Example showing effect of vector graphics versus raster graphics. The original vector-based illustration is at the left. The upper-right image illustrates magnification of 7x as a vector image. The lower-right image illustrates the same magnification as a bitmap image. Raster images are based on pixels and thus scale with loss of clarity, while vector-based images can be scaled indefinitely without degrading.

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics. The term geometric primitive in Computer graphics and CAD systems is used in various senses with common meaning of atomic geometric objects the system can handle In Geometry, Topology and related branches of mathematics a spatial point describes a specific point within a given space that consists of neither Volume In Mathematics, the concept of a curve tries to capture the intuitive idea of a geometrical one-dimensional and continuous object In Geometry a polygon (ˈpɒlɨɡɒn ˈpɒliɡɒn is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path or circuit An image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact usually two-dimensional that has a similar appearance to some subject &mdashusually Computer graphics are Graphics created by Computers and more generally the Representation and Manipulation of Pictorial Data

Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics, which is the representation of images as an array of pixels, as it is typically used for the representation of photographic images. In Computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap, is a Data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of Pixels In Digital imaging, a pixel ( pict ure el ement is the smallest piece of information in an image ^[1] There are instances when working with vector tools and formats is best practice, and instances when working with raster tools and formats is best practice. There are times when both formats come together. An understanding of the advantages and limitations of each technology and the relationship between them is most likely to result in efficient and effective use of tools.

Overview

Computer displays are made up from small dots called pixels. In Digital imaging, a pixel ( pict ure el ement is the smallest piece of information in an image The picture is built up from these dots. The smaller and closer the dots are together, the better the quality of the image but the bigger the file needed to store the data. If the image is magnified it becomes grainy as the resolution of the eye enables it to pick out individual pixels. Vector graphics files store the lines, shapes and colours that make up an image as mathematical formulae. A vector graphics program uses the mathematical formulae to construct the screen image by building the best quality image possible, given the screen resolution, from the mathematical data. The mathematical formulae determine where the dots that make up the image should be placed for the best results when displaying the image. Since these formulae can produce an image scalable to any size and detail the quality of the image is only determined by the resolution of the display and the file size of vector data generating the image stays the same. Printing the image to paper will usually give a sharper, higher resolution output than printing it to the screen but can use exactly the same vector data file.

A vector-graphics drawing software is used for creating and editing vector graphics. A vector graphics editor is a Computer program that allows users to compose and edit Vector graphics Images interactively on the computer screen (compare The image can be changed by editing screen objects which are then saved as modifications to the mathematical formulae. Mathematical operators in the software can be used to stretch, twist, and colour component object in the picture or the whole picture and these tools are presented to the user intuitively through the graphical user interface of the computer. It is possible to save the screen image produced as a bitmap/raster file or generate a bitmap of any resolution from the vector file for use on any device. In Computer graphics, a bitmap or pixmap is a type of memory organization or Image file format used to store Digital images The

The size of the file generated will depend on the resolution required but the size of the vector file generating the bitmap/raster file will always remain the same. Thus it is easy to convert from a vector file to a range of bitmap/raster file formats but it is very much more difficult to go in the opposite direction, especially if subsequent editing of the vector picture is required. A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a Computer file. It might be an advantage to save an image created from a vector source file as a bitmap/raster format because different systems have different and incompatible vector formats and some might not support vector graphics at all. However, once the file is converted from the vector format it is likely to be bigger and it loses the advantages of scalability without losing resolution. Editing will also lose the convenience of being able to work on individual parts of the picture as discrete objects. Vector formats are not always appropriate in graphics work. For example, digital devices such as cameras and scanners produce raster graphics that are impractical to convert into vectors and so for this type of work the editor will operate on the pixels rather than drawing objects defined by mathematical formulae. Comprehensive graphics tools will combine images from vector and raster sources and might provide editing tools for both since some parts of the overall work could be sourced from a camera and others drawn using vector tools in the software.

The W3C standard for vector graphics is svg. The standard is complex and has been relatively slow to be established at least in part owing to commercial interests. Many web browsers have now some support for rendering svg data but full implementations of the standard are still comparatively rare.

Vectorising is good for removing unnecessary detail from a photograph. This is especially useful for information graphics or line art. Information graphics or infographics are visual representations of Information, Data or Knowledge. Printmaking art techniques such as Engraving, Etching, Woodcut and Lithography are covered more fully in their respective articles

Detail can be added or removed from vector art, vector illustrations can have their own colours, allowing artists to achieve desired results.

