File sizes ascending. How is information measured and how do you determine the size of a file or folder? Bit and byte are the minimum units of information.
To measure length there are units such as millimeter, centimeter, meter, kilometer. It is known that mass is measured in grams, kilograms, centners and tons. The passage of time is expressed in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, centuries. The computer works with information and there are also corresponding units of measurement to measure its volume.
Bit and byte are the minimum units of information.
We already know that the computer perceives all information.
Bit is the minimum unit of measurement of information corresponding to one binary digit (“0” or “1”).
A bit is only 0 (“zero”) or only 1 (“one”). Using one bit, you can write two states: 0 (zero) or 1 (one). A bit is the minimum memory cell; it cannot be smaller. This cell can store either a zero or a one.
Byte consists of eight bits. Using one byte, you can encode one character out of 256 possible (256 = 2 8). Thus, one byte is equal to one character, that is, 8 bits:
1 character = 8 bits = 1 byte.
A letter, number, punctuation mark are symbols. One letter - one symbol. One number is also one symbol. One punctuation mark (either a period, a comma, a question mark, etc.) is again one character. One space is also one character.
In addition to the bit and byte, of course, there are other, larger units of information.
Byte table:
1 byte = 8 bits
1 KB (1 Kilobyte) = 2 10 bytes = 2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2 bytes =
= 1024 bytes (approximately 1 thousand bytes – 10 3 bytes)
1 MB (1 Megabyte) = 2 20 bytes = 1024 kilobytes (approximately 1 million bytes - 10 6 bytes)
1 GB (1 Gigabyte) = 2 30 bytes = 1024 megabytes (approximately 1 billion bytes - 10 9 bytes)
1 TB (1 Terabyte) = 2 40 bytes = 1024 gigabytes (approximately 10 12 bytes). Terabyte is sometimes called ton.
1 Pb (1 Petabyte) = 2 50 bytes = 1024 terabytes (approximately 10 15 bytes).
1 Exabyte= 2 60 bytes = 1024 petabytes (approximately 10 18 bytes).
1 Zettabyte= 2 70 bytes = 1024 exabytes (approximately 10 21 bytes).
1 Yottabyte= 2 80 bytes = 1024 zettabytes (approximately 10 24 bytes).
In the table above, powers of two (2 10, 2 20, 2 30, etc.) are the exact values of kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes. But the powers of the number 10 (more precisely, 10 3, 10 6, 10 9, etc.) will already be approximate values, rounded down. So 2 10 = 1024 bytes represents the exact value of a kilobyte, and 10 3 = 1000 bytes is the approximate value of a kilobyte.
Such an approximation (or rounding) is quite acceptable and is generally accepted.
Below is a table of bytes with English abbreviations (in the left column):
1 Kb ~ 10 3 b = 10*10*10 b= 1000 b – kilobyte
1 Mb ~ 10 6 b = 10*10*10*10*10*10 b = 1,000,000 b – megabyte
1 Gb ~ 10 9 b – gigabyte
1 Tb ~ 10 12 b – terabyte
1 Pb ~ 10 15 b – petabyte
1 Eb ~ 10 18 b – exabyte
1 Zb ~ 10 21 b – zettabyte
1 Yb ~ 10 24 b – yottabyte
Above in the right column are the so-called “decimal prefixes”, which are used not only with bytes, but also in other areas of human activity. For example, the prefix “kilo” in the word “kilobyte” means a thousand bytes. In the case of a kilometer, it corresponds to a thousand meters, and in the example of a kilogram, it is equal to a thousand grams.
To be continued…
The question arises: is there a continuation of the byte table? In mathematics there is a concept of infinity, which is symbolized as an inverted figure eight: ∞.
It is clear that in the byte table you can continue to add zeros, or rather, powers to the number 10 in this way: 10 27, 10 30, 10 33 and so on ad infinitum. But why is this necessary? In principle, terabytes and petabytes are enough for now. In the future, perhaps even a yottabyte will not be enough.
Finally, a couple of examples of devices that can store terabytes and gigabytes of information.
