LECTURE 2

THE USES OF TEXT IN MULTIMEDIA

Prepared by
Faraz khan

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 Objective

Media Types

What text is

How text is created and stored in the
computer

How text is used in Multimedia Systems

Advantages and Disadvantages
of using texts

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 Temporal & Non Temporal Media
Media

Refer to Multimedia elements.

Two Media types:Temporal and Non-Temporal

Temporal Media

The media has an associated time aspect. Example: its
view changes with respect to time.

Examples: Audio, video, animation, music etc.

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 Temporal & Non Temporal Media
Non-Temporal Media

Also known as a static media. It has the same
representation regardless of time

Examples: texts, graphics, paintings, book etc


Multimedia applications are typically composed of both
media

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 What is Text

Basic media for many multimedia systems


Texts in the form of words, sentences and paragraphs is
used to communicate thoughts, ideas and facts in nearly
every aspect of our lives.


Multimedia products depends on text for many things:
- to explain how the application work
- to guide the user in navigating through the application
- deliver the information for which the application was
designed

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 What is Text

Minimize the texts in multimedia application

Texts consists of two structures:

Linear

Non-Linear

Linear Text : is the material we are used to reading in
books, magazines, newspapers. The content is displayed
in a straight line of paragraphs and pages from beginning
to end.
Non-Linear Text include Hypertext and hyperlinks,
Readers are expected to read the material in the order in
which it appears as well as ability to move to different
pages. Also called Rich Text Format.

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 Text Technology

Based on creating letters, numbers and special
characters.


Text elements can be categories into:
 Alphabet characters : A - Z
 Numbers : 0 - 9
 Special characters : Punctuation [. , ; ‘ …] , Sign or
Symbols [* & ^ % $ £ ! /\ ~ # @ .…]
 Also known Character Sets


May also include special icon or drawing symbols,
mathematical symbols, Greek Letter etc.
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 Typefaces, Fonts and Points
Typefaces

The graphic representations of the alphabet, numbers and
special character.

Usually vary by type sizes and styles.

Fonts

Particular size of typefaces

Usually vary by type sizes and styles.

The sizes are measured in points
- One point is 1/72” or 0.0138 inc”
- Measuring distance from the top of a capital letters (e.g. ‘A or P’) to the
bottom of a descenders (e.g. ‘y , ‘p’ , ‘q’).

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 Fonts Effects

A numbers of effects that are useful for bringing viewer’s
attention to content:

 Case: UPPER and lower letter

 Bold, Italic, Underline, superscript or subscript
 Embossed or Shadow
 Colours
 bStrikethrough

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 Types of Fonts

Two classes of fonts: Serif or Sans Serif


Serif fonts use decorative tips or flags at the ends of a
letter strokes


Sans Serif fonts don’t have these features


Serif fonts are usually used for documents or screens
that have large quantities of text
- This is because the serif helps guide the reader’s eye
along the text
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 Types of Fonts

For computer displays, Sans Serif fonts considered
better because of the sharper contrast.
Examples
ExamplesofofSan
SanSerif
Serif
fonts
fonts

Times
TimesNew
NewRoman
Roman Century
Century Gothic
Gothic
Bookman
Bookman Arial
Arial
Rockwell
Rockwell Light
Light Comic
Comic Sans
Sans MS
MS
Courier
Courier New
New Impact
Impact
Century
Century Tahoma
Tahoma

Examples
Examplesof
ofSerif
Seriffonts
fonts
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 Text Characteristics
This example shows the Times New Roman font

Ascender
Capital Height x-Height

FD xhp
Point size Serif p -Height
Descender
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Tracking, Kerning and Leading

Av
Unkerned
AvKerned
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 Tracking, Kerning and Leading

Reading Line One

Leading
Reading Line One

Ascender : an upstroke on a character

Descender : the down stroke below the baseline of a character

Leading : spacing above and below a font or Line spacing

Tracking : spacing between characters

Kerning : space between pairs of characters, usually as an
overlap for improvement appearance

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 Bitmapped and vector fonts

Fonts can either be stored as bitmapped or vector
graphics


Bitmaps font depend to the size and the pixel numbers
- File size increases as more sizes are added


Vector fonts can draw any size by scaling the vector
drawing primitives mathematically
- File size is much smaller than bitmaps
- TrueType and PostScript are vector font formats

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 Bitmapped and vector fonts

AAbitmapped
bitmappedfont
font AAvector
vectorfont
font
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 Jaggies and Antialiasing

Jaggies are the jagged edges you see when a
bitmapped image is resized


It is a consequence of the underlying array of pixels from
which the image is composed


Antialiasing is a technique that can be used to eliminate
jagged edges


It substitutes additional pixels in other colours to fool the
brain into thinking it is seeing continuous lines
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 Jaggies and Antialiasing

The technique is used to blend the font into the
background by transitioning the colour from the font
colour to background.


This technique minimizes the jagged edges making for a
smoother overall appearance.

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Jaggies and Antialiasing

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 Text Data Files

The common data encoding schemes for text are:


Plain text (ASCII) is text in an electronic format that can
be read and interpreted by humans


Rich text is similar but it also embeds special control
characters into the text to provide additional features


Hypertext is an advance on rich text which allows the
reader to jump to different sections within the document
or even jump to a new document
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 Text Data Files
Plain text
This is plain text. It is readable by humans. It can contains
numbers (01234) and punctuation (.,#@*&) since it uses the
ASCII character set.

Rich text
This is <bold>rich text</bold>.<br><center>It is also readable
by humans but contains additional tags which control the
presentation of the text.</center>

Hypertext
This is <a href=“http://www.w3c.org/”>hypertext</a>. It uses
the rich text format shown above but adds the ability to
hyperlink to other documents.<hr><img src=“logo.gif”>
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 Working With Text

Considerations and guidelines when we are working with
text:

 Be Concise
 Use the appropriate typefaces and fonts
 Make it readable
 Consider type styles and colors
 Use restraint and be consistent

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 How text can be used effectively

Communicating Data
- Customer names and address
- Pricing information of products


Explaining concepts and ideas
- A company mission statement
- A comparison of medical procedures


Clarifying other media
- Labels on button, icons and screens
- Captions and callouts for graphics

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 Advantages and Disadvantages
of using texts

Advantages
 Is relatively inexpensive to produce
 Present abstract ideas effectively
 Clarifies other media
 Provides confidentiality
 Is easily changed or updated


Disadvantages
 Is less memorable than other visual media
 Requires more attention from the user than other
media
 Can be cumbersome
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 Summary

Multimedia applications and presentations invariably rely
to some extent on the use of text to convey their
message to users


Text has many characteristics that the developer can
modify to enhance the user experience
- size, weight, typeface, style, colour, kerning, tracking,
etc.


Antialiasing is a technique that can be used to improve
the readability of text

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