One of the first uses of vector graphic displays was the US SAGE air defense system. The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment ( SAGE) was an automated control system for tracking and intercepting enemy Bomber aircraft used by NORAD from Vector graphics systems were only retired from U. S. en route air traffic control in 1999, and are likely still in use in military and specialised systems. Air traffic control ( ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct Aircraft on the ground and in the air Vector graphics were also used on the TX-2 at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory by computer graphics pioneer Ivan Sutherland to run his program Sketchpad in 1963. This article is about the Computer For the Texas district see United States House of Representatives Texas District 2 The MIT Lincoln Laboratory MIT Lincoln Laboratory, also known as Lincoln Lab, is a Federally funded research and development center managed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ivan Edward Sutherland (born 1938 in Hastings, Nebraska) is an American Computer scientist and Internet pioneer Sketchpad (aka Robot Draftsman was a revolutionary computer program written by Ivan Sutherland in 1963 in the course of his PhD thesis for which he received the Turing

Subsequent vector graphics systems include Digital's GT40 [1]. Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the Computer industry There was a home gaming system that used vector graphics called Vectrex as well as various arcade games like Asteroids and Space Wars. The Vectrex is an 8-bit Video game console that was developed by Western Technologies/Smith Engineering. An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in businesses such as Restaurants Pubs Video arcades and Family Entertainment Asteroids is a video Arcade game released in 1979 by Atari Inc Space Wars was the first Vector graphics Arcade game. It is based on Spacewar!, a PDP-1 program that might arguably be Storage scope displays, such as the Tektronix 4014, could also create dynamic vector images by driving the display at a lower intensity. The Tektronix 4014 was an early text and graphics Computer terminal based on the company's own Storage tube technology

Modern vector graphics displays can sometimes be found at laser light shows, using two fast-moving X-Y mirrors to rapidly draw shapes and text on a large screen. A laser lighting display or laser Light show involves the use of Laser light to entertain an audience A mirror is an object with a surface that has good Specular reflection; that is it is smooth enough to form an Image.

The term vector graphics is mainly used today in the context of two-dimensional computer graphics. It is one of several modes an artist can use to create an image on a raster display. Other modes include text, multimedia and 3D rendering. Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms. 3D rendering is the 3D computer graphics process of automatically converting 3D Wire frame models into 2D images with 3D photorealistic effects on a computer Virtually all modern 3D rendering is done using extensions of 2D vector graphics techniques. Plotters used in technical drawing still draw vectors directly to paper. A plotter is a Vector graphics printing device that connects to a Computer.

Motivation

For example, consider circle of radius r. Circles are simple Shapes of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane which are at a constant Distance, called the Remote Authentication Dial In User Service ( RADIUS) is a networking protocol that provides centralized access authorization and accounting management for people or computers The main pieces of information a program needs in order to draw this circle are

1. that the following data are describing a circle
2. the radius r and equation of a circle
3. the location of the center point of the circle
4. stroke line style and colour (possibly transparent)
5. fill style and colour (possibly transparent)

Advantages to this style of drawing over raster graphics:

• This minimal amount of information translates to a much smaller file size compared to large raster images (the size of representation doesn't depend on the dimensions of the object), though a vector graphic with a small file size is often said to lack detail compared with a real world photo. Information as a concept has a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer. In Mathematics and its applications a coordinate system is a system for assigning an n - Tuple of Numbers or scalars to each point Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium In Computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap, is a Data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of Pixels File size Measures the Size of a Computer file. Typically it is measured in Bytes with a Prefix. In mathematics the dimension of a Space is roughly defined as the minimum number of Coordinates needed to specify every point within it
• Correspondingly, one can indefinitely zoom in on e. g. a circle arc, and it remains smooth. On the other hand, a polygon representing a curve will reveal being not really curved.
• On zooming in, lines and curves need not get wider proportionally. Often the width is either not increased or less than proportional. On the other hand, irregular curves represented by simple geometric shapes may be made proportionally wider when zooming in, to keep them looking smooth and not like these geometric shapes.
• The parameters of objects are stored and can be later modified. This means that moving, scaling, rotating, filling etc. In Physics, motion means a constant change in the location of a body A rotation is a movement of an object in a circular motion A two- Dimensional object rotates around a center (or point) of rotation doesn't degrade the quality of a drawing. In the vernacular quality can mean a high degree of excellence (“a quality product” a degree of excellence or the lack of it (“work of average quality” or a property of Moreover, it is usual to specify the dimensions in device-independent units, which results in the best possible rasterization on raster devices. Rasterization or Rasterisation is the task of taking an image described in a Vector graphics format (shapes and converting it into a Raster image ( In Computer hardware, a peripheral device is any device attached to a computer in order to expand its functionality (basically input and output devices together are known
• From a 3-D perspective, rendering shadows is also much more realistic with vector graphics, as shadows can be abstracted into the rays of light which form them. This allows for photo realistic images and renderings.

Typical primitive objects

• lines and polylines
• polygons
• circles and ellipses
• Bézier curves
• Bezigons
• Text (in computer fonts such as TrueType where each letter is created from Bézier curves)

This list is not complete. In Geometry a polygon (ˈpɒlɨɡɒn ˈpɒliɡɒn is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path or circuit Circles are simple Shapes of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane which are at a constant Distance, called the In Mathematics, an ellipse (from the Greek ἔλλειψις literally absence) is a Conic section, the locus of points in a In the mathematical field of Numerical analysis, a Bézier curve is a Parametric curve important in Computer graphics and related fields In Geometry, a beziergon (or polybezier) is a closed path composed of Bézier curves. For other uses see Character. In Computer and machine-based Telecommunications terminology a character is a unit of TrueType is an Outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe 's Type 1 fonts There are various types of curves (Catmull-Rom splines, NURBS etc. In the mathematical subfield of Numerical analysis a cubic Hermite spline, named in honor of Charles Hermite, is a third-degree spline with each Non-uniform rational B-spline ( NURBS) is a mathematical model commonly used in Computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces ), which are useful in certain applications.

