What is the difference between Raster and Vector?

Raster images, popularly known as bitmaps, are a composition of pixels of color—each color pixel summing up to the image. Raster images will be well understood when compared to pointillist paintings, which are characterized by a series of colored dots of paint. Each paint dot in a pointillist painting stands for a single pixel in a raster image. When viewed as an individual dot, it remains just a color; but when viewed as a whole, the colored dots make up a vivid and detailed painting.

This is the same way in which the pixels in a raster image works, thereby making possible a pixel by pixel editing and a full detailed image. Vector Images, on the other hand, comprise of paths, each with the specific mathematical formula (vector) that explains how the path is shaped and what color it is bordered with or filled by. Since the image rendering relies solely on mathematical formulas, vector images keep up with their appearance irrespective of size. It has the ability to be scaled infinitely. Vector images are common in programs such as Illustrator, CorelDraw, and Inkscape, which can be used in creating and editing vector images.

Raster and vector happen to be two different means whereby you can create and store digital images. The way they create their final image is actually the major difference between them. When vector wants to create its final image, it combines primitive shapes such as lines, curves, and circles. On the contrary, the raster creates its final image by using a grid, and each element in the grid has its own color. When you want to take realistic images like photographs, the raster is actually more preferable as a vector is not capable of capturing in detail.

Also, you cannot be able to capture an image into a vector directly. The major advantage vector is having over raster is its much smaller file size. The only things it needs are the parameters of each shape instead of each pixel's individual information. You can be able to modify each shape's parameters, and it will not affect other parameters, which makes it easier to edit vector images. This is not so for raster, and you will not be able to edit easily.