MULTIMEDIA TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS

UNIT-I
Multimedia: Needs and areas of use, Development platforms for multimedia - DOS, Windows,
Linux. Identifying Multimedia elements - Text, Images, Sound, Animation and Video, Making
simple multimedia with PowerPoint
Text - Concepts of plain & formatted text, RTF & HTML texts, using common text preparation
tools. Conversion to and from various text formats, Using standard software, Object Linking and
Embedding concept. Basics of font design. overview of some fonts editing and designing tools,
Understanding & using various text effects.

Introduction to Multimedia
The word ‘multimedia’ comes from the Latin word ‘multus’ which means ‘numerous’ and media
which means ‘middle’ or ‘center’. In computer terminology multimedia means ‘multiple means’
by which information is stored, transmitted, presented or perceived.

Definition
Digital multimedia is defined as the integration of up to six media types in an interactive, color
computing environment.-Fetterman and Gupta.

Multimedia is any combination of text, graphic, art, sound, animation and video delivered by any
electronic means.- Vaughan.

Multimedia is an interdisciplinary application-oriented technology that capitalizes on the multi-

sensory nature of humans. (Humans are multi-sensory as they can communicate with sight,
hearing, touch, smell, and taste)- Minoli and Keinath.

The elements of multimedia are as follows:

Text (sources of text can be books, letters, newspapers etc.)- in computer alphabets (a-z),
numbers and special characters are used to present information in text form. Text is made up of
any written material that you view or stored on a computer.
Images (photographs) and graphics (e.g. charts, maps, logos, sketches etc.)- Graphics images are
other important and interesting components of multimedia. Images are photographs and pictures
composed of a collection of pixels.
Sound (e.g. radio, gramophone records and audio cassettes)-the sound is a repeated pattern of
pressure in air and microphone converts the sound wave into an electrical wave. In other words
sound is a form of energy just like electricity and light.
Video and animation (e.g. TV, video cassettes and motion pictures and motion videos etc.)- a
video is collection of fast series of frames which gives the illusion of the video being in motion.
Animation is a simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames.

Multimedia Presentation A multimedia presentation is basically a digital show whose content

is expressed through various media types like text, image, sound, video etc.

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The end users who use or watch the presentation are called viewers or the target audience.
Before presentation can be viewed, it has to be created. The process of creation of presentation
using multimedia elements is known as multimedia production.
The professionals or developers who prepare multimedia presentation are called multimedia
author.

Characteristics of a multimedia presentation

Use of multiple media: multimedia presentation uses multimedia elements such as text, image,
graphics, video, animation etc.
Text, image (still pictures from digital camera and scanner), graphics (sketches, diagrams and
portraits) are called static multimedia elements.
Motion picture recorded on film (combination of audio and video), motion video recorded on
magnetic media), audio, animation (display artificial scenarios) are called time-varying
multimedia element.
A multimedia presentation contains at least one static element and at least one time-varying
element.
Non-linearity: non-linearity means user can instantly navigate to different parts of the
presentation and display the frames in any way he/she chooses, without considerable delay.
Interactive: non-linearity is possible when user interactivity is supported by presentation. A set
of interactive elements such as buttons, menu, and hyperlink should be provided so that user can
view the part of presentation in which he is interested.
Digital representation: audio and video cassette players use media recorded on magnetic tape
which create consider delay to view part of the presentation because these are sequential access
devices. If presentation is stored in a computer using random storage device such as hard disk,
and compact disk part of presentation can be accessed without delay. If presentation is digitally
stored we can use softwares to manipulate presentation, which is a big advantage over storing
presentation in analog format.
Integrity: there may be several media types present and playing simultaneously, they must be
part of a single entity called presentation then it is known as integrity.

Hardware for Multimedia Playback

Multimedia Marketing Council (MMC) has come out with specification for multimedia PCs
which can assure a quality playback of multimedia productions. These are known as Multimedia
PC specification. Playback requires smaller amount of resource, enough for viewing quality
multimedia presentation.
Pentium I class processor 8 MB of RAM, 32 MB recommended.
Hard disk with 540 MB space with 15ms access time.
Video display adapter with 800x600 resolutions with 16.7 million colors.
CD ROM drive with at least 4x speed 36X speed recommended.
Sound card with speaker attached.
Keyboard and two button mouse.
Windows 9x and above with media player.
in some cases application programs such as web browser, media players ( Quick time movie
player, real media player) and document readers ( PowerPoint viewer, adobe acrobat reader)
might be required to display additional content.

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Hardware for Multimedia Production
Pentium IV class processor 512 MB of RAM, 1024 MB recommended.
Hard disk with 40GB to 80 GB space with 15ms access time.
Video display adapter with 800x600 resolutions with 16.7 million colors 256MB video RAM,
512 MB video RAM recommended.
CD/ DVD RE-WRITER drive with at least 4x speed 36X speed recommended.
Sound card with speaker attached and microphone to record voice.
Keyboard and two button mouse, a scanner, TV tuner, video capture card to convert analog video
to digital video, digital video camera, and digital camera.
Windows 9x and above with:-
Image editing softwares- Adobe Photoshop
2d Vector Graphics editing software- CorelDraw.
Audio editing softwares -Audacity/ Cool Edit / Sound Forge.
Video Editing Software – Adobe Premier/ Adobe Aftereffects
2d-Animation software- Macromedia Flash.
3d-Animation software- 3d Studio Max.
Authoring software to integrate multimedia presentation-Macromedia Director.
in some cases application programs such as web browser, media players ( Quick time movie
player, real media player) and document readers ( PowerPoint viewer, adobe acrobat reader), and
web content creator ( FrontPage, macromedia dream weaver) might be required to display
additional content.

