1.

Introduction to Multimedia
Multimedia is a content that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio,
images, animations, video and interactive content. The origin of multimedia can be traced back to
computer games but today it plays a major role in varied areas such as interactive courses,
computer based training, presentations, interactive and dynamic web pages, and so on. It is one of
the fastest growing and most exciting areas in the information technology field. Hundreds and
thousands of people are putting together text, pictures, animations, movies and sound to creating
multimedia presentations, courses, interactive web pages and so on. Multimedia is widely used in
the entertainment and education fields.

2. Elements of Multimedia System

There are five basic elements of multimedia: text, images, audio, video and animation.
Example - Text in fax, Photographic images, Geographic information system maps,
Voice commands, Audio messages, Music, Graphics, Moving graphics animation,
Full-motion stored and live video, Holographic images.
Text and images are static objects, whereas audio, video and animations are dynamic
objects that move or change.
2.a Text –
• Text is most commonly used to communicate information.
• It has alphanumeric characters, in addition to special characters.
• It involves the use of text types, sizes, fonts, colours and background colours.
• Multimedia applications support linked content, through Hypertext.
• Text in SMS, FAX, Email are examples of this element in Communication.
• Common file types include: TXT, DOC, DOCX, PDF.
2.b Images
• Images/Illustrations are the oldest form of media
• They help to illustrate ideas through still pictures.
• There are two types of images - Bitmaps and Vector
• Bitmap images are real images that can be captured from devices such as
cameras.
• Vector graphics are created using software in the computer .
• This multimedia element enables to generate, represent, process, manipulate,
and display pictures.
• Common file types for Images include: JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP
2.c Audio
• The speech, music and sound effects used in multimedia is digital audio.
• Multimedia applications use audio or the sound element like, website or
presentation can add audio files from a musical background, or a voiceover /
spoken explanation.
• There are two basic type of audio or sound; analog and digital.
• The original sound signal is termed as Analog audio.
• The digital sampling of the original sound is termed as Digital audio.
• Common file types for Audio include: MP3, WAV, WMA
2.d Video
• Video presents moving pictures and typically combines images and sound for
a multimedia experience.
• This technology records, synthesizes, and displays images known as frames
in such sequences at a fixed speed that makes the creation appear as moving;
this is how we see a completely developed video.
• To watch a video without any interruption, video device must display 25 to
30 frames/second.
• Common file types for Video include AVI, WMV, FLV, MOV, MP4
2.e Animation
• Animation is the process of making a static image to look as if it is moving.
• It helps in creating, developing, sequencing, and displaying a set of images
technically known as frames.
• Digital animation can be classified as 2D two dimension and 3D Three
dimension animations.
• GIFs, an abbreviation for graphic image files, are small files that present a
single image or rapidly display a sequence of a few images to give the
appearance of motion.
• AdobeFlash is the most common tool for creating these animations.
• Common file types for Animation include: GIF, FLV

