Differences Between Raster and Vector Images Comparison Chart

Most creative software will be able to open and display both raster and vector images, and some may even include tools for working with both. However, there are dedicated programs that are best suited for creating and editing each type of image. Although raster and vector formats both produce digital images, these images vary drastically in resolution, visual style, file compatibility and their creation process. Each of these are important factors to consider when deciding whether a vector or raster image is right for your project.

There are a number of programs for making vector-based drawings. Out of all the software available, Adobe Illustrator is the most popular, and its popularity has led it to become the industry standard. Learn how to come up with your own poster design ideas and see the process of bringing your idea to life in an online image editing tool. The image below shows a comparison of how Vector and Raster images are created.

Raster vs. Vector: What’s the Difference?

If you require complex colors and flawless color blending like a painting, choose Raster graphics. The number of pixels or pixels per inch (PPI) or the dots per inch (DPI) decides the raster image’s resolution. The higher the value of PPI or DPI, the higher the resolution of the raster image. Vector programs, on the other hand, involve more of a learning curve — even for experienced designers. The process of placing points, connecting lines and combining shapes is far less intuitive than digital painting.

Just as Illustrator is the industry standard for vector graphics, Photoshop is the standard for raster images. Sketchbook Pro and Corel Painter are other common raster editors, and file formats for raters include JPG, PSD, BMP, PNG, GIF, and TIF, just to site the most common examples. Other popular programs include CorelDraw and Affinity Designer, and vector images can be both created and edited using these programs. The most common file formats for vector graphics are AI, CDR, and SVG, depending on which software you’re using to design vector images. Instead of relying on millions of tiny of pixels per inch, vector graphics use mathematical formulas to define shapes, lines, and curves. Imagine them like digital blueprints where each element is precisely defined.

How Do I Know if My Image is a Vector?

This is one of the main differences between raster and vector images. A vector image’s formulaic makeup keeps file sizes to a minimum in comparison to its raster counterparts. This comes in handy when there are restrictions to file sizes or image storage.

While a vector image file has many advantages, there are compatibility issues when shared. You must have access to vector-based programs in order to edit the native files. They’re made of paths and curves dictated by mathematical formulas.

Creation and Editing Programs

So, if you are printing business cards or flyers, designing an e-invite, or working with a cute illustration, vector images will serve your purpose. Raster graphics, also called bitmap graphics, a type of digital image that uses tiny rectangular pixels, or picture elements, arranged in a grid formation to represent an image. Vector graphics allow creatives to build high-quality works of art, with clean lines and shapes that can be scaled to any size.

• Fortunately, these technical terms have straightforward explanations.
• When images are created in these programs, they are exported to either a vector or raster image file type.
• Scanning is basically another form of photography, as scanners and cameras both capture a high level of detail in a similar way, using raster image formatting.
• The process of placing points, connecting lines and combining shapes is far less intuitive than digital painting.

Shutterstock’s collection of images includes tons of scalable vector graphics and images available for download, like fonts, patterns, and illustrations. To view vector images exclusively, change the Image Type located under the search bar and select Vectors. Between the two, raster images are the most stylistically versatile. Raster programs can be used both for minimalist artwork, high resolution photographs/photorealistic illustrations and everything in between.

What is the meaning of raster image?

Here, lines, curves, and other elements are paths, whereas the formula is a vector. The formula tells the path how it is shaped, what color it is filled with, and what the borders are like. Since raster graphics are made up of square-shaped pixels, they’re best for displaying more detailed images and subtle gradations in colored pixels.

However, they are unsuitable for projects involving different software. Thus, raster images are useful when displaying or storing high-quality images. As the pixel number is fixed, if you try to rescale the raster image to fill a larger space, then the image gets pixelated and starts looking blurry. The way to know for sure if your image is a vector file is to open it with a vector-based program, like Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, or Affinity Designer, and inspect it.

Vector vs raster: Which is right for you?

Vector image formats are file types specifically designed to store vector graphics. Unlike raster image formats that rely on pixels, vector formats use mathematical formulas and paths to define shapes, lines, and curves. This allows for several advantages, such as infinite scalability and smaller file sizes. A vector image is a type of digital image that’s created using mathematical equations instead of pixels. Vector images are created in specialized programs like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.

The larger the image, the more disk space the image file will take up. We use algorithms that 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 that need to scale to different sizes, we use vector graphics. Images are created on the platform using pixels, and hence Photoshop is widely used for working with digital photographs.

Vector graphics are great for simplistic, or geometrical images such as logos, icons, illustrations, graphs, and typography. Virtually all photographs are in raster format — it’s simply the best format for that type of image. Scanning is basically another form of photography, as scanners and cameras both capture a high raster and vector graphics level of detail in a similar way, using raster image formatting. Because they are capable of high degrees of detail but are dependent on resolution, raster images are best used for design projects with fixed sizes and collages of images. A raster image is any digital photograph or illustration made up of pixels.