Click the OK button. The Registry Editor appears.

Chapter 25 ✦ Understanding Multimedia Considering Digital Cameras and Scanners Although both scanners and digital cameras have been around a while, they’ve become the hottest new technological playthings for home users. With a scanner, you can convert any image from paper to a digital file that you can use in your computer. With a camera, you can capture images of your home, your family and friends, vacations, pets, and more. Both of these tools are affordable and easy enough for any member of your family to use, and they provide exciting alternatives to images you get from other sources. Examining digital cameras Digital cameras are perfect for taking photographs that you can transfer easily to your com- puter and to your publications. The photos you take with the digital camera are similar to those you take with other cameras. The pictures are in color, but you can transfer them to black and white with the help of a photo manipulation program. Digital cameras don’t use film. When you take pictures with a digital camera, the image is stored on a memory card instead of on film. You can view and delete images on the memory card while it’s still in the camera, and you can reuse the card time and again. The removable image card stores images and maintains those images until you delete the data or reformat the card. You also can purchase additional memory cards to use in your camera. After you take the pictures, you transfer the images to the computer by using a serial port, a USB port, a card reader, or FireWire. Using a serial port is the least effective method, because it is so slow. Using a USB port is faster, but using a card reader is by far the most efficient method. Your computer sees the card reader as another drive, as it would see a floppy disk, CD-ROM, or Zip drive. You simply open the drive and transfer the pictures you want. You remove the card from the camera and insert it into the card reader. The card reader is very small, about the size of a pack of poker cards, with two cables plugged into either side of the reader. Card readers are available in both internal and external models. The cost ranges from 50 to 150. Manufacturers include Kodak, Actiontec, and Litronic. IO addresses refer to locations in a computer’s memory map. Addresses are in hexadecimal for- mat, which is a base 16 numbering system that uses the digits 0 through 9 followed by the let- ters A through F. Hexadecimal numbers represent the binary numbers computers use internally they all fit into the 8-bit byte. Direct memory access DMA channels might be an area for hardware conflicts. Plug and Play systems use DMAs. In Windows, you can make Plug and Play resource assignments under the specific device’s Resource tab within the Device Manager click Start ➪ Programs ➪ Control Panel, and then double-click System. Select the Device Manager and locate the hardware in question. View its properties. You can change setting for IRQs, IOs, or DMAs, but make sure you under- stand the consequences of your actions and always write down the original addresses to change back to if necessary. Part VII ✦ Adding to Your Home Network Many cameras are on the market. You should look for a few key features when buying a digital camera. A zoom lens enables you to get close-ups and wide angles. You also want to check image quality, which depends on the resolution of the image. The image resolution, or the method of identifying how sharp and detailed the images are, varies between cameras. Low resolution, for example, is 640×480 or 307,200 pixels per image — but that is perfect for Web publishing, e-mail attachments, and other uses. On the other hand, high resolutions are 1,152×872 or 1,004,544 pixels per image — and you should use them only for printing photo- realistic enlargements. Additionally, check to see that your camera includes the following: ✦ Automatic focus ✦ White balance to adjust the colors to match the source of light ✦ Autoexposure to calculate the correct exposure for the scene ✦ Autoflash to flash automatically if there isn’t enough light ✦ Autoadvance to prepare the camera for the next photo ✦ Detachable or rotatable lens helpful but not necessary ✦ Glass lens instead of plastic ✦ Removable flash memory cards You need some other equipment in addition to your camera. Make sure that the camera comes with the following: ✦ A cable to connect the camera to the computer’s serial, parallel, USB, or FireWire port ✦ At least one memory card ✦ Batteries ✦ A memory card reader for fast transfer between camera and computer optional Many digital camcorders also work as digital cameras, taking still photographs in addition to moving pictures. In addition, some digital cameras have a camcorder feature you can use to take short amounts of moving pictures. Looking at scanners A scanner is a tool for adding graphics, images, and photographs to your documents. You can scan photos, logos, line art, and even text to save as electronic files. Desktop scanning can be complicated and difficult. Optical character recognition OCR is a means of using software to scan typewritten text and convert it to a file you can read and edit with a word processor. It’s great for avoiding retyping text, whether you’re scanning reports, records, letters, catalogs, or other documents. Note Note Chapter 25 ✦ Understanding Multimedia Scanners transform analog data to digital data by converting light into the 0s and 1s that computers use to perform operations. The electronic scanner components, or eyes, record the reflected light off of the item scanned and report the information to the computer. The scanner divides a picture into pixels to build the image in digital form. Flatbed scanners used to be the most common. You place the item being scanned on a glass plate, and then the scanning head moves beneath the item. In contrast, sheet-fed scanners move the page being scanned past the scanning head. Sheet-fed scanners are less exact than flatbeds because it’s difficult to move a sheet of paper without distorting the image that’s on it. Many of today’s scanners are included with a printercopierscanner, 3-in-1 device. This type of scanner makes scanning into your computer fast, easy, and efficient. You need to check several criteria when buying a scanner to make sure that you’re getting the right one. First, you want to check the size of the scanner or printer called the footprint; some are very large and awkward. Second, make sure you get the right connection type, such as SCSI, parallel, USB, and so on. Following are the other criteria to check: ✦ Resolution describes the number of pixels a scanner applies to an image. Resolution is measured by a grid, such as 300×300 pixels or dots per square inch. The higher the resolution, the better the image output and the more expensive the scanner. ✦ Bit depth describes the information a scanner records about the pixels it scans. Some scanners record only black and white 1-bit. To see grays or tones between the black and white, you need at least a 4-bit depth 16 tones or an 8-bit depth up to 256 