What is Vector Graphics ?

OK Today we will see What is vector Grpahics?

What is Vector Graphics?

Vector is a computer image file that uses paths with a start and end point. With a vector program such as Adobe Illustrator or Flash you can add or remove point or nodes to the path that will allow you to bend, twist, stretch, straighten the path into any object your heart desires. People often confuse Adobe Illustrator with Adobe Photoshop or don’t know the fundamental difference between the two programs.

The alternative to vector graphic files are raster or bitmap based graphic files. Photographs or jpgs/jpegs, gifs, bmps, tiffs, pngs and many other popular computer graphic files are raster/bitmap based images which use pixels to represent an image. Each pixel in a bitmap has a defined color value and most photographs contain thousands or millions of pixels which comprise the picture.

Adobe Photoshop is a raster based software program that allows you to edit raster files such as photographs. Vector graphics tend to have less colors and can be scaled
One of the advantages of vector files is that they can be scaled to any size and not loose their image quality. This is because vector files use mathematical calculations of the above explained paths to resize the image. Here is a visual example.



This Image looks the same opened in either Illustrator or Photoshop.




If you zoom in or scale the above vector file you will see no pixels or loss of image quality.




On the other hand, when you zoom in on the above bitmap version you will see pixels, blurring, aliasing and an obvious loss of quality.


In the next post we will discuss about why to use Vector Graphics?

Regards
NikiJackson

Raster vs Vector Graphics

Today we shall discuss about this as continuation of yesterday's post

Raster Graphics vs. Vector Graphics

There are two kinds of computer graphics - Raster (composed of pixels) and Vector (composed of paths). Raster images are more commonly called bitmap images.

A bitmap image uses a grid of individual pixels where each pixel can be a different color or shade. Bitmaps are composed of pixels.

Vector graphics use mathematical relationships between points and the paths connecting them to describe an image. Vector graphics are composed of paths.

The image to the left below is representative of a bitmap and the image to the right is representative of a vector graphic. They are shown at four times actual size to exaggerate the fact that the edges of a bitmap become jagged as it is scaled up:





Vector Graphic:

With Adobe® Systems' introduction of the PostScript® page-description language computers could display fonts and images using point-to-point math rather than by pixels alone. The advantage to using a page-description language such as PostScript becomes clear when you scale an image up. The larger you display a bitmap, the more jagged it appears, while a vector image remains smooth at any size. That is why PostScript and TrueType® fonts always appear smooth - they are vector-based.

The jagged appearance of bitmap images can be partially overcome with the use of "anti-aliasing". Anti-aliasing is the application of subtle transitions in the pixels along the edges of images to minimize the jagged effect (below left). A scalable vector image will always appear smooth (below right):

Anti-Aliased Bitmap Image:



Smooth Vector Image:



Bitmap images require higher resolutions and anti-aliasing for a smooth appearance. Vector-based graphics on the other hand are mathematically described and appear smooth at any size or resolution.
Bitmaps are best used for photographs and images with subtle shading. Graphics best suited for the vector format are page layout, type, line art or illustrations.

Wherever possible use the vector format for all your type, line art and illustrations and only use bitmaps for photos or images with complex or non-uniform shading.


Regards
NikiJackson

Vector Graphics - History of Graphics

Hi

From this to another couple of post is going to be about vector graphics. i planned to post all the content in 2 or 3 post. i hope this will help any of the guy who is interested in graphics. any way we will start to day

in the beginning i am going to talk about History of graphics in a brief way which will really help full in knowing the past of graphics.


History of Graphics

We can categories the history of graphics in two as early and Modern. Early will tell you about the birth of graphics and the Modern will tell you about the evolution of graphics.

Early

Graphic Design spans the history of humankind from the caves of Lascaux to the dazzling neons of Ginza. In both this lengthy history and in the relatively recent explosion of visual communication in the 20th and 21st centuries, there is sometimes a blurring distinction and over-lapping of advertising art, graphic design and fine art. After all, they share many of the same elements, theories, principles, practices and languages, and sometimes the same benefactor or client. In advertising art the ultimate objective is the sale of goods and services. In graphic design, "the essence is to give order to information, form to ideas, expression and feeling to artifacts that document human experience.
The paintings in the caves of Lascaux around 14,000 BC and the birth of written language in the third or fourth millennium BC are both significant milestones in the history of graphic design and other fields which hold roots to graphic design.
The “Book of Kells” is an early example of graphic design. It is a lavishly decorated hand-written copy of the Gospels of the “Christian Bible” created by Celtic monks around 800AD.
From 1892 to 1896 William Morris' Kelmscott Press published books that are some of the most significant of the graphic design products of the Arts and Crafts movement, and made a very lucrative business of creating books of great stylistic refinement and selling them to the wealthy for a premium. Morris proved that a market existed for works of graphic design in their own right and helped pioneer the separation of design from production and from fine art. The work of the Kelmscott Press is characterized by its obsession with historical styles. This historicism was, however, important as it amounted to the first significant reaction to the stale state of nineteenth-century graphic design. Morris' work, along with the rest of the Private Press movement, directly influenced Art Nouveau and is indirectly responsible for developments in early twentieth century graphic design in general.

Modern

The signage in the London Underground is a classic of the modern era and used a font designed by Edward Johnston in 1916.
In the 1920s, Soviet Constructivism (art) applied 'intellectual production' in different spheres of production. The movement saw individualistic art as useless in revolutionary Russia and thus moved towards creating objects for utilitarian purposes. They designed buildings, theater sets, posters, fabrics, clothing, furniture, logos, menus, etc.
Jan Tschichold codified the principles of modern typography in his 1928 book, New Typography. He later repudiated the philosophy he espoused in this book as being fascistic, but it remained very influential. Tschichold, Bauhaus typographers such as Herbert Bayer and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and El Lissitzky are the fathers of graphic design as we know it today. They pioneered production techniques and stylistic devices used throughout the twentieth century. The following years saw graphic design in the modern style gain widespread acceptance and application. A booming post-World War II American economy established a greater need for graphic design, mainly advertising and packaging. The emigration of the German Bauhaus school of design to Chicago in 1937 brought a "mass-produced" minimalism to America; sparking a wild fire of "modern" architecture and design. Notable names in mid-century modern design include Adrian Frutiger, designer of the typefaces Univers and Frutiger; Paul Rand, who, from the late 1930s until his death in 1996, took the principles of the Bauhaus and applied them to popular advertising and logo design, helping to create a uniquely American approach to European minimalism while becoming one of the principal pioneers of the subset of graphic design known as corporate identity; and Josef Müller-Brockmann, who designed posters in a severe yet accessible manner typical of the 1950s and 1960s.



This will continue in other couple of post....


Regards
NikiJackson