If you don’t want to spend money, you can take a look at any number of the best free Adobe Illustrator vector alternatives available online right now. Among free options, Inkscape and Vecteezy are very popular programs, and both feature a lot of robust tools to make your best vectors come to life. Out of all the software available, Adobe Illustrator is the most popular, and its popularity raster and vector graphics difference has led it to become the industry standard. Vector images also have the tendency to stand out with their attractive use of color, texture, depth, and layers. This gives businesses another reason to use them in their promotional content. The accessibility of these graphics make them more shareable online in multiple applications, especially on social media and through web image browsers.
Though raster images can’t be scaled up, they can be scaled down; which is typically the case for web images, often saved in smaller sizes and at resolutions of either 72ppi or 96ppi. Compatibility is another thing you’ll need to take into consideration, though. A small downside to using vector images is the fact that they are often saved in the native format of the program used to create them.
How to Identify if the Image is Raster or Vector?
Since their building blocks are pixels, raster images do not feature the kind of scalability that vector images do. Being significantly different in nature, the two kinds of graphics have different uses, strengths, and weaknesses. The main difference between vector and raster graphics is that raster graphics are composed of pixels, while vector graphics are composed of paths.
When a photographer takes a picture with their camera, the image is built out in pixels. Raster images can easily become blurry when expanded and aren’t typically scalable. Even if it were possible, the process would be excruciatingly tedious, as every color change would require a new shape to be created.
When to use a raster format
Anything less, and quality will be sacrificed, as raster images cannot be scaled to larger sizes. When they are scaled, quality is lost and they become blurry, as each pixel becomes larger or photo editing software attempts to compromise by adding in colored pixels. 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.
EPS files are also helpful for large posters, flex banners, and other marketing collaterals that require fine printing. Vector images are not as accessible as rasters, but you can save your vector image as a vector PDF for sharing, as that’s a format most users can open. Like we mentioned above, raster images, or bitmaps as they are often called, are digital images that are made up of pixels. When you view a raster image on a screen at 100%, all the pixels combine to create the image. However, if you zoom in on it, you’ll start to see the individual colored pixels. Photographs are the most common raster images, but any digital graphic can be a raster.
The file format determines the number of pixels in a raster image. Images are created on the platform using pixels, and hence Photoshop is widely used for working with digital photographs. However, designers often choose to open and edit vector files in Photoshop. One of the main differences between raster and vector graphics is their file size. Raster pictures are large in size due to the number of pixels stored in them. Larger and more detailed raster images have more pixels, and, as a result, better picture quality, but they are heavier.
- Thus, raster images are useful when displaying or storing high-quality images.
- Raster images are made up of a fixed number of pixels that determine the resolution quality of the image.
- Photographs are the most common raster images, but any digital graphic can be a raster.
- Other uses of vector images include making coin designs, engraving on laser, printing on t-shirts, etc.
- Instead, they use mathematical equations to capture the shape, border, and color that build an image.
However, in terms of elements such as gradient, tone, color, and shadows, a vector image can never truly compare to what a raster image can offer. It is always going to fall short of the complexity and subtlety the latter provides. Saving in “outlines” is a term that you will hear when sending files to print. Saving something with “outlines” basically means you are locking the text so that it’s no longer technically a font but instead made up of vector shapes that form your letters.
Get in touch with our experts today to find out more about how the right kind of printing can help you tell the story of your brand. Knowing the pros and cons of raster formatted images can help you decide why you might want to choose this file https://deveducation.com/ format over vectorized files. To edit raster images, you must use raster-based programs or plug-ins like this PowerPoint add-in to edit your raster icons. Raster vs. Vector is a debate that will always rage on in the graphic design world.
Raster images are ideal for photographic images, as they can capture a great deal of detail. However, they can be difficult to edit without losing quality, and they don’t scale well. Vector images, on the other hand, are much easier to edit and can be resized without any loss in quality.