JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

OF
AGRICULTURE & TECHNOLOGY
JKUAT SODeL

SCHOOL OF OPEN, DISTANCE AND eLEARNING

P.O. Box 62000, 00200
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Nairobi, Kenya
E-mail: [email protected]

ICS 2311 Computer Graphics

JJ II LAST REVISION ON October 16, 2014

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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
This presentation is intended to covered within one week.
The notes, examples and exercises should be supple-
mented with a good textbook. Most of the exercises have
solutions/answers appearing elsewhere and accessible by
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clicking the green Exercise tag. To move back to the same

page click the same tag appearing at the end of the solu-
tion/answer.
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Errors and omissions in these notes are entirely the re-

sponsibility of the author who should only be contacted
through the Department of Curricula & Delivery
(SODeL) and suggested corrections may be e-mailed to
[email protected].
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
LESSON 5
2D Scan Raster Conversion

5.1. Introduction
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5.1.1. 2D Raster Scan Conversion

’Scan conversion’ is a general term for drawing methods which
create (or ’digitise’) raster images according to given picture
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’primitives’.
The term is mainly used for drawing methods for 2D picture
elements or primitives such as lines, polygons and text.
All three of these are used in Java programs we shall be
considering.
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In contrast, general 3D drawing methods are termed render-
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
ing methods, though some of these may use 2D picture primi-
tives.

5.1.2. 2D Line and Curve Drawing

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Most (straight) lines and curves drawn in computer graphics

satisfy equating a function of x and y with zero.
For example, we can re-express the line equation y=mx+c
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as 0=mx+c−y.
Most line and curve drawing methods effectively hunt along
a pixel at a time, steering left or right as needed to find a trail
of pixels to be drawn, by calculating which next pixel will keep
the relevant function closest to zero.
JJ II Most line or curve drawing methods do their hunt for pixels
J I using only integer calculations.
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
The time taken to draw a line or curve increases mainly in
proportion to the number of pixels to be drawn.
Circular and elliptical arcs take longer to draw than straight
lines.
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Some curves take longer than circles.

5.1.3. 2D Area Drawing

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Filled area drawings are of two main types:

1. Areas defined by polygon boundaries: broadly sim-
ilar considerations apply to line drawing, with the added
complication of defining what counts as the inside of the
boundary.
JJ II 2. Flood fill, where the boundary to be filled is bounded
J I by a pixel colour criterion. This tends to be used only in
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
systems for purely 2D graphics painting or photographic
image manipulation.
The time taken to draw a filled area increases mainly in propor-
tion to the number of pixels to be drawn but also in proportion
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to the length of its boundary, which becomes more relevant as

the area becomes thinner .
Variants on area drawing which give variable colour or map
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a texture into the area typically take longer.

5.1.4. Text:
2D scan conversion of Text uses either of the following methods:
1. raster fonts,
JJ II 2. line drawing, or
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
Raster fonts are already scan-converted; each character is quickly
painted in place by a raster-op. This way of drawing text does
not cater for sloping text or text which gradually changes size.
Line-drawn fonts are mainly used in Computer Aided Design,
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emulating prior manual practice.

Area-drawn fonts are more general but slower and are more
appropriate in typesetting, especially with large font sizes, in
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artwork, and in 3D graphics where text may be mapped to arbi-

trary surfaces. Some typesetting systems such as LATEX may use
scalable fonts defined as area drawings, but at run-time create
raster fonts in the sizes required, for more efficiency with longer
documents.
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
5.1.5. Aliasing in 2D Drawing
Simply choosing some pixels to draw often results in the familiar
’jaggies’. This is a form of aliasing. Aliasing in computing gener-
ally is substitution of something (e.g. some pixels) for something
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else (e.g. an ideal area to draw).In computer graphics, aliasing

denotes distortion or noise in images due to approximation.
Three main forms of aliasing:
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1. Outline aliasing
2. Motion aliasing
3. Color aliasing

• Outline aliasing:
JJ II Outline aliasing refers to the unintended jagged appearance of
J I lines, curves or area boundaries.
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
This can be overcome using ’antialiasing’ methods
• These provide smoothness at the cost of slight blurring,
by altering pixel colours in proportion to how well they
match the ideal area to be drawn.
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• Scan-conversion using such methods is relatively slow.

• Motion aliasing:
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The use of integers in scan-conversion methods is usually taken

to the logical extreme of eliminating any use of floating point
numbers, thus using only integer pixel coordinates as parameters
of the method.
This often results in motion aliasing, This is most noticeable
JJ II when using 2D scan conversion in 3D rendering.
J I A different kind of motion aliasing can come from irregularity
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
in the timing of repainting of successive frames.

• Colour aliasing:
Colour aliasing is due to colour approximation in pseudo-colour
displays.
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This creates distinct colour bands where there should be

smoothly graduated colour.
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Moreover these colour bands tend to look darker near lighter

bands and vice versa, giving a misleading impression of colour.

5.1.6. Line Drawing algorithms:

The screen of a computer is a rectangular grade of pixels.
The computer produces images on raster devices only by
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turning the approximate pixels ON or OFF.
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
To draw a line on the screen, we first need to determine which
pixels are to be switched ON.
The process of determining which combination of pixels pro-
vide the best approximation to the desired line is called rasteri-
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zation.
When rasterization is combined with rendering of a picture
in a scan-line order, then it is known as scan-conversion.
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The choice of the pixels is determined by the orientation of

the line which is to be drawn:
There is little difficulty for straight line.
For other orientation of lines, selection of pixel is a difficult
process.
JJ II There are four general requirements for line drawing:
J I 1. Lines must appear to be straight
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
2. Lines should start and end accurately
3. Lines should have constant brightness along their length
4. Lines should be drawn rapidly.
For straight lines, the equation of a straight line is used to de-
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termine the pixels:

• y = mx + c
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Where: M = (y2–y1)/(x2 − x1)

Several algorithms:
1. The DDA algorithm
2. The bresenham’s line drawing algorithm
3. The general breesenham’s algorithm
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4. The bresenham’s circle generation algorithm.
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
Revision Questions

Example . Outline any four line drawing algorithms. Discuss

any of the two
Solution:
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• The DDA algorithm

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• The bresenham’s line drawing algorithm

• The general breesenham’s algorithm
• The bresenham’s circle generation algorithm


Exercise 1.  Briefly state the three 2D affine forms of trans-

JJ II formation
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 ICS 2311 Computer Graphics
Solutions to Exercises
Exercise 1.

• Scaling: Scaling involves multiplying the object coordinates

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by a scalar. Scalar multiplies all coordinates. Objects grow and

move! Uniform scaling orNon-uniform scaling
• Rotation: Rotates all coordinates by a specified angle.
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Points are always rotated about the origin.

• Translation: Simply moves an object from one position to
another.
Exercise 1

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