RGB and CMYK color modes

What are color modes? They determine how colors are being combined based on a certain number of channels in a mode. Different color modes have different settings and different sizes. Such as the two most popular color modes for example, RGB and CMYK. In Photoshop, RGB is best used for projects being uploaded on the internet while CMYK is best used for projects that will be printed.

RGB

Firstly you need to know what RGB stands for. Which is Red, Green, Blue. As I said earlier, RGB is meant to be displayed on a computer screen not for any paper products. All three colors are able to be mixed with all of the others on the color spectrum. They are able to range from different intensities such as, 0 to 100. There is an estimated 16,777,216 various colors. RGB colors are additive because supposedly there are no colors??? ((I’m very confused)) and the colors have to be added together until they make white, if that makes any sense. I could not care less and nothing means anything because we’re all gonna die anyways. Although, according to this dumb website , our eyes cannot see reflected light so they can only see black. But when Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are taken away, we should be able to see RGB colors. Our eyes are dumb and so is this blog post. Plus plus also and RGB is used in Photoshop for web designs and anything on the web to the web with anything related to the web and internet related projects on the web.

CMYK

CMYK is also known as Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black). This is mainly used for projects that are going to be printed. CMYK uses pigments i guess unlike RGB which uses colors? pigments are not absorbed by a substance unlike colors because color is energy that has something to do with cathode-ray tubes or and LED. The primary colors are blue, pink, yellow, and black. CMYK is supposedly used for illustrations that are going to be printed for printed items with relations to anything that is coming out of a printer and RGB is used for designs that are going to be seen on a computer screen or any electronic. And then that website just goes on and on about a lot of uninteresting things related to CMYK. if you wanna be a graphic designer its probably a good idea to know the difference between these two.

Featured Photo by Kiki Siepel on Unsplash

File Types

File types are names given to specific types of files. To illustrate, an Adobe Photoshop file would be different from a Microsoft PowerPoint file. Each file type should have file extensions, which are used at the end of the filename to identify the specific file type. Such as a JPEG image file which could be saved with the extension .JPG or .JPEG. A JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a format for compressing images. It specifies the codec but not the file format.

An EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) file is a graphic format for vector images and is similar to a JPEG file. Programs that use EPS files would be Adobe illustrator, Inkscape, CoreIDRAW, among others. When working with illustrations it is important to use EPS instead of a JPEG file because it will allow the designer to move around the content without having to reconstruct the image or flattening it. A PDF file (AKA Portable Document Format) is a file that provides an electronic image of text or graphics that looks like a printed document which can be viewed, edited, printed, and electronically sent to another person. PDF files are useful for when looking magazine articles, product brochures, flyers, book pages, and more.

A TIFF file (AKA Tag Image File Format) is used to exchange raster graphic images- digital images created as a set of patterns of a given space and bigger than vector images- between applications. It was created in 1986 by a corporation that is now a part of Adobe software. A PNG or Portable Network Graphics file is a file that uses lossless comprehension and often used to store graphics on websites. They are similar to GIFS (Graphic Interchange Format) but are not able to support animations. A PNG file does not compress the image and can make it too large in size and take up unnecessary disk space.

ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and an ASCII file contains data made of characters that fit the ASCII code. It is practically raw text and file examples would be scripts, macros, program source codes, batch files, and so on. An MPEG file (AKA Moving Picture Experts Group) is a video file that compresses the videos to make them easier to stream and download. MPEG files are able to be used with multi-format media players like ITunes, QuickTime, and Windows Media Player.

MIDI file or a Musical Instrument Digital Interface file is designed for recording and playing back music. It transmits how music is produced on personal computers. An AVI file stands for Audio Video Interleave and was developed by Microsoft to store video and audio data in a single file.

Featured Photo by Brooke Lark

5 Most Common Software/Hardware Malfunctions

As efficient and useful computers can be in helping our everyday lives, they could also be a hassle if a person were to come across a few malfunctions.

One universal problem is when apps will not install on the computer. This is due to the fact that the computer has run out of hard drive space. To solve this problem, a person would have to either transfer their data onto some type of USB or an online storage system, like Google Drive. Another option would be to simply delete unnecessary files or software data. Then, once the space has been freed up, the computer should be able to install the new applications.

Another malfunction would be when your overall computer is running slowly. This is mostly due to any type of background program the computer is running at the moment, such as an anti-spyware/malware type of program. Once the scan is complete, the computer should be able to run fast again. Although, if the computer is still running slowly it might be due to overheating. Excessive heat can cause the computer to perform more slowly or turn off completely. Make sure the computer is clean enough because dust, dirt, hair, etc, could disrupt the airflow in your computer and cause it to overheat.

Sometimes when people are on their computer the BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) appears on their screen, it can also be know as a stop error. Most of the time the BSoD will show a STOP code that is the cause of the problem. It could take hours to fix this issue depending on the root cause of the problem. If someone were to have just installed a new application on their computer and then right after the BSoD appeared, it is possible that the installation had caused the problem. To fix this, all someone would have to do is uninstall that new application and see if the problem is fixed. However, there are a lot of ways to cause the BSoD.

An incredibly alarming malfunction is when a computer contracts a virus. Signs of this would be pop up messages that show up out of nowhere, a generally slow computer, unrecognizable computer programs showing up, and you can hear the hard drive constantly working. It many look and sound terrifying at first but there is a simple solution. To start, the computer should be put in safe mode. Then delete temporary files and download an antivirus program. That should be able to get rid of the virus. If it is more serious than that, the virus could be removed manually.

Another heart-skipping malfunction would be when the computer doesn’t start. If the computer just shuts off for no reason or it will not turn on, it could be due to a failing power supply. Check to make sure it is plugged into the battery and if that doesn’t work then the user should most likely have someone at a technology store see what’s up.

Featured Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash