Style and Content in Digital Imaging: Reconciling Aesthetics with Efficiency in Image Representation

Graphic design draws a fundamental distinctionbetween style and content, as in font and text. Applying the same principle to digital photography, this work proposes a novel image representation thatseparates the specification of rendering style fromthe description of informative content, enablingstyle and content to be saved, changed and reusedindependently. From the abstract to the figurative, this technique represents images at progressivelevels of detail. It also supports interactive styledesign using genetic programming. As every image hasa grain, there is always a resolution where stylizeddepiction must take the place of exact reproduction. Intentional stylization enables visual artifacts toplay a constructive role in visual communication bymaking abstraction and simplification appearlegitimate. Painterly rendering styles that encouragethe viewer`s imagination to complete the picture canact as a powerful form of image compression. Based onUniversity of Cambridge research, this book presentsstudents, researchers, and practitioners of imageprocessing and computer graphics with a newperspective on representation, compression, andstylization in digital imaging.