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Posted by: xatrixer
Posted on: 2005-12-30 03:44
Tangdl2000, Fdsxw and ALL:
Really glad to see your guys’ arguments. Arguing is not a bad thing at all. It is a process of learning and "self-cleansing". Of course, a bit more patience will definitely make the process more enjoyable and get your “voice” pleasantly heard.
I have read through all your posts. When I was reading, I was trying to get some “keywords” out of your posts which are the “catchphrases” consistently popping out of the mouths of imaging professionals. Unfortunately, I did not see any of those in your posts. Without mentioning those “keywords”, call them “concepts or definitions” if you will, the discussion seemed to be at a level on the surface, not really tells the essence of the issue, or it is only from an end users’ perspective, rather than a deeper, pro's point of view.
With the above said, I would like to take the following space to bring up those “catchphrases” and, if I may, my personal views as well.
First, the word of “Figure (a diagram – “图示” or picture -“照片” illustrating textual material)” adopted in a publishing business refers to BOTH images (B&W, Color- 照片) and drawings (illustrations, 示意图). It is just a GENERIC term, and is not “very scientific”.
Digital imaging (B&W, Color- 照片) for publication is mainly referring Digital Image --- it’s acquiring, manipulating, and achieving.
Drawings, or illustrations, especially those generated with software drawing packages – such as Illustrator, Excel, Origin, Corel, etc., are not considered as “Digital Imaging”. Of course, there is something in a “gray area” between the two, such as the drawings done with a “digital tablet” which is “acquired” digitally with “pressure” pointing pen.
Now, Adobe Photoshop, by definition, is an powerful “Image Editing (manipulating)” package. It is intended to be used to work on the images called “RASTER IMAGES”. What is RASTER IMAGES”? Here is the definition of it:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-49,GGLG:en&q=define%3Araster+image
Adobe Illustrator and other similar packages, including statistical graphing packages, generate, or are designed work on “different images”, called “VECTOR IMAGES”. Again, what the heck is that? It is:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2005-49%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=define%3Avector+image
What are the differences between the TWO? Should you be willing to know … browse the following:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2005-49%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=vector+image+vs+raster+image&btnG=Search
Though “Final Figures” that you’re ready to send are all in TIFF (raster), those converted from (vector) drawing or statistical packages are much less relevant in terms of the quality of digital image than those from raster images. Most likely, it is merely a format, or to meet a requirement of physical dimension for page layout or printing.
When dealing with Digital Images acquired by DC, Scanner, the parameters such as “resolution (physical dimension)”, “color depth”, etc., are the Denominators. On the other hand, these denominators are IRRELEVANT when the “image” was generated or produced with any of those vector software packages.
It is obvious that there are “ways” to convert (转换) these two different kinds of images. The process of this conversion is transparent to users --- meaning most of the end-users will not aware of the process, the software has its intrinsic features designated to do so. For example, you made a cartoon-like drawing with Adobe Illustrator and saved as *.AI file which is a vector “image”. In order to meet Journal’s TIFF requirement, you “fire-up” Adobe PhotoShop CS2 and “sucked the *.AI file into it, then, after “massaging” it a bit, you saved it as TIFF.
Do you know what you have just done and what’s happened once you clicked to save it as TIFF? A Vector is now a Raster! Yeah, it is a real digital image format now! But, one should know, the “resolution and other parameter” of this converted file are theoretically much different from a Raster Image. Can this process be reversed? Sure, you can! Adobe Illustrator can open a *.PSD and then save the file into a *.AI. This conversion will strip off all the denominators of original raster image had and make it as a vector image.
Now, RGB and CMYK. There are so many things need to be said about these two and it is impossible to list all here. If interested, get on the Google, click and read. From what I have known, there is a major factor differentiate the RGB and CMYK.
RGB is the color space that naturally exists [三元色-RGB] and can be reproduced (captured) by “man-made-machines”, such DISPLAY devices, DC, and Scanner, etc.
CMYK does not exit naturally, it is a color space used to reproduce RGB color. So, CMYK is only used in color PRINTING devices to reproduce RGB colors seen on display devices.
Some publishers require the author to submit their ‘Figures” in CMYK mode, it is just let author to judge the color variation, if there is any, to make a color correction after the “Color Mode Conversion” was made from RGB to CMYK. I called this "requirement" as "liability-shifting" (to author, “色差自负”)
Alright. Back to the main scheme of Tangdl2000‘s initial post now.
1. If the image was acquired initially as RASTER … then, make the STOCK of it. All the “vital info” of the image is saved in the Stock, and manipulation of the image follows the rule of “长木匠, 短铁匠”. Final copy for submission of the image should be achieved as it is as sent to the publisher in terms of resolution, color depth and file format.
2. If the “image” was acquired initially as VECTER, then the DATA (numbers) in the original “spreadsheet” is the key to preserve. “Figures” derived from the “vector-to-raster” conversion are for the purpose of satisfying the “printing requirements” and should ALSO be achieved as it is as sent to the publisher in terms of resolution, color depth and file format.
I hope I made these “concepts” clear and useful for all.
My personal view on this kind of, or any other “stuff” is: Knowing “how to do” is good, while knowing “why it has to be done that way” is better. Or, in Chinese, “要知其然,且知其所以然”
Thanks for reading… and Wish everyone a Happy New Year!
Tangdl2000:
是“图片”,并非是“图”。
Fdsxw:
英文单词FIGURE是什么意思?是图的意思,图片的意思,还是两个意思都有?
Tangdl2000:
PHOTOSHOP、ILLUSTRATOR或CORELDRAW是图片后期处理的强有力的工具,相反他们产生的PSD 或AI 或cdr 格式,并不是保存原始图片的主要格式。也不是我所说的平时图片保存应该注意的范畴。
Fdsxw:
杂志社的编辑就得把作者提供的RGB图片改成CMYK模式,如果这种修改只是让“图片变得不漂亮”倒没有什么关系,但如果使图片“包含的信息”减少、甚至影响到了作者想表达的效果,那就不行了。
Tangdl2000:
我们知道平时记录自己的图片结果主要有两种途径:(1)扫描(2)数码获取(例如数码照相,和荧光显微镜带的数码系统)。自己才疏学浅或者是我们这里的扫描仪和照相机档次不够,似乎在记录原始结果的时候并没有PSD 或AI 或cdr 格式(比如扫描,我们这里的扫描仪是不能扫描出PSD 或AI 或cdr 格式的)。
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