Vector graphics are composed of geometrical primitives like points, lines, and shapes. They are scaleable without loss of quality. Common vector formats include AI, SVG, and common software is Adobe Illustrator. Raster graphics are composed of pixels with color values. Common formats are BMP, TIFF, JPEG and common software is Photoshop. Both have advantages for different uses like printing. Metafiles can contain vectors, rasters, and text. Common formats are PDF, EMF, WMF.

1. Unit 54 – Assignment 1
Vector Graphics:
Vector graphics are built up of geometrical primitives such as, points, lines, curves and shapes
(polygons). All of these different primitives are linked together in order to represent an image in
computer graphics. Vector graphics are based on images made up of vectors that lead through
various different locations called control points. Each point, as well, is a variety of database,
including the location of the point in the workspace and the direction of the vector. Each track can
be assigned a colour, shape and a thickness, also a fill. This does not affect the size of the files in a
big way because all information resides in the structure; it describes how to draw the vector.
This is what makes vector images different from others as they aren’t built up of pixels like raster
images, the fact that they are built up of this special formula allows it to be enlarged without the loss
of quality or the event of pixilation, it can be stretched and stretched and it will always appear to be
the same.
Some common file formats for vector graphics can be chosen using Adobe Illustrator (.Al), Illustrator
is the main software for creating vectors. Adobe Illustrator is a charting programme; this means that
it deals different shapes such as squares, circles and other shapes. These shapes then represent
different sizes, locations, shape and colour that have been chosen.
Software which can deal with vector graphics is Adobe Photoshop; this software can open vector
files and has the ability to manipulate them. Adobe Photoshop offers more file formats for the
creator to choose from, whilst Adobe Illustrator only offers seven. This is why some people deal
between the two different types of software and import their work back and forward. Due to vector
graphics being able to stretch without the event of pixilation or loss of quality, this makes them ideal
for media printing. Whilst raster graphics will lose quality depending on the amount they have been
enlarged.
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2. An example of a vector format is a Scalable Vector
Graphic (.SVG) this type of format allows the graphic to
be enlarged to any size without the loss of quality in the
image. The vector is built up of a fixed set of shapes
which allows the graphic to do this, as the shapes enlarge
with the graphic. This is a large advantage over Bitmap
graphics.
Vector Based Applications:
There are various different applications which deal with vector graphics, the most popular and well
known applications fall under the Adobe software branch; these are Photoshop, Fireworks,
Illustrator and Flash. Work from the different types of Adobe collection can be shared and used
between the others, for example, if I created a graphic in Photoshop I could import it to flash for
further editing and use.
Adobe Fireworks:
Adobe Fireworks is a bitmap and vector graphic editor which was originally developed in 2009, it was
aimed at web designers as it has a suitable collection of tools such as slices, the ability to add
hotspots, etc. this enabled authors to create website prototypes and application interfaces on a
shorter time scale.
Adobe Illustrator:
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor which was developed and marketed by Adobe. Illustrator
is a type of software that allows the user to create distinctive vector graphics for use in multiple
types of media projects. Illustrator allows the user to save their work as an Al. format which is the
main format for the software, which then it can be opened in Photoshop.
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe. Adobe Illustrator
software helps you create distinctive vector graphics for multiple media projects. When a file is
saved as an AI. Which is Illustrators main format; this format can also be opened in Photoshop.The
latest version of Illustrator CS5, is the fifteenth generation in the product line. Since it has been
made there have been multiple changes, most recently there has been a change where it is possible
to create simple 3D objects.
Adobe Flash:
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform which is used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web
pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast. More
recently, it has been positioned as a tool for Rich Internet Applications RIAs.
Flash manipulates vector graphics to provide animation of text, drawings, and still images. It
supports bidirectional streaming of audio and video, and it can capture user input through the
mouse, the keyboard, the microphone, and through a camera.
Adobe Photoshop:
In Adobe Photoshop, it’s possible to draw vector shapes and paths. Photoshop's main strength is as
a pixel based image editor, unlike vector based image editors. However Photoshop also enables the
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3. creation, incorporation, and manipulation of vector graphics through its Paths, Pen tools, Shape
tools, Shape Layers, Type tools, Import command and Smart object functions. These tools and
commands are suitable when you want to combine pixel-based and vector-based images in one
Photoshop document, because you may not have to use more than one program. However if you
want to create very complex vector graphics with numerous shapes and colours, you may find it
easier to use software that was created primarily for that purpose, such as Adobe Illustrator.
Raster Graphics:
Raster images also known as a bitmap is a way to
define digital images. Raster graphics are built up
of a series of bits of information translated into a
pixel on a screen; these pixels represent different
colours in order to finish an image. The pixels
created from a raster image are assigned a
specific value to analyse its colour that is selected
from the (RGB) red, green and blue colour
system.
There are two techniques used in order to compress files; they both reduce the file size of the
images in order for them to fit in smaller spaces. However there is only one way to compress a file
without a loss of quality, this is called lossless compression. The other file compression technique is
called lossy compression, in the event of lossy compression the file will drop in quality depending on
the amount of compression added.Lossy provides a larger space when saving but does mean loss in
the image detail, whilst lossless squeezes the large image into a smaller space but doesn’t lose
detail.
Some common file formats for raster graphics are BMP (Bitmaps), TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)
and JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group). These types of images are mostly created in Photoshop,
as this software provides a wide range of file formats for the user to save their image as. Different
file formats have advantages and disadvantages to them, for example, some are lossy and some are
lossless. Some save as fairly large files whilst others are relatively small file sized.
