IT Happens : March 2004 Monthly News Notice of IT Happenings
Issue - 33

Graphics Special

Feature of the month
MILLENIUM ADVANCEMENTS AFFECTS POSTAGE STAMPS

Most illustrators now use programs like Photoshop or Corel Painter to create stamp images, a process which is faster and easier compared to the previous process of photographing, scanning and resizing.

New improved appearance of stamps like Australia has glow-in-the-dark postal stamps, Switzerland has stamps that look and smell like chocolate, Britain has a do-it-yourself stamp in which hats, eyes and glasses can be affixed to cartoon character. All this owe this to new digital prepress technique known as stochastic or frequency-modulated screening. 

This technique uses software to place identical dots in a random pattern to simulate an image. Software also assists when a single stamp requires multiple printing processes like foil embossing and die-cutting. 

Most commercial printers have switched from film to a computer-to-plate process, in which a digital file is transferred by laser directly onto the printing plate. The resulting plates more accurately reproduce the fine screens and high resolution of stochastic printing. Security process is achieved with the help of scrambled indica, in which digitally embedded images on some stamps are visible only with a decoder 
lens. Special effects are sometimes perceived as gimmickry, and some subjects, such as pop-culture icons like Bugs bunny, are deemed beneath mention. But creating art for a product that can be smaller than one square inch isn't easy.

(Source: SmartInc November 2003)

Quote

There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.

- C.A.R. Hoare -

IT Snippets

Advanced Real Time Collaborative Meeting 
That Share PowerPoint and Flash at a breeze

Macromedia Breeze provides a rich web communication system that enables users to hold collaborative real-time meetings, instructor-led classes, and seminars, as well as to deliver
on-demand informational presentations and e-learning courses.

Breeze leverages Microsoft PowerPoint and Macromedia Flash Player to enable approximately 500 million web users to immediately experience engaging online meetings and rich content without downloading special plug-ins or media players.


Companies can share information with an on-demand presentation, collaborate internally on business strategies with a live whiteboard, or train support staff on a new product with the ability to quiz them on their comprehension of the new information.

(Source: www.the-internet-eye.com )

Interactive 3-D with Adobe Atmosphere

Adobe(R) Atmosphere(TM), a powerful professional authoring tool for creating multimedia-rich, interactive 3-D environments for the Web and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. 

Adobe Atmosphere offers new and innovative ways for 
e-retailers, designers and educators to connect with their clients, partners and students. For example, a ticket vendor is able to build realistic replicas of venues for patrons to explore the arena on their Web page and see the exact view from their seats. 

Publishers can create interactive Adobe PDF eBooks, where children can dive into the illustrations, entering a world where they can interact with the characters and explore the landscape. Repair and assembly manual designers can also bring a truly new dimension to how directions, diagrams and information can be conveyed to the user.

(Source: www.adobe.com )

Web Watch
http://www.photoshoptoday.com

www.photoshoptoday.com is a site that provides useful information relating to graphic designing. It gives latest information about everything from 3D to Photoshop. The directory listing gives thousands of links to graphic design and graphic resources.

In addition it gives links to major areas of new developments in the field of graphics in addition to a collection of interesting graphic related sites aimed at helping web surfers in their online explorations. 

It gives information about hundreds of graphic design tutorials and tutorials for the following applications Photoshop & Photoshop CS tutorials, Illustrator Tutorials, PSP Tutorials, CorelDraw Tutorials, PhotoPaint Tutorials, Flash, After Effects Tutorials, Dreamweaver Tutorials and Fireworks Tutorials.

Readers can also subscribe to free weekly e-mail bulletins that summarize the top graphics stories of the week.

IT Humour

Here are some excerpt of a talk, a Marketing Manager of a Computer Graphics Software firm was explaining to his sales persons:

• Tell them it's a feature.
• Say that, it will come in forthcoming versions.
• Blame it on hardware.
• Say that it will be okay after a re-boot.
• It may require re-installation.
• The monitor needs to be changed.
• The memory needs upgrade.
• This feature will work after you purchase and register on site.
• This is only a demo version; full version you can see once you purchase it. 

IT Quiz

1. What is Open GL ?

2. What is Vector Graphics?

IT Quiz Solutions

1. OpenGL expands to Open Graphics Library. It is an industry standard vendor-neutral standard for creating and displaying high quality and high performance graphics from mobile phones to PC's to supercomputers. The model provided with OpenGL helps to create similar graphics effects on any platform with a common command set.
   
2. It is a type of graphics where graphical elements are represented as mathematical equations for lines, curves, color fills etc as against pixel based graphics that is also called bitmap graphics. The vector graphics is small in size and it can be easily scaled without distortion.