tones. Color scanners are usually 25-bit or higher, which means they can capture more than 16 million different colors. Most graphics software packages can manage nothing larger than 25-bit scans, so buying a scanner that offers 30- or 36-bit scans might not be necessary. The extra bits do, however, correct for “noise” or distortions in the image and produce better color images. Also, not all monitors can display a 25-bit image; most display only 8-bit images. ✦ Dynamic range measures how wide a range of tones the scanner can record. The range is from 0 white to 4 black. Most color flatbeds tend to use a 2.4 dynamic range. Top- quality scanners might have 2.8 to 3.2. ✦ Scanning area describes the maximum size image the scanner will scan. Printerscan- nercopier, sheet-fed, and flatbed scanners are usually 8.5 by 14 inches. ✦ Make sure that you get a scanner driver disk with the scanner. ✦ You also should get some application software with the scanner. The program should provide image-editing features, such as those for adjusting brightness, contrast, color balance, and so on. Tip Part VII ✦ Adding to Your Home Network Looking at Multimedia Applications You can find multimedia applications to edit photographs and video, manage multimedia files, record music, animate photographs, and more. Check out the Internet for multimedia applications, and make sure you look at freeware and shareware programs too. In addition to Windows-based programs, many programs are available for multiple platforms. If you can write Linux code, for example, there are many multimedia applications available to help you. The Mac is also a well-known platform for creating your own multimedia. Shareware describes a program you can download from the Internet for free with the stipu- lation that you will pay a registration fee later or delete your copy. Freeware describes a pro- gram that is free for use and distribution. Many manufacturers also distribute demonstration demo copies of their software for free with the hope that you will later purchase the entire program. Some of these programs are full copies of the software; others are only pieces of the software that whet your appetite for more — for a fee, of course. Working with photographs and images If you like to take digital photographs of your family and friends or scan pictures for fun or for your business, you can use one of these applications to organize and display your digital image files. ✦ Adobe Photoshop enables you to edit photos, compile photo albums, and touch up, crop, and otherwise change photos to suit yourself. Photoshop costs around 600. In addition, Photoshop has the following features: • Manages images from scanners and digital cameras • Supports multiple users over a network • Supports a variety of graphics formats • Enables long filenames and path names Note Getting the Best Scanned Output When you’re scanning images, always scan at the lowest resolution that will work. Extra resolu- tion slows down the process and wastes disk space; also, quality may not be improved that much in the final product. If you’re scanning a photograph for use in e-mail or for printing on your laser printer, for example, 250 dots per inch dpi should be fine. Line art illustrations can be scanned at 1,200 dpi so that the lines will be smooth. You might scan at the higher resolution for duplication at a commercial print shop, for example. For color pho- tographs that you will print on a color printer, scan at 300 or 600 dpi for best quality. Most laser and inkjet printers only go as high as 300 or 600 dpi, so don’t waste extra resolution. Images you convert to text, such as those scanned with an optical character recognition program, should be scanned at 300 dpi so that the computer can recognize more of the text characters. If you plan to enlarge an image, you should increase the scanning resolution. When you enlarge images, the space increases between the pixels, or dots, and thus the image looks less detailed. Chapter 25 ✦ Understanding Multimedia ✦ Corel KPT Collection is a suite of products you can use to work with photos, edit them, distort them, and so on. This software costs around 90. ✦ Microsoft Picture It is another photo-editing program you can use to organize and print photos fast. Picture It costs around 50. ✦ ScanSoft’s SuperGoo cost around 25 and enables you to stretch, warp, smear, and oth- erwise distort images. ✦ MGI PhotoSuite, Ulead Photo Impact, Corel Photobook, and Ulead Pick-a-Photo are all picture-editing tools you can try with your images. Creating 3D animations and movies You can subscribe to many Web sites that supply you with animations for your Web site or for other purposes. You can also create your own 3D animations and even more complex ani- mations for playing on your PC, over the network, or on your own Web page by using a pro- gram for 3D animations. ✦ www.newcreations.net supplies click-here icons, zooming cars, animated musical notes, spinning cubes, spinning stars, and many more animations. ✦ www.3dlinks.com is another supplier of animations, and it also features an artist’s gallery of animations where you can show your creations and view others’. If you want to use shareware, there are many programs available for animations. Go to www.shareware.com for information on freeware and shareware programs. ✦ Animated Screen enables you to create 3D objects and manage their behavior, size, and appearance. You can mirror, rotate, change colors, and otherwise edit the objects. ✦ SWiSH is another shareware program that enables you to create Flash animations for a Web site. You can create shapes, text, buttons, and motion paths. You can also use over 150 premade animated effects, such as explosions, 3D spins, waves, and such. ✦ If you want to professionally produce movies and animations, Animation Master is a program that enables you to create characters by using image mapping and modeling for complex organic or mechanical objects. You can make scenery, characters, and various props. You can build libraries of characters and actions that you can reuse over and over. You make movies, design characters, enhance business presentations, and even create 3D storyboards. For information about Animation Master, go to www.hash.com. ✦ GenArts produces Sapphire plug-ins for Discreet Burn. Discreet manufactures a Linux- based background rendering software in which you can use the Sapphire plug-ins. Other professional programs you can use for 3D animation include Strata’s 3Dpro, SoftImage’s XSI, and Curious Labs’ Poser 5 for Mac OS X. Exploring multimedia videos and video editors When you create your own multimedia, you take digital photographs, record videos, and so on. If you want to retouch some photographs or add to your images and sounds, you can use a program to do that. A video editor lets you edit the film you take in ways that are similar to how a professional filmmaker might edit his or her films. You can add animation and sub- titles, cut the frames differently so the focus is on another subject, and more. Many multi- media editors are available in both shareware and full versions.