JPEGS and some other raster file formats are used in interactive media
products due to their file size being relatively low; which is a good thing
as the smaller the file size, the faster it loads, whether that be on the
internet or on an application, etc. Raster graphics are fairly good for
print media, however Vectors are recommended due to them having
the ability to be enlarged for print size without pixelating. Raster
graphics are more suitable for print media such as business cards, or
small posters due to them being quite small objects, whilst if I tried to
enlarge a bitmap for a billboard it would pixelate massively.
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4. A file format which is used as a raster type is a PSD, which is also known as a Photoshop file. This is a
lossless compression file, unlike the JPEG which is a lossy compressed file and will lose quality. A
photoshop document is usually kept as the main file as they are quite high file size due to their
quality. They are very usefull as when saved, the layers created in photoshop remain the same so
that when the file is opened in the software the user can edit them layers and make changes to their
design.
Raster Based Applications:
There are four main applications that are used to construct raster graphics, these are Coral Painter,
Photoshop, this is the main application used, and there is also GIMP and finally MS Paint, which isn’t
often used due to all this new software being released.
Coral Painter:
Coral Painter is a raster-based digital art application created to make as accurately as possible the
appearance and behaviour of traditional media associated with drawing, painting, and printmaking.
It is a popular tool which is used in Real-Time by professional digital artists. The latest version,
Painter 12, was released on May 11th 2011.
Photoshop:
Photoshop was developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Photoshop is graphic
imaging software, which is used to create raster images. Photoshop is able to read both raster files
and vector files, for example as .EPS, .PNG, .GIF, and .JPEG, but it is not used to create vector files, as
they are created in Illustrator then they can be imported to Photoshop. Photoshop’s main strength is
that it is a pixel based image editor.
GIMP:
GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is a free software raster graphics editor. It is mainly used
as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions made for most popular
operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux. In addition to detailed
image retouching and free-form drawing, GIMP can edit the image in different editing tasks such as
resizing, retouching, and cropping photos.
Metafile:
Metafile is a general term for a file format that can store multiple types of data. This commonly
includes graphics file formats. These graphics files can contain raster, vector, and type data.
Different file formats for metafiles are PDF (Portable Document Formats); this is suitable for
interactive media files as they can be used on portable devices. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) this is
also a metafile.
Windows Metafile (WMF):
WMF is a graphic file format on Microsoft windows systems. Windows metafiles are intended to be
portable between applications and may also contain both vector and bitmap components. A WMF
file stores a list of functions that have to be assigned to the Windows Graphics Device layer in order
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5. for the image to appear on the screen. In 1993, the 32-bit version of Win32/GDI introduced the
Enhanced Metafile (EMF), a newer version with additional commands. EMF is also used as a graphics
language for printer drivers.
With the release of Windows XP, the Enhanced Metafile Format plus Extensions (EMF+) format was
introduced. EMF+ provides a way to serialize calls to the GDI+ API in the same way that WMF/EMF
stores calls to GDI.
File Extensions:
Print File extensions:
Tiff
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is used mainly for exchanging documents between different
applications and different computer platforms. The Tagged Image File Format was mainly designed
to become the standard format. In order to become the standard, the format was designed to
handle just about anything. The result of this design delivered the flexibility of different number of
ways of how a TIFF image can be saved. This file format can be found in Photoshop.
JPEG
Short for JointPhotographicExpertsGroup, JPEG is a lossy compressiontechnique for color
images. Although it can reduce files sizes to about 5% of their normal size, some detail is lost in the
compression.JPEG supports only 8-bit images. If you save a 16-bit image to this format, Photoshop
automatically lowers the bit depth.
SVG-Scalable Vector Graphic
SVG, Scalable Vector Graphic, Is a range of specifications of an XML-based file format for describing
two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic. This makes it an ideal format for
interactive, print and also a little bit of animation.
Interactive extensions:
PNG
Portable Network Graphics is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless compression. PNG
was created to improve upon and replace GIF as an image file format. PNG supports palette-based
images, grayscale images and RGB images. PNG was designed for transferring images on the
Internet, not for professional-quality print graphics, and therefore does not support non RGB color
spaces such as CMYK.
BMP
Bitmap is a Raster image file format used to store bitmap digital images, independently on display
device. The BMP File Format is capable of storing 2D digital images of random width, height, and
resolution, both monochrome and color.BMP is a standard Windows image format on DOS and
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6. Windows-compatible computers. BMP format supports RGB, Indexed Colour, Grayscale, and Bitmap
colour modes
Moving Image file extensions:
PIXAR:
The PIXAR format is designed specifically for swapping files
with PIXAR image computers. There are no format options
associated with the PIXAR file format. This file format can be
found in Photoshop. The Pixar format is designed specifically for high-end graphics applications, such
as those used for rendering three-dimensional images and animation. Pixar format supports RGB
and grayscale images with a single alpha channel.
Targa- TGA
The Targa TGA format was developed by Truevision for their Targa and Vista products.
(Truevisionproduces award winning international documentaries, often human rights related, for
BBC, Channel 4 and HBO.) It can handle images with up to sixteen million unique colours. It is an
industry standard but is not as widely supported as PCX or TIFF formats. The TGA format was
designed for use on systems that use MS-DOS colour applications.
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