Making use of sequential commands or mathematical statements or programs which place lines or shapes in a 2-D or 3-D environment is referred to as Vector Graphics. Vector graphics are best for printing since it is composed of a series of mathematical curves. As a result vector graphics print crisply even when they are enlarged. In physics: A vector is something which has a magnitude and direction. In vector graphics, the file is created and saved as a sequence of vector statements. Rather than having a bit in the file for each bit of line drawing we use commands which describe series of points to be connected. As a result a much smaller file is obtained. A vector is infinitely expandable and softwares such as illustrator and indesign uses vectors.

 

Raster images use bitmaps to store information. This means a large file needs a large bitmap. The larger the image, the more disk space the image file will take up. As an example, a 640 x 480 image requires information to be stored for 307,200 pixels, while a 3072 x 2048 image (from a 6.3 Megapixel digital camera) needs to store information for a whopping 6,291,456 pixels. We use algorithms which compress images to help reduce these file sizes. Image formats like jpeg and gif are common compressed image formats. Scaling down these images is easy but enlarging a bitmap makes it pixelated or simply blurred. Hence for images which need to be scaled to different sizes, we use vector graphics. 

 

In Computer graphics a pixel, dots, or picture element is a physical point in a picture. A pixel is simply the smallest addressable element of a picture represented on a screen. A majority of pictures that we see on our computer screen are raster images. Printers and display devices are raster devices. As a result we need to convert vector images to raster format before they can be used i.e displayed or printed. The required resolution plays an vital role in determining the size of raster file generated.The main difference between vector and raster graphics is that raster graphics are composed of pixels, while vector graphics are composed of paths. A raster graphic, such as a gif or jpeg, is an array of pixels of various colors, which together form an image.

 

In computer graphics, a raster graphics or bitmap image is a dot matrix data structure that represents a generally rectangular grid of pixels , viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium. Raster images are stored in image files with varying formats. A bitmap is a rectangular grid of pixels, with each pixel’s color being specified by a number of bits. A bitmap might be created for storage in the display’s video memory or as a device-independent bitmap file. A raster is technically characterized by the width and height of the image in pixels and by the number of bits per pixel (or color depth, which determines the number of colors it can represent.