Bits of Vector

Bitmap/Vector Image demonstration.

Bitmap and vector images are two different types of image that both have some similar properties, but above are useful for different applications. In a nut shell bitmap images are made up of pixels. (tiny squares that fill up your computer screen.) A basic use of this would be images from a digital camera. Whereas vector images are made up of different shapes and lines.

Images of the bitmap variety... Some basic pros of using bitmap images for the web is that you can have as many colours as there are pixels in the image. (That's usually quite a lot!)  Cons include the fact that you can never enlarge a bitmap image as it pixelates (Degrades the quality.) and you cannot turn a bitmap image into a vector, this works vice-versa though. Some formats for using bitmap images online include JPEG, (Smaller file sizes.) PNG, GIF, (Both formats for more simple images.) BmP, Tif and Psd (Photoshop.) On - screen bitmap images are displayed at at least 72 DPI (Dots per inch.) and print at at least 300 DPI.

Images of the vector variety... Pros include that you can scale the image to any size and not loose quality, they have smaller file sizes and you can convert them to bitmap images. BUT, to read vector images you must have a player (Such as Flash.) to view the images. Also the images are considered to be more simple than bitmap images as you can't have as many individual colours. (Well it's possible but in that case you may as well use a bitmap image.) Vector image file types include ai, eps, 3ds, Swf, Sug. Vectors are usually used for possibly logo's, (As they can be scaled.) maps and even diagrams.

Things learnt also:
Some other useful information I have learnt at college includes these;

R G B - On screen colours and light can make any colour..
e  r  l
d e u
   e e
   n

C M Y K - Colours used for print.
y  a  e  b
a  g  l   l
n  e  l   a
    n o  c
    t w  k
    a

Alpha - An images transparency.