Style and Content in Digital Imaging

Graphic design draws a fundamental distinction between styleand content, as in font and text. Applying the same principle todigital photography, this work proposes a novel imagerepresentation that separates the specification of rendering stylefrom the description of informative content, enabling style andcontent to be saved, changed and reused independently. From theabstract to the figurative, this technique represents images atprogressive levels of detail. It also supports interactive styledesign using genetic programming. As every image has a grain, thereis always a resolution where stylized depiction must take the placeof exact reproduction. Intentional stylization enables visualartifacts to play a constructive role in visual communication bymaking abstraction and simplification appear legitimate. Painterlyrendering styles that encourage the viewer`s imagination tocomplete the picture can act as a powerful form of imagecompression. Based on University of Cambridge research, this bookpresents students, researchers, and practitioners of imageprocessing and computer graphics with a new perspective onrepresentation, compression, and stylization in digitalimaging.