Needs and usage of Multimedia

Multimedia has found extensive applications in various fields. Following are some of the main
areas where this technology is applied:
Home entertainment: it includes computer based games for kids, interactive encyclopedia, story-
telling and cartoons, Audio and video on demand (interactive television), special effects in films.
Education: using multimedia learning packages and simulation of lab experiments can be made.
Different aspects of the course curriculum which cannot be explained or grasped easily through
simple text and images could be presented through video clips, animation, 3Dmodeling, audio
annotations etc.
Industrial Training: it includes computer based training (CBT) packages for employees, both
technical and marketing.
Many people can use each of these courses.
They do not need to spend time away from office.
People can learn at their own speed.
Full time instructor is not required.
Because best instructors could be used to make these CBTs they could be of a high quality.
Information Kiosks: theses are devices where information is accessed through a touch screen and
viewed on a monitor. Examples can include multi-lingual product catalogs for placing orders, or
for dispensing important information such as train timings at a railway station.
Corporate presentation: corporate presentation for emphasizing the salient feature and activities
of a company, its products, its business partner like suppliers an retailer, can be built by
incorporating multimedia elements along with textual descriptions.
Business: items difficult to stock like glass utensils, industrial equipment, etc. can be displayed
to buyer by company sales representative through multimedia presentation. Real estate agents

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can display interior and exterior of buildings along with necessary information like dimension
and price.
Tourism and travel industry: travel companies can market packaged tours by showing
prospective customers glimpses of the places they would like to visit, details on lodging,
flooding, special attractions etc. Hotel owner can use multimedia to display details of facilities
offered at various hotels at different locations. Museums and art galleries may provide digital
versions of their specimens for public viewing, exhibition, auction, etc.
Electronic shopping: customized presentation of the product can be delivered to customers. If
customer likes the product he can follow hyperlink to place order for the item on-line.
Medicine: multimedia technologies can be used to prepare high-quality magnetic resonance 3D
images of human bodies and practice complicated surgical procedures. Archives of X-ray
images, CT scans, Ultra-sonography images, etc. will enable doctors to pride better
consultations, and could serve as an expert system. Multimedia is useful in Tele-medicine.
Engineering Applications: multimedia is very useful in designing mechanical, electrical and
electronic parts through the use of CAD/CAM.
Content Based Storage and Retrieval System (CBSR): searching text and number based
information is quite common. Matching of a fingerprint from police records to identify a
criminal, finding movie based on movie clip these types of works are known as Content Based
Storage and Retrieval System (CBSR). .

Steps of creating multimedia Presentation

Choosing a topic: first of all you should select the topic on which you want multimedia
presentations.
Writing a Story: a story will describe the overall content for the presentation. The focus should
be on what the author wants to communicate to his audience.
Writing Script: while writing script the author should visualize content in terms of frames or
screen. What is to be displayed on the first screen? This requires subject matter of the story
should be divided into chapter, section, topic and deciding which frame or screen will have text,
graphics, image, animation or audio.
Preparing a storyboard: the storyboard depicts what should be the layout for each screen within
the presentation. it displays information about the background color or image, appearance of the
navigational buttons or menu items, the location and size of the graphics and text, the durations
of the voice etc.
Preparing flow line: a flow line depicts the navigational pathways with the presentation. Each
page is represented as a rectangular block and a directed line with arrow head from one block to
another means that second page is accessible from the first via some navigational element.
Usually the flow line will have an inverted tree structure with the menu page at the top and the
other pages as leaf nodes arranged at various hierarchical levels. E.g. chapters, sections, topics.
Implementation: the story, script, story board and flow line comprise of the design documents on
which the actual presentation will be based. Implementation requires collection of existing media
items and creating new one. Editing of media items may be needed to suit current presentation
requirement then multimedia authoring tool is used to integrate media items.
Testing and feedback: after the implementation phase is completed, an important step of testing
and feedback should be done for improving the quality of the presentation.
Final delivery: the final phase in the production schedule is the delivery of the application to the
intended client.

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Development Platforms for Multimedia
When evaluating a platform for multimedia delivery, one must take into account how well that
particular computing environment implements and supports the technologies that make
multimedia computing possible. Hardware support, however, is not necessarily the most
important criterion. Other factors, including the availability of authoring software and the
installed base of computing equipment within the user's environment
1. DOS & Windows as a development platform for multimedia: The current minimum
specifications for the DOS platform have been established by the Multimedia PC Marketing
Council as a 486SX-25 with 4 MB of RAM (8 recommended), 160 MB hard drive, standard
VGA, 16 bit sound, and a 300 kB/s CD-ROM drive. As much of the DOS based multimedia
software runs under Windows, additional RAM would likely be required beyond the
recommended 8 MB, bringing the price of a basic machine somewhat higher than the basic
Macintosh machine.
Macintosh platform promised a graphical interface and a commitment to the easy inclusion of
audio, video, animation and other graphical images, particularly through Apple's support for
multimedia and the required hardware. The IBM/MS-DOS platform, pre Windows, still in 1989,
did not appear to be as advanced graphically.

The release of Microsoft's Video for Windows in 1992 provided a foundation for bringing digital
video to the DOS platform. Video for Windows makes it possible to play digital video sequences
on any computer running Windows 3.1 without the need for additional hardware. The package
also includes a utility for capturing video from an external source, such as a video camera or a
video cassette recorder, when the development machine is equipped with both a video capture
board and a digital sound card to handle the capture process.
A good developer would prepare the multimedia courseware using a high level (fast processor
and large memory) machine, but in such a way that presentation could be done on a lower level
machine.

QuickView Pro
QuickView Pro 2.58 supports viewing picture and movies on dos platform and full screen
movies and picture without requiring windows.

DOS multimedia Viewer

SUPPORTED VIDEO FORMAT: AVI (incl. DivX), MPG, MOV, DL, CEL, FLI, FLC
Animated GIF, VideoCD and CD-I
SUPPORTED PICTURE FORMAT: BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX, TGA and more
SUPPORTED AUDIO FORMAT: MP1, MP2, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, VOC, WAV

MPEGone DOS MPEG and VideoCD player

Supported formats are MPEG files with suffix .MPG, .M1V, .MPE, .MPV and .DAT. DAT files
are files from the VideoCD that are usually named AVSEQ01.DAT and so on. VideoCDs and
CD-i (partly) are supported using the /VCD command.
2. Linux as Multimedia Development Platform:

Audacity [Free]
Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other
operating systems. You can use Audacity to: Record live audio, Convert tapes and records into digital

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recordings or CDs, Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files, Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds
together, Change the speed or pitch of a recording, and more!

GIMP [Free]
GIMP (GNU/General Image Manipulation Program) is a free, robust, powerful image
manipulation program suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image
authoring.

