100207 Artist Kenneth John KEN
there are two types of digital graphics. bitmap or raster graphics and vector graphics. bitmap is a grid (raster) of square units or pixels put into a rectanglular dimensional picture plane. each pixel represents a certain color and can be many colors, depending on the number of filters or bit depth of the picture plane. vector graphics are individual objects that are made by the computer using mathematics, specifically calculus. they have a math formula that makes a boundary area called a stroke, into any shape, open or closed and then tells the shape to fill or be empty with a color.
bitmaps are generally used for photographs and art that has many gradiations that produce zillions of colors. when the original graphic is computerized or made digital (camera or scanning), the number of pixels is determined by the user, called resolution. the higher the number of pixels per inch makes the graphic sharper and more clear. the downfall is that the file size gets real big and hard to work with. The bigger downfall with bitmap graphics is that each pixel is a square, so that when a circle or something at a 45 degree angle, close up or at low graphic resolution (required for web production), you can have what is called the jaggies or rough edges. to compensate for this, a good computer graphic program will anti-alias the contrast, meaning it takes the edges and blends them together by taking several pixels between the edges, and averages them out in color and value between the two contrasts or differences, so that it looks natural. of course the higher resolution the graphic is, the less you will see of this. the problem is when you try to increase the physical size of a pre-sized picture plane, the resolution gets lower and the bigger pixels gets magnified to see these edges. you can resize the picture plane to smaller dimensions fairly easy.
vector graphics are great for illustrations, text and graphics that do not look like a photograph or a realism piece of art. as i stated before, it's all done on the computer using math. each object is stacked on top of each other, blocking out the lower one or not and each shape can be reordered or stacked in anyway. vector graphics are viewed on the computer monitor in a bitmap way, but when they print, you get very sharp lines and curves. they can be resized with no distortion. the computer just substitutes new numbers into the math formula that makes that certain shape. the disadvantage of vector graphics is all detail has to be an individual shape and has to be made. vector graphics look a bit cartoony, not realistic, great for illustration, graphic design or something with limited colors. 3d computer graphics are all vector made.
the industry standard for bitmap graphics is adobe photoshop. the industry standard for vector graphics adobe illustrator.
