

The reverse is very complicated and not always possible. You can easily get a raster file from a vector file. Vector formats are the best for logos: such a file may be used both on a business card and on a billboard. That is why projects delivered in a vector form can be freely scaled (also up) with no harm to their quality. On the other hand, vector graphics contains shapes composed of curves (vectors) and fillings. In order to use raster graphics for high quality printouts you need very high resolutions (dimensions) of even several thousands of pixels. While you are scaling up a bitmap on the screen (zooming) you sooner or later see individual pixels, being large one-colour squares. You can only scale down (reduction in size) raster graphics and not lose quality. What we save as a bitmap are all photographic images and, for instance, files displayed on web pages (with the exception of Flash animations, which may combine both raster and vector elements). Every shape is composed of thousands of pixels which is why we cannot see individual squares while looking at a bitmap image. vectorsīitmap ( raster) graphic file is a rectangular area composed of pixels, i.e. In this article, I explain in short the difference between bitmaps and vectors, talk about the characteristics of given file formats and suggest when to use which formats. They also often specify minimum bitmap dimensions or resolutions which are expressed in pixels. They need vector files one time and raster files another time and they usually specify acceptable formats in the form of three-letter extensions. Interactive agencies, advertising agencies, media houses, printing houses and other providers require that marketers deliver to them graphic materials in various forms.

vector graphics and graphic file formats 29-04-2011, Category Other