There is a convenient “terabyte” - an external hard drive that connects via a USB port to the computer. You can store a terabyte of information on it. It is especially convenient for laptops (where changing the hard drive can be problematic) and for backing up information. It is better to back up information in advance, rather than after everything is lost.
Flash drives come in 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and even 1 terabyte.
The NMD provides a similar capability to the NML for sequential access to information. A magnetic disk drive combines several sequential access devices, and the reduction in data search time is ensured by the independence of access to a record from its location relative to other records.
The design of NMD is more complex than that of NML, and therefore their cost is higher. In NMD, a package of magnetic disks (or plotters) mounted on one rod, around which they rotate at a constant speed, is used as data storage media. The surface of a magnetic disk covered with a ferromagnetic layer is called working.
The first such devices were equipped with replaceable MD packages. Inserted into a casing with a hermetically sealed tray, they formed compact storage units called volumes. The most common volume capacities were 7.25, 29.100 MB. The operator placed the package on the spindle of the device, removed the casing (in this case, the package was automatically fixed on the spindle) and turned on the package unwinding motors. After reaching a certain rotation speed, a block of magnetic heads (“combs”) is inserted into the space between the disks.
The principle of placement of the heads is floating, since they are held at the required distance from the surface of the disk by diverging air flows that arise when the package rotates. Subsequently, either full-contact heads (flexible disks) or mechanically fixed heads in a vacuum at a certain distance from the surface (“hard drive”) were mainly used. Attempts to use liquid media (various oils) to ensure the required placement of the heads were unsuccessful.
The number of magnetic heads is equal to the number of working surfaces on one package of disks. If the package consists of 11 disks, then the access mechanism consists of 10 holders with two magnetic heads on each of them. The set of tracks that can be accessed when the block is in a fixed position is called a cylinder. The magnetic head holders are combined into a single block in such a way as to ensure their synchronous movement along all cylinders. By fixing the access mechanism block on any of the cylinders, you can make a transition from one track to another of a given cylinder by electronically switching the heads.
Any operation of reading (writing) information from (to) a magnetic disk consists of three stages. At the first stage, the magnetic head is mechanically brought to the track containing the required data. The second stage involves waiting until the required recording is in the area of the magnetic head. At the third stage, the actual process of information exchange between the computer and the magnetic disk is carried out. Thus, the total time spent on a write-read operation consists of the sum of the times of searching for the corresponding track, waiting for the record to arrive (the so-called rotational delay time) and exchange with the computer. The maximum value of the rotational lag time is equal to the time during which a complete revolution of the magnetic disk is made.
There are several ways to physically store data on your hard drive. Conventional hard drives use a "vertical" display. Data is written first on one cylinder from top to bottom, then the heads move to another cylinder, and so on. With "horizontal" display, data is first written sequentially from cylinder to cylinder on the surface of one disk, then also on the surface of the next plotter, and so on. This method is better suited for recording a continuous high-speed data stream, for example when recording "live" video.
The mechanism is hermetically sealed in a case with a partial vacuum inside. This design is often referred to as a main disk unit (HDA). The environment inside the hard drive must be free of dust; for this, the air entering the HDA is passed through special filters. The motor, which spins the disk at a constant speed, measured in revolutions per minute (rpm), turns on when power is applied to the disk and remains on until power is removed.
There is space between the plates for a read/write head mounted on the end of a moving arm. The head is removed from the plate by a fraction of a millimeter. In the first systems this distance was 0.2 millimeters, today it has been reduced to 0.07 millimeters. Therefore, the slightest contamination can destroy the head, bringing it closer to the disk, and also damage the magnetic coating of the disk.
The heads are designed to only touch the drive after it stops when the power is turned off. As the rotation speed decreases, the air flow weakens and, when it stops completely, the head gently touches the surface of the disk. The touch point is called the LZ (land zone), which is specifically designed for touching the head and does not contain data.
When a disk is physically formatted, it is divided into sectors and tracks. Physically, the tracks are located on top of each other and form cylinders, which are then divided into sectors. There are 512 bytes in one sector. A sector is the smallest unit of measurement for disk size. All hard drives have spare sectors that are used by its management circuitry if bad sectors are detected on the drive.
