https://webinterface.org/en/ Plain notes on drawing, print, photographs, computer pictures, solid models, and SVG. en Sun, 25 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://webinterface.org/en/were-vr-graphics-ahead-of-their-time.html https://webinterface.org/en/were-vr-graphics-ahead-of-their-time.html Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 In 1994 a headset frame needed more polygons and less lag than the machines had. By 1999 the processors had caught the polygon rate. https://webinterface.org/en/files-that-hold-a-model.html https://webinterface.org/en/files-that-hold-a-model.html Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A practical list of 3D file formats with a published standard, the ones still being written, and the older formats people still meet. https://webinterface.org/en/ray-tracing.html https://webinterface.org/en/ray-tracing.html Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How a ray finds the first surface, and how the 2010 OptiX engine splits that search into a few GPU programs, with no built-in light. https://webinterface.org/en/still-image-compression.html https://webinterface.org/en/still-image-compression.html Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Lossy and lossless ways to shrink a still picture: palettes, chroma, JPEG's 8 by 8 cosine transform, and the wavelets that followed. https://webinterface.org/en/svg-on-the-page.html https://webinterface.org/en/svg-on-the-page.html Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How browsers came to draw SVG, what the mobile profiles were for, how SVGZ compression works, and why an uploaded SVG is not just a picture. https://webinterface.org/en/what-an-svg-file-contains.html https://webinterface.org/en/what-an-svg-file-contains.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Paths, shapes, text, paint, gradients, clipping, filters, links, scripts, and animation: the pieces the SVG specification actually defines. https://webinterface.org/en/light-materials-and-the-rendered-picture.html https://webinterface.org/en/light-materials-and-the-rendered-picture.html Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Rasterization, ray tracing, path tracing, materials, and the later methods that rebuild a scene from photographs or from a written prompt. https://webinterface.org/en/building-a-model.html https://webinterface.org/en/building-a-model.html Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Vertices, polygons, scans, keyframes, inverse kinematics, and the difference between a modeler built for pictures and software built for manufacture. https://webinterface.org/en/flat-pictures.html https://webinterface.org/en/flat-pictures.html Tue, 09 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Two-dimensional computer graphics, pixel art, sprites, and the practical difference between a grid of pixels and a list of shapes. https://webinterface.org/en/pictures-that-only-look-deep.html https://webinterface.org/en/pictures-that-only-look-deep.html Sat, 08 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 A picture can look solid without a 3D model behind it. Photorealistic flat art, filters, isometric games, and what people mean by 2.5D. https://webinterface.org/en/three-dimensional-computer-graphics.html https://webinterface.org/en/three-dimensional-computer-graphics.html Fri, 24 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000 A 3D picture starts as geometric data, usually shown afterwards on a flat screen. The model, the scene, and the three jobs that turn one into the other. https://webinterface.org/en/scalable-vector-graphics.html https://webinterface.org/en/scalable-vector-graphics.html Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000 SVG is an open text format for flat drawings, worked out at the W3C after six competing proposals. A short history of the versions. https://webinterface.org/en/when-computer-pictures-became-ordinary.html https://webinterface.org/en/when-computer-pictures-became-ordinary.html Tue, 02 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Toy Story, the home 3D card, the uncanny valley, and the long argument between drawn frames and pictures computed while you watch. https://webinterface.org/en/from-the-lab-to-the-desk.html https://webinterface.org/en/from-the-lab-to-the-desk.html Thu, 14 Aug 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Utah, shading, the arcade, the first graphics chips, and the film work of the 1970s and 1980s, up to the point where a desk machine could join in. https://webinterface.org/en/from-a-model-to-a-pixel.html https://webinterface.org/en/from-a-model-to-a-pixel.html Sun, 06 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Pixels, primitives, rendering, projection, shading, texture, aliasing, and volume rendering, in the sense those words have in computer graphics. https://webinterface.org/en/where-graphics-are-put-to-use.html https://webinterface.org/en/where-graphics-are-put-to-use.html Wed, 11 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Pictures in business, advertising, politics, textbooks, film, and on the early web, and how graphic design is taught. https://webinterface.org/en/the-first-displays.html https://webinterface.org/en/the-first-displays.html Wed, 21 May 2025 12:00:00 +0000 From the Braun tube and Whirlwind to Sketchpad, Spacewar, and the founding of Evans and Sutherland. Computer pictures before they were common. https://webinterface.org/en/what-computer-graphics-is.html https://webinterface.org/en/what-computer-graphics-is.html Tue, 08 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Computer graphics is the making and handling of pictures with a computer. What the phrase covers, who first used it, and where the pictures show up. https://webinterface.org/en/charts-maps-photographs-drawings.html https://webinterface.org/en/charts-maps-photographs-drawings.html Fri, 28 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Graphs, diagrams, symbols, maps, photographs, and engineering drawings, and the point at which a picture becomes numbers on a machine. https://webinterface.org/en/drawing-etching-and-the-printed-line.html https://webinterface.org/en/drawing-etching-and-the-printed-line.html Sun, 02 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000 How a drawing is made, how a plate is etched, and what people mean by line art and by an illustration that serves a text. https://webinterface.org/en/what-a-graphic-is.html https://webinterface.org/en/what-a-graphic-is.html Fri, 17 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000 A graphic is a picture or a design on some surface, made to inform, illustrate, or entertain. Where the word came from, and what it still covers.