Frequently asked questions

A selection of questions from the threads that frequently recur with some short, pithy answers

Computer graphics: Manipulating Pictures on the computer
Filing system: Loading and saving files
Computer access: Various ways of accessing the computer
Front ends: Secure front ends for the computer

Computers graphics

Computers hold pictures in two fundamental ways

as lines and blocks of colour
as bits (pixels) of different colours

Graphics made from lines and blocks of colour are called Vector graphics, for example Window Metafiles (WMF) on the PC, or Drawfiles on the Acorn. All line drawings are in this format.
Graphics consisting of colured blobs and bits are called Bitmaps. Common types are BMP (PC) and Paint (Acorn).
Other common picture graphic formats are Gif and Jpegs.

Question: How can I view a WMF, I have tried to open a WMF from a clipart CD using 'Paint' with no success

As you have found Paint cannot read WMF.
WMF (windows meta file) is a vector format graphic made from lines and blocks of colour.
Bitmaps are a graphic format made from blobs (pixels) of different colours.
There are a number of graphic packages that will read many types of graphics and allow you to change between them, Graphic Workshop and Paint Shop Pro amongst them. These can be got off cover cds from magazines or downloaded from the web. Correll Draw is usually reckoned to be the best program to edit and alter WMF (it also costs alot). Word can also read Wmf so that you could load them into that to see what they're about (as can Powerpoint) but it doesn't allow you to edit them.
More information about graphic formats