Vector Graphics

Vectors are a mathematical way of storing images. The

You may not have heard of this type of image formatting, not that you had heard of Raster, either. This formatting falls into a lot of proprietary formats, formats made for specific programs. CorelDraw (CDR), Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language (HGL), and Windows Metafiles (EMF) are a few examples.

     Where the Meta/Vector formats have it over Raster is that they are more than a simple grid of colored dots. They're actual vectors of data stored in mathematical formats rather than bits of colored dots. This allows for a strange shaping of colors and images that can be perfectly cropped on an arc. A squared-off map of dots cannot produce that arc as well. In addition, since the information is encoded in vectors, Meta/Vector image formats can be blown up or down (a property known as "scalability") without looking jagged or crowded (a property known as "pixelating").

     So that I do not receive e-mail from those in the computer image know, there is a difference in Meta and Vector formats. Vector formats can contain only vector data whereas Meta files, as is implied by the name, can contain multiple formats. This means there can be a lovely Bitmap plopped right in the middle of your Windows Meta file. You'll never know or see the difference but, there it is. I'm just trying to keep everybody happy.

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