3. Graphic design tool

3.a Hardware requirement
• Hardware refers to a physical piece of a device or computer, for example a keyboard,
mouse, hard drive, monitor, memory chip, CPU etc.
• Hardware devices used commonly can be categorized into input, output and storage
devices.
• Hardware devices in these categories can be used for Multimedia development during
preproduction, production and post production phases.
• Hardware devices can also be used for Multimedia experience by the User. For example,
a speaker to enjoy the audio, a camera to capture images.
• Alphanumeric keyboards and optical character recognition, Digital cameras and scanners,
Video camera, Microphones and midi keyboards, Mice, trackballs, joy sticks, drawing
tablets are all examples of multimedia hardware.
• System requirements in general include- Operating system, Minimum CPU or processor
speed, Minimum GPU or video memory for displays and graphics hardware, Minimum
system memory (RAM), Minimum free storage space, Audio hardware (sound card,
speakers, etc), available ports (USB, Ethernet, etc), Wireless connectivity
3.b Software Tools include –
• Word processing tools like Microsoft Word, Open Office Word
• Graphic and Image Editing Tools like CorelDraw, Photoshop
• Sound Editing Tools like Soundrecorder from Microsoft, Apple’s QuickTime
Player pro, Sonic Foundry’s SoundForge for Windows, Soundedit, Audacity
• OCR Software
• 3-D Modeling and Animation Tools, Painting and Drawing Tools like
CorelDraw, Freehand, Designer and Canvas
4. The Internet
The Internet is the global network of computing devices including desktop, laptop, servers,
tablets, mobile phones, other handheld devices as well as peripheral devices such as printers,
scanners, etc. In addition, it also consists of networking devices such as routers, switches,
gateways, etc. Today, smart electronic appliances like TV, AC, refrigerator, fan, light, etc., can
also communicate through the Internet. The list of such smart devices are always increasing
e.g., drones, vehicles, door lock, security camera, etc.
The Internet is evolving every day. Computers are either connected to a modem through a cable
or wirelessly (Wi-Fi). A modem, be it wired or wireless, is connected to a local Internet Service
Provider (ISP) who then connects to a national network. Many such ISPs connect together
forming a regional network and regional networks connect together forming a national
network, and such country-wise networks form the Internet backbone.
The Internet today is a widespread network, and its influence is no longer limited to the
technical fields of computer communications. It is being used by everyone in the society as is
evident from the increasing use of online tools for education, creativity, entertainment,
socialization and e-commerce.
4.1 Internet Addressing
Internet addressing is a systematic, way to identify people, computers and Internet resources.
a. An IP (Internet Protocol) address is an identifier for a particular machine on a particular
network; it is a part of a scheme to identify computers on the Internet, An IP address
consists of four sections separated by periods. Each section contains a number ranging from
0 to 255. Example 202.54.1.6. These four sections represent both the machine itself, or
host, and the network that the host is on. The IP addresses have the following characteristics
in common:
• IP addresses are unique
• No two machines can have the same IP number
• IP addresses are also global and standardized
• All machines connected to the Internet agree to use the same scheme for establishing an
address
b. Domain Name system: A domain name is a string of text that maps to a numeric IP
address, used to access a website from client software. In plain English, a domain name is
the text that a user types into a browser window to reach a particular website. For instance,
the domain name for Google is ‘google.com’. The actual address of a website is a complex
numerical IP address (e.g. 103.21.244.0), because of DNS, users are able to enter human-
friendly domain names and be routed to the websites they are looking for. This process is
known as a DNS lookup.
Some examples of domain names are: Microsoft.com, nasa.gov, utexas.edu, tcs.co.in, etc.
The last portion of the domain name is the top-level domain name and describes the type
of organization holding that name.

The major categories for top-level domain names are:

• com-commercial entities
 • edu-educational institutions
• gov-united states Federal Government entities
• mil-united states military
5. The World Wide Web (WWW)
The www is the brainchild of Tim Berners Lee a CERN (European Lab for particle physics)
engineer. During 1980s he developed a programming language called HTML on which the
web is based. Early web pages contained only text, but due to rapid advancements in
technology the web pages now contain pictures and other multimedia elements in addition to
text.
The WWW is the graphical Internet service that provides a network of interactive documents
and the software to access them; it is based on documents called pages that combine text,
pictures, forms, sound, animation and hypertext links called hyperlinks. To navigate the
WWW, users ‘surf’ from one page to another by pointing and clicking on the hyperlinks in
text or graphics. Three fundamental technologies that lead to creation of web:
a. HTML — HyperText Markup Language or HTML is a language which is used to
design standardized Web Pages so that the Web contents can be read and understood
from any computer across the globe. It uses tags to define the way page content
should be displayed by the web browser. Basic