ImageMagick [Free]
A collection of tools for image conversion, annotation, composition, animation, and creating
montages. It allows the user to read, write, and manipulate over 87 major image formats (e.g.,
GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, TIFF, PhotoCD)

IIRC, blender
It is a 3D rendering tool for linux and 2D stuff can be handled by the GIMP.

K3D
It is Animation Package available on Linux Platform.

MetaCard
It is a multimedia authoring tool and GUI development environment for Microsoft Windows
3.1/95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP, Unix/X11(Linux), and Macintosh systems. Using MetaCard is the
easiest way to build graphical applications, Computer Based Training (CBT), on-line
documentation, and a wide variety of other products.

Entertainment tools in Windows

Windows O.S. has all types of entertainment facility, such as watching a movie, listening to a
song etc. The following process is followed to open the Entertainment.
Start-> Programs ->Accessories -> Entertainment
There are different types of entertainment inside this Entertainment program, which you can
view the right side by clicking on Entertainment, such as -> CD player, Media player etc.

CD Player
Running the audio CDs - Your CD ROM drive can play music also. To start the CD player, click
the Start button, then select the programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> CD player.
CD player runs because of the sound card fitted in the CPU.
Play - First, and above all the Play button blurs out as the CD runs.
Pause - This is used to pause your playback when you go somewhere leaving the computer.
Stop - When you get bored listening to the song, this button is used.
Previous track - This button will take CD to the previous track.
Skip back - Every time you click this button you get one second back in the song.
Skip forward – Every time you click this button, you will get one second forward.
Next Track - This button will immediately take you to the next song.
Eject - This button will pop out your CD.
Editing the Play list - You can edit the play list of your music CD. Only play those tracks that
you want to listen and in the order you want to listen.

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To edit the CD list insert the CD in the drive and open the CD player. Then do the following
procedure:
1. Click the disc menu and select the Edit Play list, you will view a dialog bo~.
2. To clear all the entries on the Play list, click "clear all buttons."
3. Click twice on the desired track in the Available Track list box. They will enter into the Play
list
4. Click on any of the desired track.
5. Click on Set Name button.
6. Write the name in the text box.
7. Click on the Set Name button replace the desired track by the name in the Available Track list
and the Play list Do just the same for other tracks.
8. Click the Artist text box and write the name. Highlight the Title text box and enter the name of
the CD.
9. Click OK.

Media Player

It is used with the Sound Recorder. Media layer displays the picture for Winows animated files
(avi), sound files (.wav), MIDI files (Mid and RMI) or for the CD you listen to. To listen to such
songs on the media player, Click on the Start button. Then select the program -> Accessories ->
Entertainment -> Media Player.

Playing the Files - Windows is capable of playing different types of Multimedia files.
Complete the following process to play one file.
1. Pull down the Device menu in the dialog box of Media player and select the type of the file
which you want to play.
2. Locate the file you want to play and click twice. Make the file of the type box definite.
3. Click on the Play button.

Volume Control- It is a kind of system tool which is used to control the sound. If your computer
has more than one device, for example, Midi Wave Device, you can control the sound of it
through this system tool.
Use of Volume Control- It is used to control the sound of all the devices present in the computer.
This system tool provides such facility so that it can change the sound control of both the
speakers. For it, it has a balance slide speakers. Mute Option button too is given, clicking on
which you may stop sound. To start it :
Start -> Program -> Accessories Entertainment -> Volume Control.

Sound Recorder - It is also Multimedia software. It can be used for both, listening to the sound
and recording it. A Microphone is required to record the sound.
To Start the Sound Recorder click start -> Setting -> Control Panel and click the sound Icon. It
will open the sound properties.

Making own Sound File - You can use sound recorder to make your own sound file from CD
ROM player or Microphone which can be added to Windows. This process is as follows:

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1. Click the Start button, then select the Program -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Sound
Recorder.

2. Select New from the file menu of the sound recorder.

3. Click the deep red button to start the recording.

4. Start the CD or start talking on the microphone.

5. To stop the recording, click the deep black square button.

6. Select Save from the file menu to save the sound Clip.

Concept of Plain and Formatted Text

The flexibility and ease of use of the textual medium makes it ideal for learning. We need text to
design labels for title screen, menus and buttons etc. words and symbols spoken or written are
most common system of communication. They deliver the most widely understood meaning to
the greatest number of people- accurately and in detail. Because of this they are vital elements of
multimedia menus, navigation system, and content.
Attributes of Text:
typeface: typeface is a family of graphic characters that usually includes many type sizes and
styles.
font: a font is a collection of characters of a single size and style belonging to a particular
typeface family.
fontstyle: typical font styles are bol-face and italic, underline and outline are style attributes.
kerning: kerning is the spacing between character pairs.
tracking: it is spacing between characters.

Text can be of various types:

Plaintext consists of fixed sized character having essentially the same type of appearance.
Formatted text where appearance can be changed using font parameters, and hypertext which
can serve to link different electronic documents and enable the user to jump from one to other in
a non-linear way.

Text can be inserted in an application program using keyboard directly, alternatively text can be
copied from another pre-existing file or application and pasted into the application. Nowadays
we also generate text automatically from the scanned version of a paper document or image
using an Optical Character Recognition System (OCR).

Text can be compressed to generate smaller size file without any loss, using compression
algorithm.
Text can be stored into a number of file formats each requiring its own specific application to
open and modify the contents.

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Plain Text

Plain Text Refers to textual data in ASCII format. Plain text is the most portable format because it is
supported by nearly every application on every machine. It is quite limited, however, because it
cannot contain any formatting commands.
Internally text is represented via binary codes as per the ASCII table. The ASCII table is quite
limited in its scope and a new standard has been developed to eventually replace the ASCII
standard this standard is called Unicode standard and is capable of representing international
character from various languages throughout the world.

