What is the difference between a raster and a vector?

Answer 1

A "raster scan" display is what you are most probably looking at right now. The image is constructed of many small dots. In modern color displays each dot is made up of a red, a green, and a blue component.

Vector displays shoot a beam that sweeps over the screen . One example that you may have seen is an oscilloscope. There the beam of electrons is deflected by electrically charged plates to change it's direction. there are no pixels per say in a vector display.

Answer 2

Vector Art can be magnified infinitely without losing sharpness. Raster art defines each pixel which remains a square and if you magnify raster art you will see "jaggies" and blocks of color rather than smooth slanted lines.

Answer 3

A raster is an image that is defined by a map of pixels, such as a photograph or .jpg file. Rasters are easy to edit but difficult to scale, due to them becoming blurry or pixellated when scaled to large sizes. Raster images are preferred by photographers and digital artists who are more concerned about realistic quality and ease of publication than scalability. An example of a program that uses rasters is Adobe Photoshop.

A vector image is defined by geometrical variables such as lines, curves, points and polygons. Because vectors rely on mathematical equations to map out where the design is, they are perfectly scalable and do not lose quality at large sizes. Vector images are preferred by graphic designers who plan to use illustrations and logos on media of different sizes, such as business cards, letter heads, posters and banners. Programs that uses vectors include Adobe Illustrator and Super Vectorizer ( svgvector.com/download/Super-Vectorizer-2.dmg ).