Lesson: Vector vs Raster

Think about billboards...

Because it's a different type of image altogether! Vector vs Raster

• Vector images vs Raster images

In Photoshop, we edit pixels

In illustrator, we change the anchor points

You can always rasterize a vector image to a raster image

You CANNOT turn a raster image back into a vector file

More info

Vector graphics are also known as scalable vector graphics (SVG). These graphics consist of anchored dots and connected by lines and curves, similar to the connect-the-dot activities you may have done as a kid. Because these graphics are not based on pixels, they are known as resolution independent, which makes them infinitely scalable. Their lines are sharp, without any loss in quality or detail, no matter what their size. These graphics are also device-independent, which means their quality doesn't depend on the number of dots available on a printer or the number of pixels on a screen. Because they consist of lines and anchor points, the size of the files are relatively small.

Raster images are made of pixels, or tiny dots that use color and tone to produce the image. Pixels appear like little squares on graph paper when the image is zoomed in or enlarged. These images are created by digital cameras, by scanning images into a computer or with raster-based software. Each image can only contain a fixed number of pixels; the amount of pixels determines the quality of the image. This is known as resolution. More pixels results in better quality at the same or larger sizes of the original, but this also increases the size of the file and the amount of space it takes to store the file. The lower the number of pixels, the lower the resolution. Resolution limits the size the image can be scaled up without being able to see pixels. However, a high resolution image printed at a small size will cause the pixels to "cram" together and will make the image look as unprofessional as not having enough pixels in a large image.