RTF
The Rich Text Format (often abbreviated RTF) is a document file format developed by Microsoft in
1987 for cross-platform document (including text and graphics) interchange. Most word processors
are able to read and write RTF documents.
Members of the Microsoft Word development team, Richard Brodie developed the original RTF in the
middle to late 1980s. Its syntax was influenced by the TeX typesetting language. The first RTF
reader and writer shipped in 1987 as part of Microsoft Word 3.0 for Macintosh, which
implemented the version 1.0 RTF specification.
All subsequent releases of Microsoft Word for the Macintosh and all versions of Microsoft Word
for Windows have included built-in RTF readers and writers which translate from RTF to Word's
.doc format and from .doc to RTF.
The intellectual property of the format belongs to Microsoft who maintains the format to this
date; as of March 2008 it is up to version 1.9.1.
RTF file is useful format for basic formatted text documents such as instructions manuals,
resumes, letters, and modest information documents. These document support bold, italic,
underline text formatting. Left, right, center justification is also supported. Font specification
and document margins are also supported.
HTML

HTML, stands for HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages.

It provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as
headings, paragraphs, lists etc as well as for links, quotes, and other items.

It allows images and objects to be embedded and can be used to create interactive forms.

It is written in the form of HTML elements consisting of "tags" surrounded by angle brackets within
the web page content.

It can include or can load scripts in languages such as JavaScript, which affect the behavior of
HTML processors like Web browsers, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to define the appearance and
layout of text and other material. The use of CSS is encouraged over explicit presentational
markup.

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Using Common Text Preparation Tools

Word processing programs, such as Microsoft word and WordPerfect, are useful in creating text
for titles that are text intensive. Once text is created in a word processing program, it can easily
be copied to a multimedia title.

If the title is not text intensive, it may be more efficient to use graphics programs such as
CorelDraw, Photoshop to create stylish text. Both CorelDraw and Photoshop allow coloring the
text, set fonts, point sizes, and type styles and various text effects can be applied. You can apply
distorting and animation effect.

Font packages can be purchased that provide a variety of specialized fonts. You can use font
editor (e.g. Fontographer) to create your own font or edit some font.

You can use scanner with Optical Character Reader program to capture the desired text.
You can download electronic files from internet to collect text and you can use Object linking
and embedding or cut-copy-paste to bring text.

Conversion of text from one format to other format

1. Converting .doc to text file: open the file of Microsoft word and choose file->save as
command from file menu then select text from save as type combo box..

2. Converting text to .doc file: start Microsoft word select file->open then select files as type
combo box and choose text file then select the text file you want to open.
When the time of saving file comes, select file->save as command from file menu then select
word document from save as type combo box..

3. Converting .doc to RTF file: open the file of Microsoft word and choose file->save as
command from file menu then select Rich Text Form from save as type combo box..

4. Converting RTF to .doc file: start Microsoft word select file->open then select files as type
combo box and choose Rich Text Format then select the RTF file you want to open.
When the time of saving file comes, select file->save as command from file menu then select
word document from save as type combo box..

5. Converting .doc to HTML file: open the file of Microsoft word and choose file->save as
command from file menu then select Web Page from save as type combo box..

6. Converting HTML to .doc file: start Microsoft word select file->open then select files as type
combo box and choose Web Page then select the HTML file you want to open.
When the time of saving file comes, select file->save as command from file menu then select
word document from save as type combo box..

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Concept of Object Linking & Embedding
Linking and embedding allows to use object created in other application program(source
application) to be used in current application(client application) file. Linking and embedding
allows different parts of the document created in different application programs.
Linking requires existence of a file. Changes performed in source file gets reflected in client file.
Embedding doesn’t require existence of a file. Changes performed in source file doesn’t get
reflected in client file.
Creating an embedded/Linked Object
Click in the document where you want to place the embedded object.
On the Insert menu, click Object, and then click the Create New or Create from File tab. To
create embedding do not select link to file option
In the Object type box, click the type of object you want to create.
Only programs that are installed on your computer and that support linked objects and embedded
objects appear in the Object type box.
To display the embedded object as an icon — for example, if others are going to view the
document online — select the Display as icon check box.
To link or embed the object, do one of the following:
Select the object and use edit->copy command.
select document where you want to place the copied object.
On the File menu, click Paste Special, and then click the Paste( for embedding) or Paste Link
(for linking).
To display the embedded/linked object as an icon — for example, if others are going to view the
document online — select the Display as icon check box.

Points to remember when using text in Multimedia Presentation

Make it readable: a decorative font may be attractive it may also be hard to read. Although it
may seem important to include a great deal of text, filling screen with text or reducing the size of
the type to accommodate text might make it non-readable. Serifs fonts are more readable than
Sans Serif. 10 point and 12 point size are quite common in use. Title text may 16 point size. 72
points make 1”.
headings : 14 to 18 points
subheadings: Half the heading size
Text blocks: 10 to 12 points.
Consider type style and color to make emphasize on text such as bold, italic, underline.
Don’t use too many fonts and font sizes keep uniformity in font, font size and style.

Overview Of Some Font Editing And Designing Tools

Special font editing tools can be used to make you won type, so you can communicate an idea or
graphic feeling exactly. With these tools, professional typographers create distinct text and

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display faces. Graphic designers, publishers, and ad agencies can design instant variations of
existing type face.
Three dimensional modeling programs allow you to create a character, add depth to it or extrude
it, shade and light it, and manipulate it into other shapes.
Macromedia director allows spinning of text it its place. Cool3d and Vertigo 3D HotText let you
extrude, twist and rotate character and adjust light and texture effect for high-impact 3-d titles.
Two of the popular font editors are FontCreator and Fontographer.
Fontographer:
Fontographer supplied by macromedia is a specialized graphics editor for both Mac and
Windows platforms.
Features:
You can use it to develop PostScript, True Type and bitmapped fonts for Mac and windows etc.
Designers can also modify existing typefaces, incorporate PostScript artwork, automatically trace
scanned images and create designs from scratch.
It includes freehand drawing tool to create professional and precise inline and outline drawings
of calligraphic and script character, using either the mouse or alternative input methods.
It allows the creation of multiple font designs from two existing typefaces, and you can design
lighter or heavier fonts by modifying the weight of an entire typeface.
You can create condensed, expanded and oblique version of the same font or modify any of
those fonts to suit your design needs.
One character, several characters or entire fonts can be scaled, rotated, and skewed to create new
and unique typefaces.
A metric window provides complete control over character width, spacing, offset, and kerning.

