Windows Graphics Programming Win32 GDI and DirectDraw®

Chapter 10. Bitmap Basics

Pixels, lines, and areas, as we discussed in the last three chapters, can be used to synthesize a financial chart, an engineering drawing, a textile pattern design, or a cartoon scene. Synthetic graphics programming follows precise mathematical formulas to use geometrical objects to build up a picture, similar to a graphic artist who uses brushes and paints to draw a picture on a canvas. This branch of computer graphics is often referred to as vector graphics, or line art. Another important branch of computer graphics deals with digitized images taken from the real world, which is called bitmap graphics.

An image is a rectangular array of picture elements, or pixels, each representing a color. Images are also referred ...