Raster images are made up of pixels that can be seen when zoomed in. They are suitable for editing programs like Photoshop but cannot be enlarged without losing quality. Vector images use mathematical equations to define shapes as points and connections, allowing them to be resized without losing detail. Photoshop is a raster program while Illustrator uses vectors, though both can incorporate both types. Common file formats include JPG and PNG for raster, and AI, EPS and SVG for vectors.

1. Unit 65 Leeanne Hibbert
Raster and Vector
A raster image is made up of thousands of little pixels which usually look like tiny squares, this will
look clear to you when you zoom into any raster image. Raster images are a way to represent digital
images such as photographs and this is why they are ‘Bitmap’ based images as they are suitable for
editing and editing programmes agree with raster images. Each raster image takes a variety of
different formats like the familiar ‘GIF, JPG and BMP’.
When a raster image is actually created the image on the screen that our eyes see as a digital image
is converted into pixels. Each and every single pixel that creates this image has its very own job and
is signed on to a specific value which determines the colour. Any raster image will use the ‘RGB’
system which means ‘red, green and blue’ and then an RGB value of the number ‘0.0.0’ is black. All
of the values go all the way through to 256 for every colour;this means there will be a wide range of
colour values, for photographs with fine shading this can be very valuable.
When you view a raster image the pixels normally smooth out visually for us meaning we cannot see
the pixels there. But as said previously as soon as you blow up/zoom the image the pixels become
very visible to our eyes. Depending on the resolution of the raster image some can be enlarged to
extremely large sizes while others can become difficult for us to see. The smaller resolution the
smaller the digital images file. Because of that reason people who work with computer graphics
must find a balance between both image size and resolution.
Raster based programme – Photoshop
Photoshop is a programme where you can edit or create different graphics and this particular
software is raster based.
So for instance this image above is the very recognisable ‘Ford’ logo, it does actually look like it was
created in Photoshop but it is actually a vector image. Every single line of this is actually just a point
connected with an angle of curve, vector. This means that you could scale this image as large as you
wanted without losing any detail of the image. If a curve is closed (meaning both ends join) then you
can fill it with a colour.

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This image below is the wireframe of a logo, which is followed by the same vector but now coloured
in.
Colour has just been
added to this logo
So as you can see it is still all
a vector image.
You can see
the pixels (tiny
squares)
However this image above is a close up of a raster image and this is how graphics will look like in the
programme Photoshop when you zoom into a certain graphic.So you will see an image like this as
the entire image is made up of the tiny pixels (little squares). As said before a raster image is just
made up of lots of pixels which will have a numerical value for each colour. People must remember
that raster images cannot be scaled up in size because they will look very pixelated just like the
image above, when they are printed.
Other things you should know about Photoshop plus any other raster editing programmes are that
they use vector images for the layout and elements such as text, but they are equipped to deal with
the raster image basically down to the pixel and have special ways in doing so, such as the
brightness/contrast or even adding lightening to the raster image in Photoshop. Photoshop and
again other raster based applications are:
. Touching up an image
. Photo – realistic illustrations
. Photo processing
. Hand drawn illustrations
.Collage
The other editing programmes that are suitable for raster images other than Photoshop are:
Adobe illustrator; Paint; MS paint and painter.

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Raster Image File formats
These image file formats below are what raster images can be saved by.
BMP – A BMP file format is a raster based file format and is also known as a bitmap and this is used
to store bitmap digital images.
PNG- PNG stands for portable network graphic and this file extension uses index colours, this file
format is basically for the portable, lossless and well compressed of the storage of raster based
images.
JPG/JPEG- JPG or JPEG stands for joint photographic experts group. This file format is most
commonly used for publishing images to the World Wide Web and storing photographs.
TIFF– the TIFF file format stands for tagged Image File Format. This is a high quality graphics format
which is often used for storing images with lots of colour like for instance digital images. These can
be saved in an uncompressed format which is lossless or may incorporate i.e. lossy compression.
PSD – The PSD file format actually stands for an adobe Photoshop document and this means that
PSD can include editing images (so image adjustment) also layer masks and layers, plus file
information and other Photoshop elements.
Gif – This stands for ‘ Graphical Interchange Format’ and this is the most common graphics format
that is found on the internet. An ‘animated Gif’ is a GIF image that can be animated by combining
images into a single GIF file.

