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Fonts > Vector vs Raster : Font Collecting : Anti-aliasing : Using fonts : Making Titles : Effects : Dingbats

vector vs raster

No, it's not an epic battle of giant Japanese monsters emerging from the sea. It's one of those "Ouch! My brain hurts!" conceptual things that is NOT easy to explain, but as it's going to be important in making your titles here goes...

Computer graphics fall into one of two categories in fundamental terms. Either they're vector, based on algorithmic (mathematical) calculations or they're raster, composed of a mass of tiny dots (also called bitmap-based images, but not to be confused with the Windoze format of that name which is just one clunky version of a bitmap format).

I create my text-graphics as vectors but then convert them to raster once they're the right size for what I need so that I can apply effects such as drop shadows and convert them to a format suitable for the web (gif or jpeg).

Vector graphics are very important for print-based applications and also animation for the web (eg Flash). As this site's about non-animated websites (ie, screen-based, static images) you can assume that unless I specify otherwise, whenever I talk about graphics I'm talking about raster (bitmap-based) images.

If you happen to have Adobe Illustrator 10, there's a great explanation of the characteristics of vector and bitmap graphics in their help files. I'd put a link here, but that sort of thing seems to move like the wind, so perhaps a search on google might be the way to go. Try searching "vector raster graphics" or something similar.

vector	raster or bitmap images
perfectly scaleable to any size - so great for posters etc	can be resized in graphics package, but will involve degrading of image
image consists of lines and curves	image consists of dots
resolution independent	resolution dependent
good for animation (eg Flash) and simple images	good for photos and other complicated images
may not be able to apply text effects (depends on your program)	can easily apply text effects (such as drop shadows)
on web: Macromedia Flash uses vector graphics	on web: both jpegs and gifs are raster graphics formats
filesize depends on complexity of image, not size	filesize depends mostly on size of image (and other format-dependant factors)
Primary graphics for Flash, Illustrator, Corel Draw, Quark.	Primary graphics for Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop (although text in these can also be vector-based).