Often, a bitmap image is considered as a primitive object. In Computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap, is a Data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of Pixels From the conceptual view, it behaves as a rectangle. In Geometry, a rectangle is defined as a Quadrilateral where all four of its angles are Right angles A rectangle with vertices ABCD would be denoted as

Vector operations

Vector graphics editors typically allow rotation, movement, mirroring, stretching, skewing, affine transformations, changing of z-order and combination of primitives into more complex objects. A vector graphics editor is a Computer program that allows users to compose and edit Vector graphics Images interactively on the computer screen (compare In Geometry, an affine transformation or affine map or an affinity (from the Latin affinis, "connected with" between two Vector This article is about a graphical user interface concept for the space filling curve see Z-order (curve Z-order is an ordering of overlapping

More sophisticated transformations include set operations on closed shapes (union, difference, intersection, etc. In Mathematics a transform is an Operator applied to a function so that under the transform certain operations are simplified In its simplest meaning in Mathematics and Logic, an operation is an action or procedure which produces a new value from one or more input values The shape ( OE sceap Eng created thing) of an object located in some space refers to the part of space occupied by the object as determined In Set theory, the term Union (denoted as ∪ refers to a set operation used in the convergence of set elements to form a resultant set containing the elements of both sets In Discrete mathematics and predominantly in Set theory, a complement is a concept used in comparisons of sets to refer to the unique values of one set in relation In Mathematics, the intersection of two sets A and B is the set that contains all elements of A that also belong to B (or equivalently ).

Vector graphics are ideal for simple or composite drawings that need to be device-independent, or do not need to achieve photo-realism. Photorealism is the genre of painting based on making a painting of a Photograph. For example, the PostScript and PDF page description languages use a vector graphics model. PostScript ( PS) is a dynamically typed concatenative Programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982 A page description language (PDL is a language that describes the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output Bitmap.

Advanced vector artists are developing more photo-realistic vector art every day.

Printing

Vector art is key for printing. Printing is a process for reproducing text and image typically with ink on Paper using a printing press Since the art is made from a series of mathematical curves it will print very crisp even when resized. For instance one can take the same vector logo and print it on a business card, and then enlarge it to billboard size and keep the same crisp quality. Business cards are Cards bearing business Information about a Company or Individual. A low-resolution raster graphic would blur incredibly if it were enlarged from business card size to billboard size. In Computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap, is a Data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of Pixels

3D modeling

In 3D computer graphics, vectorized surface representations are most common (bitmaps can be used for special purposes such as surface texturing, height-field data and bump mapping). 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer ' Bump mapping' is a Computer graphics technique where at each Pixel, a perturbation to the Surface normal of the object being rendered is At the low-end, simple meshes of polygons are used to represent geometric detail in applications where interactive frame rates or simplicity are important. A polygon mesh or Unstructured grid is a collection of vertices edges and faces that defines the shape of a polyhedral object in 3D computer In Geometry a polygon (ˈpɒlɨɡɒn ˈpɒliɡɒn is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path or circuit Frame rate, or frame frequency, is the measurement of the Frequency (rate at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames The Simplicity is the property condition or quality of being simple or un-combined At the high-end, where one is willing to trade-off higher rendering times for increased image quality and precision, smooth surface representations such as Bézier patches, NURBS or Subdivision surfaces are used. In the vernacular quality can mean a high degree of excellence (“a quality product” a degree of excellence or the lack of it (“work of average quality” or a property of In Mathematics, specifically in Topology, a surface is a Two-dimensional Manifold. Bézier surfaces are a species of mathematical spline used in Computer graphics, Computer-aided design, and Finite element modelling Non-uniform rational B-spline ( NURBS) is a mathematical model commonly used in Computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces A subdivision surface, in the field of 3D computer graphics, is a method of representing a smooth Surface via the specification of a coarser Piecewise linear One can however achieve a smooth surface rendering from a polygonal mesh through the use of shading algorithms such as Phong and Gouraud. Phong shading refers to a set of techniques in 3D computer graphics. Gouraud shading, named after Henri Gouraud, is a method used in Computer graphics to simulate the differing effects of light and colour across the surface of

Formats

Main article: Image_file_formats#Vector_formats

One example of vector graphics format is SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), an open standard created and developed by the World Wide Web Consortium to address the need (and attempts of several corporations) for a versatile, scriptable and all-purpose vector format for the web and otherwise. Image file formats are standardized means of organising and storing images An open standard is a Standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it The term DOM Scripting refers to programmatically accessing the Document Object Model (DOM Another example is VML, a proposed standard that was adopted by Microsoft. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer

See also

References