Multiple choiceQuestion 1 · Recall
Loading…
By the end you can choose a bitmap or a vector graphic for a given task and justify the choice with a reason tied to that task.
A café emails its 200 × 100 pixel logo to a printer for a 6-metre banner. Each pixel becomes a square 3 cm wide. The café's elegant swirl turns into a staircase.
If the logo had been a vector, the printer would simply have recalculated it at 6 metres, perfectly smooth. Same logo, same file, no staircase.
| Bitmap | Vector graphic | |
|---|---|---|
| Stored as | a grid of pixels, each with a colour code | a drawing list of drawing objects and their properties |
| When enlarged | pixels get bigger: jagged, pixelated | recalculated: sharp at any size |
| Best for | photographs and realistic images with continuous, subtle changes of colour | logos, diagrams, icons, maps, plans, text: anything built from shapes |
| File size depends on | image resolution × colour depth | the number and complexity of drawing objects |
| You edit | individual pixels (e.g. retouching a photo) | individual objects (move, resize, recolour a shape) |
| Made by | cameras, scanners, paint software | drawing and CAD software |