What is a Vectorized Image ?

Vectorized images – definition
Let’s say you want to display some pictures or any visual data on your computer. There are two methods to do this and you can choose any one – the first one is the way in which the representation is done by using small ‘dots’ or ‘pixels’; the second method is displaying the images through some geometrical primitives or formulas like points, lines, curves and polygons that are supported by some mathematical equations. The first method is termed as raster graphics or bitmap imaging while the latter is commonly termed as vector or vectorized graphics.

Are vectorized images better than the raster ones ?
No! In fact the use of vectorized images was very wide spread in the earlier years of computer technology as they needed much less memory than the raster images. If you take a close look at the old graphical representations, you can see that they typically used the various geometrical shapes as it was much easier than getting in to greater and intricate details of using pixels. With the advent of technology, the computer memories became more and more sharp, replacing vectorized images with the raster ones. Today, vectorized graphics are still used by some though the practice is not very widespread.

The advantages of vector graphics over the raster graphics
Though not as intricate as pixel images, vector graphics have a few advantages over its counterpart.
• It requires the minimum amount of information to convert the data in to a much smaller sized file. This is different from a raster image where the file size is much bigger.
• If you are planning on a three dimensional presentation, a vector image is much more useful as the shadows can be abstracted into light rays that are the basis of their foundation. This helps in photo realistic pictures.
• If you want to remove some irrelevant and unnecessary detail from an image, the vector graphic is the best system. Hence it is widely used in line art and information graphics.
• There are a number of vector graphic applications available today that can automatically transform raster images to vector graphics though the representation was done manually.

Where can I use vectorized images besides the above discusses three dimensional projects and presentations ?
Vectorized graphics or images can be used in creating special effects in movies and also in making computer animation.
The well known and very popular Flash format uses vectorized images; this enables them to get a very high resolution in a fairly small file, in contrast to the raster graphics.

The conversion from raster to vector
The present day technology is allowing an automatic raster to vector conversion in certain cases. Programs like pictures, photographs and paintings are being transformed into vector from raster graphics as they are much easy to handle and can be modified easily. Freehand is a vector-image program that has a tool called Trace incorporated in it. Trace helps in the process of automatically transforming the raster graphics to vector along with a number of very special applications, though they all have their advantages and drawbacks.

General information about vectorized graphics
Today most of the important visual representations transform the vector graphics to a raster format. This raster format has a value for every dot or pixel and stores them in the memory. Way back in the 1950s and leading to the next two decades, the vector graphics were extremely popular. These images were produced with the help of an electronic beam in the CRT display monitor that was directed in such a way that only the different shapes required were traced out leaving the remaining part of the screen absolutely dark. To get the clarity of the image, this process was repeated several times in a second (method known as stroke refresh). The best part of this process was that it permitted an extremely high resolution line art as well as moving images to be presented without the need of a huge amount of memory space that a raster graphics would require; moreover, the pictures were allowed to be modified in any manner – rotated, moved, blinked – only by changing a couple of words on the graphic data “display file”. Such vector based monitors were popularly known as the X-Y displays.

What are the various uses of vector graphics ?
In the practical field, vector graphics or images were used extensively in the US SAGE air defense system. It was only in the year 1999, that this system was removed from the US air traffic control though it is still very well utilized in the military and other specialized fields.

In 1963, vector graphics was used by the famous Ivan Sutherland (the innovator of this whole computer graphics system) on TX-2 at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory for his program called Sketchpad.
 

Article Contributed By: Sukanaya Banerjee

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