FontCreator
FontCreator puts font creation within the grasp of the average PC user, typographers and graphic
designers. The editor lets you easily select and modify the entire character set of any TrueType
font and fonts based on OpenType font technology. Features include the ability to convert
images to outlines, thus enabling you to create fonts with your own signature, logo and
handwriting. The sensitive interface makes FontCreator the perfect tool for both new and
experienced users. The advanced validation features make the design process easy and help you
avoid common mistakes.
1.The most impressive new feature that makes designing fonts so much faster is direct import of
vector based images.
2. Create and edit TrueType and OpenType fonts.
3. Redesign existing characters and add missing characters.
4. Convert vector and raster based (e.g. a signature, logo or handwriting character) into outlines.
5. Edit or regenerate font names and fix character mappings.
6. Correct fonts that display incorrectly add or correct composite glyphs.
7. Generate, modify and clean up kerning pairs.

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8. Transform individual glyphs or an entire font (e.g. to make a bold version) and Preview fonts
before installing.
9. Install fonts in Windows, Split TrueType Collection or Extra TrueType Fonts from TrueType
collection.

Multimedia: multimedia is combination of text, graphic, and audio elements into a single
collection or presentation.
Interactive Multimedia: multimedia becomes interactive multimedia when you give the user
some control over what information is viewed and when it is viewed.
Hypermedia: Interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia when its designer provides a
structure of linked elements through which a user can navigate and interact.
Hypertext System: when a hypermedia project includes large amount of test or symbolic
content, this content can be indexed and its elements then linked together to afford rapid
electronic retrieval of the associated information. When words are keyed or indexed to other
words, you have a hypertext system.
Using Scanner To Scan Text In Editable Format
The HP Scanning software uses optical character recognition (OCR) to convert text on a page to
text that you can edit with a word processing program. The OCR software is installed
automatically when you install the HP software.
1 Start the HP Solution Center.

2 Click Scan Document.

3 In the HP Scanning software, do one of the

following tasks:

• In the Scan to drop-down list, click a word

processing software program, such as
Microsoft Word.

• In the Scan to drop-down list, click Save-to-

file, and then select one of the following file
types:

– Rich Text Format (*.rtf)

– Tiff Format (*.tiff)

– PDF (searchable) (*.pdf)

– Text File (*.txt)

– HTML (*.html)

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Note A searchable PDF does not contain editable
text, but OCR is used to make the text in the
PDF searchable.

4 Click Scan.
If a preview is displayed, make any adjustments to the scan that you want, and then click Accept.

What is Multimedia?
What are the components of multimedia?
MULTIMEDIA: Definition
 Multimedia can be defined as the technology engaging a variety of media, including text,
audio, video, graphics and animation either separately or in combination, using
computers to communicate ideas or to disseminate information.
 Multimedia let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate with the links and
tools of all media.
 Multimedia is compelling communication, education, entertainment and Reference that
appeals to all senses.
This definition contains four components essential to multimedia:
 First, there must be a computer to coordinate what you see and hear, and interact with
you.
 Second, there must be links that connect the information.
 Third, there must be navigational tools that let you traverse the web of connected
information.
 Finally, because multimedia is not a spectator sport, there must be ways for you to gather,
process, and communicate your own information and ideas.

Write about the classification of multimedia.

MULTIMEDIA CLASSIFICATION:
1. Interactive Multimedia and Non Interactive Multimedia:
 Most of the CD-ROM titles and Gamesware, are of interactive nature – i.e the user
participates in every stage of the proceedings, the degree of interactivity may vary
depending upon the title.
 Non-interactive multimedia is something says, a corporate presentation or a
multimedia demo, in which the audience just watch the show as it proceeds from the
beginning to the end in a sequential manner.
2. Entertainment Multimedia and Education Multimedia:
 All games, multimedia novels and movie multimedia are examples of entertainment
multimedia; and
 Those like CD-ROM titles, which try to educate the user in some specific curriculum,
along with the entertainment, constitute edutainment multimedia.

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 3. CD-ROM Multimedia
4. Internet Multimedia
5. Film/Broadcast multimedia.
What are all the multimedia facets?
Explain about the multimedia Taxonomy.
Multimedia Facets:
Any one or more of the following media and / or a combination of these, are generally
engaged in all multimedia projects:
1. Text 2. Graphics 3. Audio 4. Video 5.Animation
To extent to which a particular kind of media is employed, is mainly determined by the
nature and scope of the project.
TEXT
 Multimedia systems use text because it is such an effective way to communicate ideas
and provide instructions to users.
 They can display variety of fonts, in innumerable colours and combinations.
 There are four kinds of texts: printed, scanned, electronic, and hypertext.
 Printed text, like the words in this paragraph, appears on paper.
 Low cost scanners that can read printed text and convert it into machine-readable form to
produce scanned text.
 A tremendous number of texts that can be read by a computer and transmitted
electronically over networks, such texts are referred to as electronic texts.
 Hyper text refers to text that has been linked. The prefix hyper means the process of
linking, which makes multimedia interactive.

GRAPHICS
 Graphics often appear as backdrops behind text to create a pictorial framework for the
text.
 Pictures, Photographic images and other art works are coming under the media
‘Graphics’.
 Bitmaps: It is a picture stored as a set of pixels that correspond to the grid of dots on a
computer screen. To display a picture, the computer sets each dot on the screen to the
color specified for it in the bitmap.
 Vector Images: They are stored as a set of mathematical equations called algorithms that
define the curves, lines, and shapes in a picture. For images that do not contain a lot of
continuous color changes, vectors are a more-efficient way to store the image than
bitmaps.
 Clip art: Creating graphics by hand is time-consuming. To save time there are extensive
libraries of clip art such as photographs, icons, animations, background tiles, buttons, and
bullets that can be used in multimedia productions.
 Digitized Pictures: Video digitizers accept a video signal as input; they can digitize
anything a video camera can see. Any photograph, slide or picture from any book or
magazine can be digitized in full color and linked to the multimedia application.
 Hyper Pictures: Just as words can serve as triggers in a hypertext, so also can parts of
pictures. When parts of pictures are used to trigger multimedia events, they are called
hyper pictures.