Theoretically, the outer cylinders can hold more data because they have a larger circumference. However, in drives that do not use the zone recording method, all cylinders contain the same amount of data, even though the circumference of the outer cylinders may be twice that of the inner ones. As a result, external track space is wasted because it is used extremely inefficiently.
The process of controlling recording density is called precompensation. To compensate for different recording densities, the Zone Bit Recording method is used, where the entire disk space is divided into zones (eight or more), each of which usually includes from 20 to 30 cylinders with the same number of sectors.
In the zone located on the outer radius (low zone), a larger number of sectors are recorded per track (120-96). Toward the center of the disk, the number of sectors decreases and in the oldest zone reaches 64-56. At the same time, the capacity of hard drives can be increased by approximately 30%.
As the recording density on a disk increases, difficulties arise in detecting peaks in analog signals coming from magnetic heads. Recently, to eliminate this drawback, the PRLM (Partial Response Maximum Likelihood) method has been used, which uses a special algorithm for digital filtering of the input signal.
The standard capacity of a DVD disc is 4.7 GB. There are also double-sided DVDs. This means that the recording can be on both sides - one and the other. These drives have a capacity of 9.4 GB. Dual-layer discs also exist, but they are less common. These disks have the following volumes: 1-sided 2-layer - 8.5 GB; 2-sided 2-layer - 17.1 GB.
How to find out the size of a file or folder
To find out the size of a file or folder with files, hover the cursor (arrow) over it and hold for a few seconds. A small window will appear with the characteristics of the file or folder. As you can see in the picture, this specification shows the size:
If nothing appears when you hover over a file or folder, then right-click on that file or folder. From the list that opens, select “Properties”. A window will open indicating the size of this file or folder.
Now let’s practice determining the size:
Problem:
We have a file of 30 MB in size. Can we burn it to disk? 1GB flash drive?
Solution:
A CD holds 700 MB. Our file is 30 MB in size. 700 MB is more than 30 MB. Conclusion: the file will fit on a CD.
A DVD disc holds 4.7 GB. One Gigabyte equals 1024 Megabytes. That is, one DVD disc holds about 5000 MB. And 5000 MB is much more than 30 MB. Conclusion: our file will fit on a DVD disc.
We were given a 1 GB flash drive. One GB contains 1024 MB. 1024 is more than 30. Conclusion: the file will fit on a 1 GB flash drive.
You've probably heard such expressions as "my toy weighs too much", "light file", heavy folder." Is it really possible to weigh folders and files? And in what units are they then weighed? Yes, as strange as it may sound, files and folders also have their own weight, or more correctly, volume. If they weighed nothing, then we wouldn't need hard drives and free up space for other information.
What is file and folder size
Even information can be measured. For this purpose, computer terminology has its own units of measurement: bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and so on. All computer information is recorded using 0 (zero) and 1 (one). Zero and one in computer language are 1 bit. A group of eight bits is called a byte. Read more.
Basic units of information storage:
1 byte= 8 bits
1 Kilobyte(KB) = 1024 bytes
1 Megabyte(MB) = 1024 kilobytes
Since the computer operates in a binary system (1 and 0), it is much more convenient for it to split information this way. The number 1024 is a kilobyte, and one kilobyte in the binary number system is 2 10 = 1024. We use the decimal number system, so it’s not customary to operate with such numbers.
Any file (graphics, music, video, etc.) has its own size. All information on a computer is recorded on a hard drive, which has a certain capacity. Computer memory is also measured in these units.
Any storage medium, such as a hard drive, floppy disk, flash drive, memory card and CD/DVD disks, has its own capacity, more than which you cannot write to it.
How to find out how much a file or folder weighs
In order to find out how much a file or folder weighs, you need to hover the cursor over the file (or folder) and wait a couple of seconds until a window with information pops up.
If the folder or file is too large, then in this way you will not find out information about its size. In this case, you need to right-click on the folder or file and select from the drop-down menu Properties(at the very bottom), and see the size in a new window on the tab General.
