Zeto Creative Know-How #1 : Raster Art vs. Vector Art

There are two types of digital art – Raster and Vector (see images below). The formats are completely different from each other, and each serves its purpose in the digital world.

Vector art is based on basic geometric primitives like points, lines, curves, and shapes. All of these are based on mathematical equations which produces a clean, sharp shape. Vector art is most often used for illustrations and logos and can be scaled to any size without losing quality, this is due to the image being based on mathematical equations. Vector art images are most often worked on in Adobe Illustrator and are saved in file format such as .AI and .EPS.

Raster art is based on rectangular grid of pixels and is often referred to as a bitmap image. These pixels are based on individual points of color and produce a softer, more realistic type image. Raster art is most often used for photos and web images, and they cannot be scaled up without losing quality and becoming blurry. This is due to the fact that when you scale an image up, there are more pixels that need filled in on the bitmap grid and the  computer is taking its best guess at filling those in. Raster images are most often worked on in Adobe Photoshop and are saved in a variety of formats such as .TIF, .JPG, .BMP and so on.

Permalink || Thursday April 21st, 2011