In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artefact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. Images may be two-dimensional (e.g. a photograph) or three dimensional (e.g. a statue). They are typically produced by optical devices—such as a cameras, mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, etc. and natural objects and phenomena, such as the human eye or water surfaces.
The word image is also used in the broader sense of any two-dimensional figure or illustration, e.g. a map, a graph, a pie chart, an abstract painting, etc. In this wider sense, images can also be produced manually (by drawingThis article is about the art form. Drawing also refers to a method of producing wire, bars, or tubes. Drawing is one way of making an image: it is the process of making marks on a surface by applying pressure from or moving a tool on the surface. These m, paintingThis article is about the painting of a surface for artistic reasons. Painting is also the utilitarian painting of objects and buildings, often done to provide a protective coating or for aesthetic reasons. One possible process for decorative painting of, carvingCarving can mean Rock carving Wood carving Meat carving See also Sculpture, Lapidary., etc.), by computer graphicsComputer graphics (CG) is the field of visual computing, where one utilizes computers both to generate visual images synthetically and to integrate or alter visual and spatial information sampled from the real world. The first major advance in computer gr technology, or a combination of the two (see pseudo-photographA pseudo-photograph is a image produced manually which is indistinguishable from a real photograph produced using a camera. Although the term pseudo-photograph can be applied regardless of what it depicts, in law its meaning is especially relevant regardi).
A volatile image is one that exists only for a short period of time, e.g. the reflectionThe term reflection (also spelt reflexion can refer to several different concepts: In mathematics, reflection is the transformation of a space. In physics, reflection is a wave phenomenon. In computer science, reflection is a programming language feature of an object by a mirror, a projectionThe word projection can mean more than one thing. In chemistry: Fischer projection Haworth projection Newman projection stereochemical projection In cartography, a map projection In psychology, psychological projection 3D projection, orthographic projecti of the sunThe Sun (also called Sol is the star in our solar system. Planet Earth orbits the Sun. Other bodies that orbit the Sun include other planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets and dust. Not all objects passing through the solar system have been orbitally capt on a wall by a pinhole camera, or a scene displayed on a cathode ray tube. A fixed image, also called hardcopy, is one that has been recorded on a material object, such as paper or textile.
A mental image exists in someone's mind: something one remembers or imagines. The subject of an image need not be real; it may be an abstract concept, such as a graph or function—or an imaginary entity or being.
1 Specialized meanings
The word also has many specialized meanings in various disciplines and contexts:
- In geometric optics, a lens can produce a real image or a virtual image.
- In many other scientific and technical contexts, image usually means a two-dimensional signal—a physical phenomenon that can be modeled as a function from a two-dimensional domain (such as the plane or a rectangle) to some set of values, usually real numbers or vectors. This sense covers not only digital images but also analog ones, such as photographs. See image processing.
- In computer graphics and digital image processing, the word image almost always means digital image or, by extension, any computer description of an image, e.g. a raster map, an image file, or a 2D computer graphics model. For embedding an image in a webpage, see HTML element#Images.
- In computer science the word image can also mean an exact (bit-by-bit) copy of the contents of some device, such as a hard disk, floppy disk, CD-ROM, etc.. In particular,
- In mathematics, an image of a function consist of the output values of the mathematical function.
- In finance, the image is a coefficient ( stock image) that bridges a stock's fundamental value and its market price.
- In philosophy, an image is a conception or idea.
- In religion, an image is an idol or icon.
- In social psychology an image is a representation.
- Image Comics is an American publisher of comic books.
- Body image