If we talk about information in general, it is measured in BYTES. Measurement in these units began back in 1956. Then this value was quite enough. To make it clearer what value we are talking about, I will tell you that 1 byte = 1 character. With the development of technology, the volume of information has also increased, and measuring a large amount of information in BYTES has become inconvenient. Then the prefixes KILO-BYTE (KB), MEGA-BYTE (MB), GIGA-BYTE (GB), TERA-BYTE (TB), etc. appeared.
To understand how large or small these values are, I will give the following comparison:
- 1KB (one kilobyte) = 1024 bytes, and this is the amount of information approximately equal to one printed sheet of A4 format;
1MB (one megabyte) = 1024 kilobytes, and this is the amount of information already in a decent volume of 600-700 pages!
1GB (one gigabyte) = 1024 megabytes, and this is already a whole library of 1024 books of 600 pages each!
1TB (one terabyte) = 1024 gigabytes, this amount of information is comparable to the average European library, which contains about 8 million books. For example, the Russian State Library contains about 43 million items.
Now let’s compare the volume and type of information regarding the media on which this information can be recorded.
Floppy disk with a capacity of 1.44 MB. Once upon a time, the floppy disk was the main accessible medium of digital information, because... You could really record a lot of things on it. Now, floppy disks are mainly used by accountants to store electronic keys and signatures. The reason is trivial - there is not enough space on a floppy disk to store modern information. You can record one or two photographs taken on a mobile phone with a 3 megapixel camera on a floppy disk; five, ten Word, Excel documents.
Flash drive with a capacity of 1GB. The most convenient information carrier at the moment. I took the capacity of the flash drive to 1GB to multiply the count, but in general, at the time of writing, there are also 64GB flash drives!
What can be recorded on a 1GB flash drive: one movie, of relatively good quality; about 200 music files in .mp3 format; about 200 good quality photographs; many documents and small programs.
CD disk with a capacity of 700MB. You can burn onto a CD: one movie in .avi format, in relatively good quality; about 150 music files in .mp3 format; about 150 good quality photographs; many documents and small programs.
DVD disc with a capacity of 4.7GB. You can burn onto a DVD disc: one movie in DVD or HDTV format; 4-5 films in .avi format of good quality; about 1200 music files in .mp3 format; about 1000 good quality photographs; sooooo many documents and programs.
Winchester with a capacity of 120GB. Here, in order not to write about the documents, I’ll compare it with the number of films that can be recorded on such a hard drive. So, on a 120 GB hard drive you can record 25 movies in DVD or HDTV quality!
Now let's figure out one by one how to determine the size of a disk, file or folder.
In Windows, you can determine the size of a file, folder, or disk in Explorer. You can launch “Explorer” by double-clicking with the LEFT mouse button on the “My Computer” shortcut on the desktop or using the “Win + E” key combination.
If you, for example, want to find out how much free space is left on a disk, in particular on a flash drive, then RIGHT-click on the image of the removable disk, usually it is labeled “Removable disk (F:)” or “Name of flash drive (F:) ", as in the picture:
So, right-click on the image of the removable disk - flash drive and select the “Properties” item in the menu that opens, at the very bottom. After this a window opens:
Here you can see how much is occupied (highlighted in blue), how much is free (highlighted in pink) and how much space is on the disk.
Thus, you can find out the remaining free space not only on a flash drive, but also on any removable or logical drive of a hard drive.
The scheme for determining the size of a file or folder is the same as with a disk. Those. Find the desired file or folder on the disk, click on it with the RIGHT mouse button and see “Properties”.
All the necessary information will be there.
If you want to find out the size of a group of files or folders, then you need to select them and do the same operations, i.e. RIGHT-click on one of the selected files or folders, select “Properties” and view the size.
Yes, the second part of the lesson does not quite fall under the “Computer Basics” heading, but nevertheless. If you have any questions, you can always ask them in the comments.
You probably often see a signature on websites indicating the file size. No one signs this indicator themselves. This issue can be solved by writing a function in PHP. As a result, it will output a line like:
File size: 2.3 MB
It is very convenient when downloading any materials from the site. So let's get started.