b. URL identifies a particular Internet resource, for example a web page, a Gopher
Server, a library catalog, an image, or a text file. URLs represent a standardized
addressing schemes for internet resources, and help the users to locate these
resources by indicating exactly where they are, Every resource available via the
www has a unique URL. URL consists of letters, numbers, and punctuations. The
basic structure of a URL is hierarchical and the hierarchy moves from left to right.
 Protocol://server-name.domain-name.top-leveldomain: port/directory/filename
 Example: http://www.Inl.net/alexis/index.html
Examples of URI identifying resources using location (i.e., URL) are:
https://www.mhrd.gov.
in, http://www.ncert.nic.in, http://www.airindia. in, etc. URL is sometimes also called a
web address. However, it is not only the domain name, but contains other information
that completes a web address, as depicted below:
c. HTTP — The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a set of rules which is used to retrieve linked
web pages across the web. It’s more secure and advanced version is HTTPS. Many people
confuse the web with the Internet. The Internet as we know is the huge global network of
interconnected computers, which may or may not have any file or webpage to share with
the world. The web on the other hand is the interlinking of a collection of WebPages on
these computers which are accessible over the Internet. WWW today gives users access to
a vast collection of information created and shared by people across the world. It is today
the most popular information retrieval system.
5.1 Website
Each one of us might have visited one or the other website. A website in general contains
information organised in multiple pages about an organisation. A website can also be created for
a particular purpose,theme or to provide a service.
A website (usually referred to as a site in short) is a collection of web pages related through
hyperlinks, and saved on a web server. A visitor navigates from one page to another by clicking
on hyperlinks. Also, all the pages of a website are integrated under one domain name and have a
common theme and template. To access a website, one has to type the address of the website
(URL) in the address bar of a browser, and press enter. The home page of the website will be
displayed.
A website’s purpose is to make the information available to people at large. A website is a means
that helps to communicate with people in a specific, transparent and user friendly manner.
Therefore, while developing a website, the first question to ask is why the website is being created,
and what should be its pages so that it serves the required purpose.
Basically, a website should be user friendly and provide information to users with minimum
efforts. A website should be designed keeping in mind different categories of people that will be
visiting the site.
5.2 Web Page
A web page (also referred to as a page) is a document on the WWW that is viewed in a web
browser. Basic structure of a web page is created using HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
and CSS (Cascaded Style Sheet). A web page is usually a part of a website and may contain
information in different forms, such as:
 text in the form of paragraphs, lists, tables, etc.
 images
 audio
 video
 software application
 other interactive contents

Additionally, various styling and formatting are applied on a web page to make it attractive and
organised. The first page of the website is called a home page. It generally contains information
and links to all the related web pages. Each web page has a unique address that is visible on the
address bar. Hence if we want to view a particular web page, its address has to be typed in the
address bar of the browser. The web pages that are linked to form a website share a unique domain
name.
For example, https://swayam.gov.in/ is a website by the Government of India to deliver online
courses for School, College and University students and teachers. It is a collection of multiple web
pages that link to different courses related information.
5.3 Web Browsers
Web browser is a software application for accessing information on the WWW.Each individual
webpage, image and video is identified by a distinct URL (Uniform Resource Locator), enabling
browsers to retrieve these resources from a web server and display them on the user’s device.
Browsers are also referred to as web clients, or Universal clients, because in the client/server
model, the browser functions as the client program. The browser acts on behalf of the user.
The browser does the following tasks:
• Contacts web server and sends a request for information
• Receives the information and then displays it on the
user’s computer.
A browser can be graphical or text-based. A text-based browser shows the user only the textual
matter. A graphical browser allows the user to see more of what the WWW has to offer such as
graphics, photographs and multimedia. It also allows the user to view images on their computer,
“point-and-click” with a mouse to select hypertext links, and uses drop-down menus and toolbar
buttons to navigate and access resources on the internet.
Examples of some common browsers are:
• Mozilla Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft internet explorer
• Apple Safari
• Opera
5.4 Web browsing
Internet browsing or ‘net surfing’, is the process of visiting different websites on the Internet hosted
by various companies, organizations, educational institutions, magazines, individuals etc.,