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Paint VS Photosop
As said above paint is also another raster based application and the reason why I am going to go into
detail about this particular programme is because it is on every single windows computer there is,
you do not have to download it as it is already there for you. Paint is different to photo shop as it is a
very simple graphics painting programme and just has the basic tools.
This image above is what paint currently looks like. The programme saves the creation as a windows
bitmap so JPEG and GIF file formats (without animation or transparency). This programme can be in
colour mode or black and white, but unlike photo shop there is no grayscale mode.
Photoshop is a lot more powerful than paint as there are lots of features o Photoshop that are not
included on paint. For example paint doesn’t have a tool used to replace part of a picture that you
don’t want and remove it by replacing with its background. So Photoshop has a lot more options for
editing images than the programme paint. The difference between these two programmes is that
paint is a very simple drawing programme while Photoshop on the other hand is one of the most
powerful drawing and editing programme there is.

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Vector Images
A vector image is a format that your computer uses to actually create an image. These are a
collection of individual objects; unlike a raster image which is more of a picture element. Vector
images are connected by curves or shapes; this is unlike raster based images as raster images are
created by pixels. Curves and shapes of a vector based image are ok to edit such as the colour;
outline and fill of it. Vector images are made up of mathematical equations so they are always
created at the highest of quality.
Changing around of a vector image will not affect the object itself as you can change any number of
attributes freely without destroying the basic object. Vector images are processed on software
programmes such as: ‘Adobe illustrator’ or ‘CorelDraw’. Vector images can also be converted into a
raster image by using a raster to vector conversion programme like ‘CorelTRACE’ and ‘Euro VECTOR’.
As I said previously adobe illustrator is a vector based programme and this approaches image

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creation in an entirely different way and do not render images on a pixel by pixel basis.
This image above as you can see is just made up of lines and dots, one on every corner. These are
known as ‘vector points’ and these allow the computer to connect the dots. Each vector point has
information that tells the computer how to connect each point with straight or curved lines, plus
knowing what colour the inner space should be
Because the computer only has to keep four points in its memory, it is much easier for the computer
to edit vector based images as file sizes are really small. If you resize a vector based image it loses
little or no detail at all, the vector points spread out and the computer just redraws the image.
Vector images are ideal for logos as they can be
resized and adjusted without losing clarity, so when
looking for a logo designer ensure the final files
produced are vector based.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe illustrator programme is probably one of the
best applications there is for creating a vector based graphic. I myself have personally used this
software to create my very own graphic and the best part about it was that I could save my image
and it did not use any detail what so ever which is different to raster images as If I had created a
raster image and resized it then once I save it, then it will probably lose quite a lot of quality.
The vector graphic I created was a pencil and pencil pot as you can see on the right hand side of this
page. The only problem with illustrator and vector based images is that they do look quite like clip
art instead.
As you can see by my own image vector image it is just literally made up of lines; curves and
different shapes. This is why you lose no quality what so ever when it comes to saving as it has no
pixels that are the creation of the image to a raster.

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Metafiles (WMF)
Metafile is a term for a file format that can store multiple types of data. Metafiles commonly include
graphic file formats and these graphics can contain both vector and raster based. It can also combine
raster and vector based images together such as the outline being the vector and the fill of the
image being a bitmap. Also Microsoft windows uses ‘windows metafile’ and this was originally
designed for Microsoft windows in the 1990s and does in some ways act very similar to the SVG files.
Windows metafiles may contain both vector graphics and bitmap components. A WMF file actually
stores a list of different function calls that have to be issued and approved by windows ‘graphic
device interface’ also known as GDI.
Vector Image File Formats
EPS– The EPS file format stands for ‘Encapsulated Post Script’, the word ‘post Script’ is used to
describe how the images are exported to desktop publishing programmes such as Postscript Printer
or Microsoft Publisher. EPS files can mix pixel based images with Vector images into one file,
however file sizes can be large so you do need a programme like ‘Postscript printer’ to print these
images out.
AI – The AI file format stands for Adobe illustrator which is the most popular programme for creating
vector images on. This programme is a ‘charter’ programme and deals with objects such as circles,
squares and many other irregular shapes. These objects can be re-sized, re-coloured and moved.
These shapes once made or edited can be stored into files as ‘geometric equations’ with a certain
colour value, size and location.
FLA – The FLA file format stands for flash animation and is a 2D animation programme that is used to
create vector based websites and create animation. The files are rather small compared to other

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web design programmes like ‘Adobe Dreamweaver’; this is because it is a vector based programme.
The FLA file has advantages as it leads to much shorter download times when you are surfing the
internet.