Create a PHP function that determines the file size
The function will be quite simple and straightforward. Uses three built-in functions:file_exists- checking for the presence of the specified file or directory.
filesize- determine the file size. Returns the result in bytes. If the file is larger than 2 GB, then, depending on the server, it may display incorrect results.
round- a built-in function that shortens the output value to an integer and one tenth after the period separator.
The function checks for the presence of the file itself, then successively tries to determine how large the file size is - if it is more than 1024 bytes, then the result should be output in MB, if it is more than 1024 MB, then it should be output in GB. And at the end of each step, the built-in round function rounds the result from many digits to a whole value and one tenth with a separator.
Now let's create a function file. It is customary to keep such files in a separate folder. For example function.
PHP code(file function.php)
// function arguments will be the path to the file
function get_filesize($file)
{
// go to file
if(!file_exists($file)) return "File not found";
// now we determine the file size in several steps
$filesize = filesize($file);
// If the size is greater than 1 KB
if($filesize > 1024)
{
// If the file size is greater than Kilobyte
// it is better to display it in Megabytes. Convert to MB
if($filesize > 1024)
{
// And if the file is more than 1 Megabyte, then we check
// Is it larger than 1 Gigabyte
if($filesize > 1024)
{
$filesize = ($filesize/1024);
Return $filesize." GB";
}
else
{
return $filesize." MB";
}
}
else
{
$filesize = round($filesize, 1);
return $filesize." Kb";
}
}
else
{
$filesize = round($filesize, 1);
return $filesize." byte";
}
}
?>
We created the function. All that remains is to apply it.
PHP code
include_once "function/function.php"; // include the file with the function
// insert a path or a variable with a path for processing by the function
$size = get_filesize("images/photo.jpg");
echo "File size: ".$size.""; // output the result with size
?>
Everything is ready! Enjoy it for your health!
Thank you for your attention! And good luck with your work!
I propose to consider what kind of animals these are - JPG and RAW photo formats, what they affect and when you should pay attention to them. What is photo size and file weight, how are they measured and what do they depend on.
Almost all photo cameras can save photos in JPG format (even phone and tablet cameras). In all SLR and non-SLR cameras, as well as in advanced compacts, in addition to JPG, there is at least RAW and RAW+, and sometimes TIFF.
To understand the formats, you first need to agree on what is meant by the concepts of “size” of a photograph and “weight” of a file (photo). I propose to consider these concepts on more tangible objects... for example, on goodies.
1 | What is a pixel:
The size of objects is measured in meters, the size of photographs is measured in pixels (px). If you measure the size of this bowl of berries, it will be about 10 centimeters in height and about 13 centimeters in width... approximately. That is, we are used to measuring objects in centimeters (meters, kilometers, and so on). If we talk about the photo of the same vase, then the original size of the photo is 7360 pixels (px) wide by 4912 pixels (px) high. This is the maximum photo size that my Nikon camera is capable of. To post this photo on the website, the photo size was reduced to 1200px by 798px (I’ll tell you why a little later).
What is a pixel? Taken with digital cameras or digitized on a scanner, photographs are a combination of tiny colored squares - pixels. If you zoom in on any photo, you will see these pixels. The more such pixels in a photo, the more detailed the picture.
A photo fragment enlarged a thousand times - pixel squares are visible. 2 | Is it possible to convert pixels to centimeters:
This is exactly what happens when you need to print photos on paper. Here you will need one more indicator - the pixel density (resolution) that the printer (or other machine for printing photos) can print. The printing standard for photographs is 300 dpi (dots per inch). For example, for printing in beautiful glossy magazines, photos with a resolution of 300 dpi are used.
So that you don’t rack your brains over dividing the photo size by the resolution and converting inches into centimeters, any program for viewing and editing photos (for example, Photoshop) has a function for viewing the photo image size in centimeters. You will need it to understand the maximum size of a photo in good quality (with a resolution of 300 dpi) you can print on paper or other tangible media.