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AUDIO
 Speeches, music and other types of sounds are under this media.
 Audio element is generally used to enhance the usual multimedia environment.
 There are four types of sound objects that can be used in Multimedia productions:
Waveform audios, MIDI sound tracks, Compact disc (CD) audio, and MP3 files.
 Waveform Audio: Waveform audio digitizer can record any sound you can hear. Every
sound has a waveform that describes its frequency, amplitude, and harmonic content.
Waveform audio digitizers capture sound by sampling this waveform thousands of times
per second; the samples are stored on a computer’s hard disk in a file that usually has a
.wav file name extension, which stands for waveform.
 MIDI: It stands for Musical Instrument digital Interface. It provides a very efficient way
of recording music. Instead of recording the waveform of the sound, which requires a lot
of storage, MIDI records the performance information required for your computer’s
sound chip to play sound.
 Audio CD: Audio CDs can hold up to 75 minutes of high fidelity recorded sound. The
Sampling rate is 44,100 samples per second, which is fast enough to record any sound
audible to humans. The samples are 16 bits.
 CD Plus, CD Extra, and Enhanced CD: CD Plus, also known, as CD Extra or
Enhanced CD, is a music CD that can also function as a CD-ROM, with computer data
included on the music disc.
 MP3: It stands for MPEG Audio Layer 3. It is an audio file format that uses an MPEG
audio codec to encode (compress) and decode (decompress) recorded music. MP3 can
compress a CD audio track into a substantially smaller sized file requiring significantly
less bandwidth to transmit over the Internet without degrading the original sound track’s
quality.
 Hyper audio: Sound tracks are played over time. Many multimedia creation tools allow
the user to time the occurrence of objects to sync points in the music. When audio is used
to trigger multimedia objects, it is referred to as hyper audio.

VIDEO
 Video provides a rich and lively resource for multimedia applications.
 There are four types of video that you can use as the objects of links in
multimedia applications: live video feeds, videotape, and digital video.
 Live Video Feeds: It provides interesting real-time objects of multimedia links. Any
television channel or live camera feed can be the object of a link. Webcams let you watch
live video feeds from all over the world.
 Videotape: Videotapes can be the objects of multimedia links. This medium is limited by
two factors, however, first, videotapes are linear. The information is stored on tape in a
serial fashion. Second, most video tape players are not computer controllable. This means
that you must manually press the play, stop, fast forward, and rewind buttons yourself to
use videotape in a multimedia presentation.

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  Videodisc: There are two industry side formats for videodisc: CAV and CLV. CAV discs
can store up to 54,000 still frames or 30 minutes of motion video with a stereo sound
track. CLV discs can store up to an hour of video on each disc side, which is twice as
much video as CAV discs hold.
 Digital Video: It is the most promising and exciting video storage medium. Like
waveform audio, digital audio is stored files on a hard disk, CD-ROM, or DVD. Digital
video can be randomly accessed by frame, letting you play specific clips.
 DVD: It stands for digital versatile disc, but when a DVD’s purpose is to play back
movie, it can more properly stand for digital videodisc. DVD uses MPEG-2 to compress
a full-length feature film onto a 4.7-inch disc.
 Hypervideo: Like sound tracks, video clips are played over time. Many multimedia
creation tools allow you to time the occurrence of objects to sync points in the video.
When video is used to trigger other multimedia events, it is referred to as hypervideo.

ANIMATION
 In multimedia, animation is the use of a computer to create movement on the screen.
 There are four kinds of animation: frame, vector, computational, and morph.
 Frame Animation: It makes objects move by displaying a series of predrawn pictures,
called frames, in which the objects appear in different locations on the screen.
 Vector animation: A vector is a line that has a beginning, a direction, and a length.
Vector animation makes objects move by varying these three parameters for the line
segments that define the object.
 Computational animation: In computational animation, you move objects across the
screen simply by varying their x and y coordinates. The x coordinate specifies the
horizontal position of the object, that is, how far across the screen. The y coordinate
specifies the vertical position, that is, how far down the screen.
 Morphing: Morphing means to transition one shape into another by displaying a series
of frames that creates a smooth movement as the first shape transforms itself into the
other shape.

MULTIMEDIA PC:
A Multimedia PC is a computer that has a CD-ROM or DVD drive and supports 8-bit and
16-bit waveform audio recording and playback, MIDI sound synthesis, and MPEG movie
watching, with a central processor fast enough and a RAM large enough to enable you to play
and interact with these media in real time, and with a hard disk large enough to store multimedia
works that the user can create.

MULTIMEDIA HARDWARE
The various hardware peripherals most of them in the form of Add-on cards. The
accessories and peripherals make up a professional’s system as against a user or a multimedia
consumer’s system. Different multimedia peripherals and Add-on cards handle different kinds of
Media and Interface.
 Display adaptor card
 Sound card
 CD Controller card
 Graphics Accelerator card

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  MIDI Interface card
 Wave Synthesis card

VGA-TV Adaptor Card:

Most of the multimedia hardware interfaces take the form of Add-on cards or peripherals
cards that fit into the 16 bit slots inside the computer. The necessary connection jacks alone
protrude at the rear end of the system cabinet, so that the user can connect them to the relevant
external cables.
These cards basically provide an Analog-digital interface between the external media
handling devices, like the tape or video recorder and the computer, so that the user can connect
them to the relevant external cables and can be transferred between the two.
Comprehensive list of various hardware Add-on peripheral interface cards that are
currently used by multimedia computer.
PROFESSIONAL LEVEL:
USER LEVEL:
Graphics Accelerator card – Graphics
Display Adaptor Cards – Colour display
Video Capture card – Video
Sound cards – Audio
MIDI Interface card – Music
CD-ROM drive – Compact disc reading
Wave synthesis card – Music
 Controller
CD The display
cardadaptor cards
– Compact disc or thehandling
drive colour cards are responsible for the colour display of
your monitor.
 The sound cards or the Audio cards manage almost allCD-ROM Writer
possible kinds – Compact disc writing
of audio
 The CD-ROM drives read compact discs, which are the usual storage medium, for all
multimedia goodies.
 The CD controller cards handle CD-ROM drives andVGA – TV adaptors
are usually – Broadcast
supplied along with the
drives.
 The graphics accelerator cards enhance your colour display; and their presence can be
better perceived, while dealing with extensive 3D graphics / Animation applications.
 The video capture cards can capture video signals, either directly from a camcorder or
through the Video Cassette Recorder and can store them on bits of data, onto your hard
disk.
 The MIDI Interface cards negotiate with a wide range of electronic Instruments and
music keyboards, which support MIDI so that they can sing in consonance with the
computer, and the resulting music can be recorded directly onto the hard disk.
 The wave synthesis cards, which are big brothers of MIDI, can actually some digitally
‘chill’ music and other additional special effects.
 CD-ROM writer can write or record multimedia data over a special Writable Compact
disc.
 VGA to TV Adaptors basically convert computer signals to television signals that can
either be viewed or broadcasted.

