Text can be represented in binary, which is the language that computers use to process information
To represent text in binary, a computer uses a character set, which is a collection of characters and the corresponding binary codes that represent them
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is a commonly used character set that assigns a unique 7-bit binary code to each character, including uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, punctuation marks, and control characters
ASCII does not support characters from languages other than English
Unicode was developed as a character encoding standard to address the limitations of ASCII, allowing for a greater range of characters and symbols, including different languages and emojis
Unicode uses a variable-length encoding scheme that assigns a unique code to each character, which can be represented in binary form using multiple bytes
Unicode requires more bits per character than ASCII, leading to larger file sizes and slower processing times when working with text-based data
Sound is an analog signal that is captured and converted into digital form to be processed by a computer
To convert sound into digital form, a process called sampling is used
Sampling involves taking measurements of the sound wave at regular intervals
These measurements are then converted into binary data
The quality of digital sound depends on the sample rate
Sample rate is the number of samples taken per second
A higher sample rate results in a more accurate representation of the original sound wave
A higher sample rate also increases the file size of the digital sound
E.g. A typical CD-quality digital sound has a sample rate of 44.1 kHz, meaning 44,100 samples are taken per second
Sample resolution is another factor that affects the quality of digital sound
Sample resolution refers to the number of bits per sample
A higher sample resolution results in a more accurate representation of the sound wave
A higher sample resolution also increases the file size of the digital sound
E.g. A CD-quality digital sound typically has a sample resolution of 16 bits, meaning each sample is represented by a 16-bit binary number
It's important to choose the appropriate sample rate and resolution based on the specific requirements of the digital sound application
A high-quality music recording may require a higher sample rate and resolution than a voice recording for a podcast
A bitmap image is made up of pixels, which are small dots of colour arranged in a grid
Each pixel can be represented by a binary code, which is processed by a computer
Resolution of an image refers to the number of pixels in the image
A higher resolution image has more pixels, making it sharper and more detailed
Higher resolution images require more storage space
Colour depth of an image refers to the number of bits used to represent each colour
A higher colour depth allows for more colours to be represented, resulting in a more realistic image
Higher colour depth requires more storage space
An 8-bit colour depth allows for 256 different colours to be represented (2^8=256)
A 24-bit colour depth allows for over 16 million different colours to be represented (2^24=16,777,216)
File size of an image increases as the resolution and colour depth increase
More pixels and colours require more binary data to represent them
Quality of an image increases as the resolution and colour depth increase
It's important to balance desired quality with practical limitations of storage space