For example, this photo with tropical Frangispani flowers can be printed in size 61 cm by 32 cm.
Photo size in pixels and centimeters in Photoshop To find out the photo size in pixels and centimeters in Photoshop, you need to press the key combination Alt+Ctrl+I or go to the Image menu Image size.
Let's return to the reality of digital photos - to pixels and photo sizes in pixels. What happens if you reduce the number of pixels in a photo? The answer is that the quality of the photo will deteriorate. For example, I took a photo of the same bowl of berries at the beginning of the article and reduced the photo size to 150 pixels wide. With this reduction, the program destroys some of the pixels. The photo has become miniature:
Now let’s try to “stretch” the photo across the entire page:
A stretched picture looks cloudy and fuzzy As you can see, the detail is no longer the same, since some of the pixels (and with them the details) are missing.
Of course, if you use this reduced image as a small icon or a small image in a Power Point presentation, it will look quite normal, but it is clearly not suitable for printing in a half-page magazine.
3 | What photo size (how many pixels) is optimal:
If you plan to someday print photos, then save photos in the highest possible resolution, which your camera will only allow (carefully read the instructions for your camera to correctly adjust the photo size).
In some cases, you need to reduce the size of photos. As I wrote above, for the site I reduce the photo size to 1200 pixels on the long side. If you upload a photo in full size, the site pages will take a very long time to load, and many visitors may not like this (not to mention the Google and Yandex search engines).
Photo sizes are measured in pixels (px). The number of pixels determines the size of the photo on monitor screens, and what size the photo can be printed.
4 | File size or "photo weight":
Now let's look at the “weight of the photograph”. Historically, there has been a lot of confusion on this issue and the file size is quite often called the “weight of the photo,” which is more convenient than correct. File sizes are measured in megabytes (MB) or kilobytes (KB). And here it’s worth remembering that, unlike kilograms, where 1 kg = 1000g, 1 megabyte = 1024 kilobytes.
How this looks in practice: imagine the situation that your camera has a memory card that says 64GB (gigabytes). If you look at exactly how many bytes there are (right-click on “properties” on your computer), it turns out that there are 63567953920 bytes on this memory card and this is equal to 59.2 GB. How large the files your camera produces will determine how many photos will fit on that memory card. For example, I can fit 830 photo files in RAW format (read about formats below).
What determines the file size:
- Firstly, on the size of the photo (what is measured in pixels): the file with the first photo of berries (photo size 7360x4912 px) is 5.2 MB, and it, reduced to 150 px, will “weigh” 75.7 KB (in 69 times less).
- Secondly, on the format (JPG, TIFF, RAW), which you can read about below.
- Thirdly, the file size (or “photo weight”) depends on the number of details: the more there are, the “heavier” the photo (which is most relevant for the JPG format).
Many details - more weight of the photo For example, in this photograph with monkeys from Sri Lanka there are many small, clear (in the language of photographers, “sharp”) details and the file size of this photograph is 19.7MB, which is significantly larger than berries in a vase on a white background (5.2MB).
If you ask what size photo can I print from a photo that weighs 2MB. No one can answer you until they know the number of pixels. And it’s better, of course, to also look at the photo, since some craftsmen like to get a photo from the depths of the Internet, increase the number of pixels programmatically, and then want to print it on the cover of a magazine. It turns out as in the example above with a stretched photo of a vase 150 px wide.
File size (often called "photo weight") is measured in megabytes (MB) or kilobytes (KB) and depends on the format, pixel size, and detail of the photo.
5 | Photo formats:
And finally, we come to the issue of image formats and type of file compression, which also determine the size of the photo file.
Almost all photo cameras can save photos to JPG format(even cameras on phones and tablets). This is the most common image format and is “understood” by all computers and image viewing programs. In JPG format, photos can be uploaded to social networks, posted on a blog, added to Word, Power Point files, and so on. JPG can be processed in Photoshop, Lightroom and other image editing programs.
From my practice: if I want to take a photo for a social network and quickly upload it, then I either take a photo with my phone or set the file format to jpg in my camera.
