a straight line got muddled by the work that proved Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Before I hijack my own thread any further, the point is the problem is compounded in the digital world. That in turn complicates your ability to understand the vocabulary constantly used on the Internet — and modern life in general.
Representing the real world in the digital world
Key & Technical Concepts Bits
The most basic unit in the digital world is the Bit, which represents the conductive state of an electrical circuit — On and Off for a transistor or electronic switch. A Bit is represented by zero or one.Bytes
What the heck can you do with Bits? Not much until you put eight of them together, which makes a Byte. Now you can represent 256 different characters. For example:01000001 =A
00001010 = z
00110101 = 5
Pixel
Pixels are the tiny dots or squares that make up a raster image or display — like the one you are reading this on.Pixelation
Pixelation is when individual pixels in an image become apparent to the human eye. Example:
versus
Dots
Printer quality is rated in DPI, or Dots Per Inch, including where the metric system is used. Printer dots are much smaller than pixels on a computer monitor or smart phone.
Excellent illustration from Wikipedia...
Why should ScubaBoard members care?
Because this stuff is everywhere:- Internet speeds are in Mb/second (Mega Bits)
- Files sizes in MB (Mega Bytes) — Did you ever get a big bill for exceeding your cell phone's data plan?
- Images displayed on ScubaBoard are limited to 800 pixels wide
- Printer quality is measured in DPI or Dots/inch — I guess that rating is a relative comparison so the metric system doesn't bother with Dots/mm. Bigger number = cleared print. Glossy magazine and coffee table books are printed in the 2500 DPI range
- Ever hear of Bitcoins?
- Ever shop for a TV?
Measurements are in Horizontal x Vertical pixels
RGB Colors
RGB stands for Red Green Blue and is based on the RGB additive color model. The RGB model is widely used in electronic devices to produce and define colors. RGB is also used in photography and image processing. RGB loosely correlates to human color receptors known as Cones.ScubaBoard, and most current digital displays, supports 24-bit color. This is generally considered at, or exceeding, the ability of the human eye to discern between colors. This illustration demonstrates the RGB additive color model.
This chart illustrates RGB colors in the above illustration. Pure black has zero values for each color and pure white has the maximum value for all primary three colors.
Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta have zero value for one primary color and maximum value for two.
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