Vector and Bitmap (comparison)

Vector graphics are not saved as a fixed number of pixels, they are saved as a certain shape and can be maintained to any point of enlargement whereas Bitmap graphics are saved to a certain format where any enlargement causes an immediate loss of quality. For large prints and bill boards vector formats are much better, for obvious reasons bitmap could not be used. Bitmap formats are only safe to be used on a singular size basis!

A bitmap graphic is made up from discrete shaded pixels, which together display the image.

A vector graphic is composed of points, lines and shapes defined by co-ordinates on a graph.The Vector images are images that are made up of many individual scalable objects, these objects are defined by many mathematical equations rather than pixels, this way they always render to the maximum quality. Objects within the image are consisting of lines, shapes, curves and editable attributes. These attributes ones changed will not in fact change the quality of the image but only alter certain parts and will always maintain original shape of the image. This offers great benefits for commercial use, allowing printable Medias to have huge scale graphics whilst retaining quality. Although not as commonly used as Bitmap, this is a great service and offers opportunity for servers in advertisement to blow-up large scale graphics to reach the masses with billboards and large scale animation on the sides of the industrial buildings hustle and bustle cities. When somebody aims to create a vector image they tend use software such as “Adobe Illustrator”, allowing the user to draw shapes and create art whilst still being able to create enlargeable and transformable images without loss of quality when performing these actions. Here are a list of the most widely vector file formats, they are built in software’s and selectively readable by others.

Here is a list of vector file formats:

-EPS –Adobe’s EPS format (encapsulated PostScript) perhaps the most common vector image formats, the most standard interchange format in the print industry, widely supported as an export format.

-AI –The native format of Adobe Illustrator is this AI format, a modified version of the older EPS format, fairly widely used.

-PDF –Unexpected supporter of the vector image format, few software’s allow editing to this format.

-SVG –The W3C standard vector image format called SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics).

-DXF –Drawing eXchange Format. A CAD format from Autodesk, also used by CAD tools from many different vendors.

These entire file types allow enlargement to an infinite scale with no loss of quality, vector images are a great tool for the industry.

Moving on to Bitmap images, Bitmap images are those types of images that when enlarged will certainly lose quality, this is a major con when using such images as when browsing for images there is always a good chance they have already been enlarged. This doesn’t offer any chances for the commercial and printing industry because these images are not as adaptable and editable in programs. These images cannot be used on the sides of products and cannot be used as logos and cannot be enlarged and posted up on the sides of multi-storey buildings. There are many different types of bitmap images consisting of loads of different types of files, the most commonly used of these types of files are JPEG and GIF. Gif files are a strange type of file, they do not maintain image quality but they can offer something much more interesting, any pc will register the file as a still image but they have the ability to act as an animation.