• 1. Internet Techniques and Web Formats
  • 1.1. Internet
  • 1.2. World Wide Web
  • 1.3. Browser, Plugins and Applets
  • 1.4. Client-Server-Model
  • 1.5. Web Graphics Formats
  • 1.6. Self Assessment
  • 1.7. Summary
  • 1.8. Glossary
  • 1.9. Bibliography
  • 1.10. Metadata

1.7. Summary

The main difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web is that the Internet is the forerunner of the World Wide Web and is a stand-alone system. The World Wide Web, on the other hand, is based on the Internet and opens it's advantages to the public.
The Internet is a worldwide system of interconnected computer networks. It is used for the communication and the exchange of data. Each computer of a network is able to communicate with all other computers. In order that the communication between the computers works several protocols are required. The Internet Protocol (IP) and the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) build the basis of the communication.
The World Wide Web is a vast collection of electronic documents. The documents are stored in files on many thousands of computers, so called servers, that are distributed around the global Internet.

With a browser software (and of course a computer and Internet access in the form of a modem) one is able to access the World Wide Web as well as the Internet. Entering an URL in the browser means requesting a Web Page from a server as it is shown in the next image:

URL request of Client and HTML response of Webserver

The above model is called Client-Server-Architecture. This network consists of several computers which adopt either the position of a server or a client. Clients and servers are able to communicate with each other. The client sends requests to the server and the server sends back the responses to the client.

Web Pages very often are full of pictures. Their content varies from simple objects like rectangles or diagrams to rich coloured photographs. Since these various contents have different requirements, there exist several graphics formats. They are divided in raster graphic formats and vector graphics formats. For each of these two classes different format types exist.

Raster graphics store images as a collection of pixels whose colour is defined individually. Whereas vector graphics define their content by the use of geometrical primitives (points, lines, etc.). Therefore, a vector image is described as a series of geometric shapes.

Raster Graphics

Vector Graphics

There exist several raster and vector graphics formats which are used in Web pages:

Raster Graphics: GIF JPEG PNG

Vector Graphics: SVG Flash XAML PS (for printing) PDF (for printing)

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Update: 26.1.2012 (eLML) - Contact - Print (PDF) - © CartouCHe 2004-2007 (Creative Commons) - layout based on YAML