If you’re associated with the internet or graphics, you
might have come across the term Vector Art before. So, what is Vector Art? Vector art is drawing, painting or
illustration created using a Vector application. It is not a form of Art or an
Art movement like pop art or modern art. It merely involves creating art by
using computers and specific type of applications called Vector Applications to
create art. There are two kinds of formats or file types in the digital world;
namely Raster and Vectors.
Raster formats are rendered as pixels – these are small
squares which are mapped on a grid of a 2-dimensional picture plane. Every
pixel holds color information and its position in reference to its x and y
co-ordinates of the plane. All photographs and scanned images are Raster
images. You may zoom into a photograph and notice the pixels as separate
colored blocks aligned close to each other. Roasters are resolution dependent
making this format rather rigid where scaling the image drastically affects the
quality making it look blurred or jagged at the edges. Most popular raster
image formats that can be transformed by Vector Art that are commonly used are JPEGs, PNGs, GIFs and TIFFs.
Vector Images
A Vector image, unlike a Raster one, uses mathematical
algorithms to store picture information. The information stored here is
position of dots, lines, curves and polygons along with color information for
the fill and outline of each part of the image. Since information about every minuscule
part of the image is not stored, the file size is much lower compared to a
Raster one. Vectors are not resolution dependent, which makes it flexible in a
sense where one can scale the image up or down to any degree without affecting
the picture quality. The image stays sharp, clear and intact at any size.
The advantage Vector formats offer over the Raster ones is
one of the main reasons for the popularity of Vector Art. Besides the features such as loss-less scaling and low
file sizes there are other features which make this format a winner. Vectors
are fairly easy to create and edit. Any part of the image or graphic can be
changed easily. Easy manipulation of images saves time and effort, so the
artist can invest time creating new ideas rather than repairing previous
artwork.