But what are they exactly, and how are they different?
Stick around for a little bit of computing history and graphic geekery.
Pixels and Raster Images
Pixelis a contraction of the words Picture and Element.
Pixels (at least the pixels in digital art files) were made to recreate photography.
The idea was to recreate a photograph using a grid-based system of colors and tones.
These “picture elements” are the indivisible building blocks of all digital artwork, complex or simple.
Shown below, his infant son was his subject.
Pixels existed before Kirsch and the computer scientists that worked with him created digital imaging.
Because screens necessarily predate the images we view them on, monitor pixels existed before digital imaging.
Sketchpad allowed users to draw points and lines directly on a screen with a stylus.
Vector primitives, existing only as points on a grid in this mathematical space have no such limitation.
The helpful consequence of this is that vector images operate independent of image resolution.
Raster images often look poor when they are low resolution, or describe an image with very few pixels.
What are they good for?
Typography, in particular, is perfectly suited to vector graphics.
Abstract geometric shapes are easily defined with clean-edges and curves of vector primitives.
Line art is well suited to modern vector programs like Flash.
Deep space photography from satellites likethe Hubble Telescopeor spacecraft like Voyager 1 would be impossible with film photography.
Quite possibly the mostepic pixel ever photographed.
Image credits: All images assumed fair use.