A TYPICAL MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

 Processor: Minimum, an Intel Pentium 133 MHz microprocessor or equivalent would be
ideal.

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  Display: Minimum a 14” colour monitor with 256+ colors at 640*480 resolution.
 RAM: Minimum 16MB, 32 MB is highly recommended, 64 MB or more would be ideal.
 HARD DISK: Minimum 1.2 GB
 CD-ROM Drive: Minimum a ten-speed drive (also called a 10X Drive which implies that
the Data transfer rate is 1500 KB/sec)
 Sound Card: Minimum, a 16 bit card with 8 nodal synthesis, supported by a Watt /4 ohm
stereo speaker and a microphone; 32 bit sound card with Audio Wave technology would
be better.

MULTI MEDIA SOFTWARE:

The term ‘multimedia software’ is very generic or conceptual in its nature, encompassing
a wide variety of tools, applications, packages, drivers and utilities – though all of these are
characterized by skin-deep differences between them. Any type of software performing some
multimedia function can be called as multimedia software.
VARIETIES OF MULTIMEDIA SOFTWARE:
1. Device driver software meant for multimedia peripherals.
2. Run time libraries and players meant for multimedia file handling.
3. Tools, packages and utilities meant for editing multimedia data and
4. All kinds of multimedia applications
DEVICE DRIVER SOFTWARE:
The Driver software or Device Drivers, basically provide the necessary software interface
required for the interactions between the system and the peripherals. Also, the commands issued
for the peripherals at the software level are interpreted in the electronic language, only by the
driver software. In many cases, the device driver software comes bundled with a host of other
utilities and runtime players.

Explain about the classification of multimedia hardware.

Explain about the multimedia software.
RUN TIME LIBRARIES AND PLAYERS:
 Run time libraries and Players are meant for handling the actual multimedia files. These
types of programs are generally bundled with the device drivers and other peripheral utilities
as a single package, by the manufacturer.
Ex. An Audio Player can play back a digital Audio File.
 Players are those programs that install their own set of Program Group and Icons, in the
Windows environment.
 One advantage of Players over runtime libraries is that – apart from mere playback, the
player programs are usually supplemented with some enhanced functionalities that cannot be
enabled in the Media Player program.

TOOLS, PACKAGES AND UTILITIES MEANT FOR EDITING MULTIMEDIA DATA:

The varieties of software are, perhaps, the costliest in the lot. This software enables the
designer to create entirely new Media file or edit / manipulate the existing Media files. The
options and capabilities available with the software may vary, depending upon the quality of the
product.

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 Tools and packages meant for handling more than one Media type, Multimedia authoring
and Media editing. Ex. Macromedia’s Director

MULTIMEDIA APPLICATION SOFTWARE:

The category of multimedia software:
1. Reference Multimedia
2. Training and Classroom Multimedia
3. Gaming and Entertainment Multimedia
4. Presentation Multimedia
5. Kiosk Multimedia and
6. Miscellaneous.
 Reference Multimedia are those titles, mostly issued as CD-ROMs, which serve as data
banks, on a variety of topics.
 Training / Classroom Multimedia, popularly known as the CBTs (Computer Based
Training / Tutorials) uses Multimedia technology to teach some academic curriculum.
 Gaming and Entertainment Multimedia include all games, adventures and other related
stuff that uses multimedia technology.
 Presentation Multimedia uses this technology for Corporate or Boardroom
presentations. Some of them may even include CBTs – but one distinguishing
characteristic of this kind of software is that they are generally presented using LCD or
other Presentation Display Systems, and not with Colour Monitors.
 Kiosk Multimedia is those applications that have been exclusively developed for public
access – in places like Hotels, Airport etc.
 Miscellaneous Multimedia includes all other applications that don’t come under any of
these categories.

Key terms:
Device Drivers: Software that provides the necessary interface required for interactions,
between the operating system and the multimedia hardware peripherals attached to the system.
Plug-and Play: A set of design specifications incorporated with Microsoft’s Windows 95, for all
multimedia hardware and the software peripherals, to ensure total compatibility between the
devices.
MMX: Multimedia Extension Technology

Write short notes on multimedia texts.

MULTIMEDIA TEXTS
Introduction:
Texts play an important part in almost all multimedia projects. The design and content of
multimedia texts are so different from other types of texts such as Newspaper / Magazine texts
and book texts. To extent to which texts are used in a multimedia project mainly depends upon
the subject or content it deals with.
Texts are applied in multimedia projects in a variety of ways, to serve different purposes. The
classifications of texts are:
1. Texts in Titles
2. Texts in Menu / Navigation items
3. Texts in Button Bars or Equivalents

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 4. Texts that display volume of information
DESIGNING TEXTS FOR MULTIMEDIA:
It involves controlling two very important characteristics of multimedia texts:
1. Display
2. Content
Display deals with the ‘How’ parameter of multimedia texts – like ‘How the text is going to
be represented at a given place, which font is going to be used to represent this text, and with
what colour etc. On the other hand, content answers ‘What’ parameters – like ‘what is the text
that’s going to be represented here etc
.
EFFECTS OF POOR TEXT DISPLAY DESIGN
It affects every interface of the project; spoils the general appeal produced by visuals and
other media; fails to impress the customer; chances are high that the project may not be explored
to the expected level, by the user. The degree of these effects may vary, depending upon the
immediate impression created in the mind of the user and the extent to which other media are
trying to equalize this failure.

EFFECTS OF POOR TEXT CONTENT DESIGN:

Needless to stress the importance of content; Poor contents fail to impress the User and
result in loss of interest in the whole project. Careful attention should be paid, not only to the
language, but also to ease of expressions.
A point of interest in Multimedia Text design is that, the Display and Content design
should synchronize seamlessly, to produce successful results.