Something to remember about the jpg format is that it is a compressed format and has compression levels. The higher the compression ratio, the smaller the file size due to the reduction in detail and quality of the photo. Therefore, it is not recommended to repeatedly edit and resave (re-compress) the same photos in jpg format.
When saving a file in jpg format, the compression level is selected (example from Photoshop). In all SLR and non-SLR cameras, as well as in advanced compacts, in addition to JPG, there is at least RAW, and often also TIFF.
A little theory:
- TIFF(English Tagged Image File Format) - a format for storing raster graphic images (including photographs). TIFF has become a popular format for storing images with high color depth. It is used in printing and is widely supported by graphics applications.
- RAW(English raw - raw, unprocessed) - a digital photography format containing raw data obtained from a photo matrix (the thing that replaced film in digital cameras).
Personally, I never shoot in TIFF format. I can’t even think of why I need this if there is RAW. I can use TIFF without compression to save photos that I still plan to modify in Photoshop.
6 | Advantages and disadvantages of the RAW format:
My camera is almost always in RAW format, since I plan to process (edit) photos in Lightroom or Photoshop. RAW has a number of significant disadvantages:
- There is no way to view files without first converting them. That is, to view photos in RAW format you need a special program that supports this image format.
- Larger file size than when saving in JPEG (with my Nikon D800 camera, the file size with a photo in RAW format is 74-77 MB). This means that fewer photos will fit on the flash drive.
- RAW cannot be uploaded to social networks, blogs, and sometimes even sent by mail. First, RAW needs to be converted to a RAW converter (for example, Adobe Camera Raw) that supports the file type from your camera model.
Why do professional photographers often prefer RAW over JPG? Because RAW:
Save this article as a keepsake on Pinterest - provides more options for image correction: white balance, contrast, saturation, brightness and noise level,
- allow you to further correct images without the appearance of defects,
- allows fine correction of lens imperfections (vignetting, chromatic aberration).
So, if you plan to carefully process your photos in Photoshop or Lightroom, sensitively feeling “artifacts” and halftones, “overexposures” and “dips” in the shadows, then shoot in RAW. Just remember that to get a good result, you will need to understand the settings and operation of RAW converters. Think about whether you need this headache? Maybe you should shoot in JPG and spend more time relaxing and not on the computer?
It is very important to be able to correctly analyze data on your computer. Perhaps some will ask, why do we need this? The ability to correctly analyze is an important skill, with the help of which you can anticipate errors and correctly distribute the resources of your computer, this mainly concerns memory, of course.
Most users simply bring home disks or flash drives and start copying them entirely onto their computer without even thinking for a moment that your computer also has a limit. There is a certain amount of memory for data.
Just ask yourself a question, so honestly, when you copy information from a flash drive that you just received from friends, do you often check the weight of the information on it?
And I know your answer, I often do repairs, or rather restore the functionality of programs. And after analyzing the computer that I came to fix, I see that every second person has an information mess. I immediately understand that the person knows nothing about working properly on a PC.
Let me give you an example: the computer has 200 units of memory (gigabytes), of which 198 gigabytes are already filled, and a person calls me and says: Ivan, something happened to our computer again, please come and take a look. I arrive and see that there are only 2 units (gigabytes) of free space left, and sometimes even less, and the user wants to throw off a disk with movies that weighs, for example, 4 units (gigabytes). What does this mean? RIGHT. A person does not understand that the computer no longer has free space, it physically does not have enough memory, and no matter how much they kick it, it will not copy data that exceeds its capabilities. No matter how much their children cry, the new toy will not install and the fault is not with the sellers who sold you this defective disc, but with your ignorance of the basics.
Let's say you have a 12-liter bucket, you went to the well for water and filled the bucket full, which turned out to be 12 liters of water and you don’t give it any importance, don’t try to pour another two liters of water into it from above - this is physically impossible . It’s the same with computer memory; you cannot record more than is technically possible.
Let’s experiment further with the song, you can work on absolutely any file, the scheme is always the same, we find the file we are interested in on the computer, if you want to reset information from the flash drive, then we look for the file on the flash drive and, as always, right-click:
This time we are interested in the property line, click on it with the left mouse button.
