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Information Technology. Lesson 7.

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 Graphics

We are going to look at two simple kinds of graphics programs. The first is Draw, the second is Paint.

Draw programs are object based programs. You draw a shape from the tools menu and your circle, rectangle or polygon (shape with many sides) becomes an object which can be moved around on the screen, or stretched.

Paint programs are pixel based. That is, the drawing is made up of tiny dots, a small area of the screen which can be set to a particular colour. As each dot is an individual, it can be difficult to move shapes around the screen.

Think of the Draw shapes as precise geometrical shapes and the Paint shapes as less precise "sprayed on" pictures.

Modern programs often blur the difference between Draw and Paint, so a single program may be able to do both types of work. More complex Draw programs will deal with complex shapes such as Bezier curves - curves which have "hooks" along their length so you can alter the angle of the curve at any point. More complex Paint programs will let you deal with the individual pixels of a photograph so you can delete shapes you don't like and replace them with other shapes or change the colour of the pixels to produce textures and shades.

We will deal here only with the simplest features of Draw and Paint but visit here for an example of photo retouching.

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