MULTIMEDIA TEXT – DISPLAY DESIGN CONSIDERATION:

Text display design in multimedia projects involves decisions in controlling two main
display parameters:
1. Fonts: Fonts affect the profile of the displayed texts
2. Colour: colors and background affect the appearance of text.

FONTS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT

Definition:
Fonts can be defined as a collection of alphabetical and Numerical characters of similar
or compatible profiles and which belongs to a particular typeface family that’s represented by a
unique family name. The size of fonts can either be adjustable or not, depending upon the nature
of the font family.
TYPES OF FONT FAMILIES:
Two types of font families are: 1. Postscript Fonts
2. True Type Fonts
True Type Fonts:
Fonts, those are scalable i.e., whose sizes can be altered while maintaining the basic
profile design of the characters, are called ‘True Type Fonts’. These fonts support Windows
‘WYSIWIG’ technology.
IMPORTANCE OF TEXT IN MULTIMEDIA:
With the recent explosion of the Internet and the World Wide Web, text has become more
important than ever. Words and symbols in any form, spoken or written, are the most common

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system of communication. It’s important to design labels for title screens, menus, and buttons
using words that have the most precise and powerful meanings to express what you need to say.
Explain all the text editing operations.
TEXT EDITING:
Example: PowerPoint presentation.

1. Entering Text.
2. Saving the presentation of Text.
3. Formatting the Text
i. Positioning the Text.
ii. Sizing the Text.
iii. Aligning and Centering Text.
4. Bolding Text.
5. Italicizing Text.
6. Underling Text.
7. Selecting Fonts.
8. Making effects on Text.
i. Superscripts and Subscripts.

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 ii. Embossing and Shadowing.
iii. Inserting Numbers.
iv. Inserting bullets.
v. Inserting special symbols.
9. Coloring Text.
10. Editing Text in Outline view.
11. Correcting Mistakes in Text.
i. Auto Correct
ii. Spell Checking
iii. Find and Replace.
12. Using the Clipboard to Copy and Paste Text.

Explain about the fonts and typefaces.

FONTS AND TYPEFACES:
 A typeface is a family of graphic characters that usually includes many type sizes and
styles.
 A font is a collection of characters of a single size and style belonging to a particular
typeface family. Helvetica, Times, and Courier are typefaces; Times 12-point italic is a
font.
 Typical font styles are bold face and Italic. Other style attributes, such as underlining and
outlining of characters, may be added by your computer software.
 The texts and fonts are all the collection of Pixels. Pixels are defined as the picture
elements or dots.
 Type sizes are usually expressed in points; one point is 0.0138 inch, or about 1/72 of an
inch.
 High-resolution monitors and printers can make more attractive-looking and varied
characters because there are more font little squares or dots per inch
 The font’s size is the distance from the top of the capital letters to the bottom of the
descenders in letters such as g and y.

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  Placing the Capital letter in middle of the word is referred as Intercap. Texts are case-
sensitive.

CHARACTER METRICS:
Character metrics are the general measurements applied to individual characters.
 Leading is the space below the individual characters
 Kerning is the space between the individual characters.
 Trailing is the space after the individual characters.
For example the user can adjust the body width of each character from regular to condensed
to expanded, displayed in the SaME font.
Regular
Condensed Tighter Track Av Av
Expanded Looser Track Kerned Un kerned
Or you can adjust the spacing between characters (tracking) and the kerning between
between pairs of characters.
TITLING:
Titling is an art by itself. Particularly, the variety of ‘supercharged special effects’ can be
applied only to title and not other portions of the contents. A variety of choices are available for
designing Titles – the options available are usually determined by the Packages you are using.
JAGGIES:
Jaggies are small edge disturbances created with true type font families. These
disturbances are relatively low – rather, insignificant – when the font sizes are small, but assume
significant importance with larger font sizes, as that in titles.
ANTI-ALIASING:
Anti-aliasing is the technique of tracing the colour of the font profile using various shades
of the font colour, in such a way that jaggies are reduced to the minimum and are barely
noticeable even at large font sizes.
SPECIAL EFFECTS:
A variety of special effects can be applied to multimedia texts, and they are only relevant
to titles. The software tools using for creating special effects dictate the option available to a
designer.

Drop Shadows:
Drop shadows are easiest to work with. Almost all famous photo-editing tools provide
this effect. This effect produces a shadow, usually blurred, under the desired text – so that it
looks ‘projected’ out of the screen. These effects work best for titles and other types of headings.
Cut Outs:
Cut out texts; maintain the background of the image over their body to provide out like a
paper cutting, over the underlying pattern. The degree of offset can be controlled. These effects
is relatively easy to produce and are very effective in titling, when the background is particularly
a photograph or bitmap. Cut outs, in combination with drop shadows can produce great results,
when they are applied with suitable fonts over a very light or white backgrounds.
Text Animations:
Text animations include ‘moving’ or ‘flying’ texts frequently associated with some
graphics and usually adorn the initial or startup screens.

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Three Dimensional Texts:
Normal texts are all two-dimensional. If we could add a space co-ordinate along the Z-
axis, then the entire environment becomes three-dimensional. 3D texts are employed only for
representing very important texts in a project, like the project title. Three-dimensional texts can
be created in two ways:
1. By using advanced photo editing tools with 3D text simulation capabilities.
2. By using 3D modeling and rendering software.

Explain about the multimedia design considerations.

MULTIMEDIA TEXT – CONTENT DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS:
Content design is, in a way, more important than display design - because the initial spell
produced by a good display design, is kept alive throughout the proceedings, only by the
contents of the project.
Content design involves controlling both qualitative and quantitative aspects of
multimedia texts.

CONTROLLING QUALITATIVE ASPECTS

Controlling qualitative aspects involves:
1. Developing the contents to be presented,
2. Deciding upon the language to be used
3. Deciding the behavioral aspect of the target audience
4. Editing the contents to suit their behavior and
5. Producing the sense of appeal relevant for the project, by controlling the tone of the
language used and the way of addressing the target audience.

CONTROLLING QUANTITATIVE ASPECTS

Controlling qualitative aspects involves:
1. Deciding upon the ‘length of the text’ in each screen.
2. Deciding upon the total quality of matter to be distributed throughput the project and
3. Dividing the contents in required proportions, between the screens – for optimal
distribution of contents.

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