In the first paragraph we can see the file type, this will help us understand what it is - sound, video, text document or program. A few examples below.
In the second paragraph we see the location and volume of our file or folder, program or game. For us, this is the most important section; this is what you need to look at when copying or transferring data in order to decide in time whether there is enough space on the computer to record this object or not. And maybe not in Russian...
The location column is the address of the file, the very place where it is located. Looking at the properties, I see that this is a sound file called “oh my god what a man”, and it is located on the local drive “D” in the music folder (we will talk about what a local drive is in the next lesson). That is, I have already analyzed the properties that this is a sound file, most likely a song, and I know where it is on my computer. Moving on, the file size, as I already said, is the most important thing.
So, let's move on to studying computer units of measurement. There are a lot of them, but don’t be alarmed, as I already said, we’ll leave just a few at the end, and you’ll just read the rest for general information.
A bit is the smallest unit of measurement, followed by:
1 Byte – 8 bits
1 Kilobyte (KB) – 1024 bytes.
1 Megabyte (MB) – 1024 kilobytes.
1 Gigabyte (GB) – 1024 megabytes.
1 Terabyte (TB) – 1024 gigabytes.
There are still huge units of information measurement, but I think you won’t come across them soon.
And I immediately recommend to my readers to present information in a generally accepted form, it’s much easier.
1 Kilobyte (KB) – 1000 bytes.
1 Megabyte (MB) – 1000 kilobytes.
1 Gigabyte (GB) – 1000 megabytes.
1 Terabyte (TB) – 1000 gigabytes.
And for example, we have a 200 GB computer, one gigabyte is 1000 MB, which means the memory of our PC is approximately 200 GB * 1000 MB = 200,000 MB.
If the total memory is 200,000 MB, and one song weighs 8 MB, approximately 200,000/8 = 25,000 songs can be recorded on the computer. This is more than enough.
I think you have learned how to determine the size of files. In the next article, we will learn how to determine the total memory of a computer, how much memory is already occupied and how much is still free.
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In this article, I wanted to introduce my readers to the concept file/folder size, or even a program (considering that a program is a set of folders and files).
Any file or folder with files takes up a certain amount of memory on local disks. That is, all files and folders have volume, in other words, weight or size.
Since school, we have known concepts such as grams and kilograms, meters and kilometers. The computer world also has its own units of measurement. They measure files and folders. Based on the “slang” of advanced users, we will determine how much a particular file or folder “weighs”. The main units of measurement are: bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and terabytes.
1 KB = 1024 bytes
1 MB = 1024 KB
1 GB = 1024 MB
Let's decipher:
There are 1024 bytes in one KB (kilobyte).
One MB (megabyte) contains 1024 KB (kilobytes).
One GB (gigabyte) contains 1024 MB (megabytes).
How to find out file or folder size?
To find out the size of a file or folder with files, hover the cursor over the file or folder and hold for a few seconds. A small window will appear with characteristics of the file or folder, one of the parameters is size.
If nothing appears when you hover over a file or folder, then right-click on that file or folder. From the context menu that opens, select “Properties”.
A window will open indicating the size of this file or folder.
Why do we need to know the sizes?! For example, in order to determine whether we can write a file or folder to a disk (floppy disk, flash drive) or how much space is left on local disks.
In order for us to determine this, we need to know how much information fits on a disk (floppy disk, flash drive):
- Floppy disk - 1.44 MB (suitable for writing text files)
- CD disk - 700 MB (suitable for recording music, small videos and programs)
- DVD disc - from 4 GB (suitable for recording anything). The standard capacity of a DVD disc is 4.7 GB. There are also double-sided DVDs. This means that the recording can be on both sides - one and the other. These drives have a capacity of 9.4 GB. Dual-layer discs also exist, but they are less common. These disks have the following volumes: 1-sided 2-layer - 8.5 GB; 2-sided 2-layer - 17.1 GB.
- Flash drives - from 1GB (suitable for recording anything)
That's all I wanted to talk about in this article.