It is usually a common misunderstanding by clients and, believe it or not, some graphic designers. Vector and Bitmap (or “raster”) are used day in and day out by designers and design firms, but what are the main differences between the two? Bitmap Graphics By far the most commonly used type of graphics today; a bitmap is made of a grid with each square (usually called “pixels”) in that grid assigned a colour. By assigning specific colours in specific locations on this grid we are able to produce an image. See fig 1. A graphic composed entirely of pixels each with its own colour properties is ideal for photographic images where there are thousands, even millions of different colours. Complex fills; shading, shadowing and gradient effects are a breeze. The bitmap graphic offers the graphic designer the freedom likened to that of what an empty canvas does for an artist. Fidure 1 Even Bitmaps have their weak point The artist has now made his empty canvas into a masterpiece. It was hung onto a wall and it was apparent that the painting was too small. To make it larger he will need a larger canvas and more paint than he original used; additionally he will need to re-paint the entire painting. Similarly, when enlarging a bitmap, the computer needs to create a larger grid (or “canvas”). This step will produce additional pixels and more locations of pixels in the grid. The computer will then need to assign each pixel a specific colour, and unlike the artist that will re-paint his artwork from his imagination, the computer will estimate positions of coloured pixels according to the information in the original bitmap size. Undesirable effects such as blurring are a result of enlarging bitmaps. See fig 2. Figure 2 Vector Graphics Vector graphics are usually considered as the opposite of Bitmaps. Rather than being composed of pixels, Vector graphics consist of points, lines, and curves which, when combined, can form complex objects. See Fig 3. These objects can be filled with solid colours, gradients, and even patterns. Figure 3 The shapes drawn are mathematical calculations of the points, lines and curves. The programs that are used to produce these images save instructions on how to re-draw the image and not how the image looks. Using the same example as previous, when the artist is redrawing a larger scale of his painting he will use the image in his head to recreate an almost exact match to the smaller painting he had previously made. Similarly because the computer has information on how to re-draw the image, it can be re-drawn to any size and any position without losing any quality. See Fig 4. What is Vector’s weak point? The price of this scaling flexibility is that Vector images must remain relatively simple in comparison to Bitmap images. It is impossible to render the nuances of a photographic image in a vector editor; as a result, illustrative vector graphics have a distinct look and feel, even when produced in detail. See Fig 4. Figure 4 However, Vector graphics are ideal for producing artwork which frequently needs to be presented in different sizes or colours. Logos especially fall into this category. A logo produced with a vector application can be blown up to fit on a billboard or scaled down to adorn a letterhead with no loss of quality. The Verdict Both Vector and Bitmap formats have their good and bad sides. Vector graphics are very small in file size and are easily scaled in size, though they are the ideal format to produce logos and other media that needs to be scaled, they lack the photo realism of Bitmap graphics. Bitmaps on the other hand lack the quality when resizing and have much larger file sizes, but when you are looking for photorealism nothing comes close to Bitmap.

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