Photoshop is an inevitable tool for photograph lovers. Be it a professional photographer or a common man, photographs are equally important for all of us. After all, it is imperative to get the right click of a moment for all of us. At times, the photograph may not look so good or may have a hint of imperfection to it that we may not like. This is where Photoshop becomes a lifesaver for us. Photoshop gives us the power to manipulate photographs to our will and taste. So, Photoshop is very essential for any process related to photographs.
The images that are worked upon in Photoshop are generally categorized into two types:
- Raster
- Vector
Needless to say, for beginners, this can be a very uphill task to understand the meaning of Raster and Vector image. This article pits Raster Image vs. Vector’s image and will provide a brief introspection on what the terms mean and where to use them.
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RASTER IMAGE
A raster image in plain grass-root level refers to an image that is made up of pixels. It is a known fact to everyone that sometimes magnifying or zooming on to an image shows us square-shaped small blocks. These small square blocks are pixels and are the primary color carriers in a raster image. A raster image is typically used or created in cameras/digital cameras. The larger the number of pixels, the larger the resolution, and the better is the quality of the raster image. Some extensions used for raster images are .jpg, .gif etc.
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Vector Image
To understand this, let’s look into a little bit of Physics. Technically speaking, a vector is a line that has a definite direction. In this case, too, the same definition is retained. The paths comprise of complex mathematics that instructs the monitor or printer to draw an image in lines form. Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw are the best software as far as creating a vector image are concerned. As a vector image is devoid of any pixels, zooming on an image will never lead to pixelation or showing up of pixels. In a vector image, the lines are the color carriers.
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Rasterizing
Rasterizing is a process that Photoshop conducts in order to convert a vector image into a raster image. Rasterizing allows one to perform graphical changes to the image without changing the image itself.
In the layer panel of Photoshop, a rectangular shape icon can be found at the bottom right corner of the layer thumbnail. This symbol signifies that the layer has a vector image.
If you are intending to save an image in a vector image format minus the rasterizing, then save the image using the extension .psd (Photoshop Document), .psb, or eps. In case you are using the Adobe Illustrator, then save it as .ai. However, for files that are larger than 2 gigabytes, it is mandatory to use the .psb format as the .psd format will not work in such a case.
This concludes our discussion of the raster image vs. Vector image. As we observed, the raster image and vector image are different in terms of construction. The above article thus is intended for understanding the basic differences in a raster image and vector image while simultaneously throwing light upon the ways in which both categories of images are processed.
