Yay, this is fun. This is one of the topics that I believe most people get involved in photography for.
Bitmaps are exciting, bitmaps are like images, shapes or graphics made up of pixels, thousands or millions of pixels, imagine that. Millions of tiny little blocks all working together for the bigger picture.
But their not just little blocks you see, they have little personalities, little aversions and preferences. You see if you stretch a bitmap image all of the edges start to pixelate and look like a stair case. Some people generalise and call them bad names and berate bitmaps for being bastards when they stair case, but they don't understand that their just all working together to make the image look bad, it's like a little cry for help. Why can't you just accept us for who we are ? why do we need to change ? remind you of anyone ? Their all working together so you just let them be. Amazing isn't it, their just stretched too thin very easily. However, even though their hard to work with they have amazing advantages, photographs are essentially bitmap images. If you convert a photograph to a vector it just looks like a cartoon. But bitmaps, although they're hard to work with they definitely come with their advantages. Working with bitmaps is a bit like being Clint Eastwood's boss in Dirty Harry. You don't like the way they don't toe the line and follow all the orders but goddam your glad you've got them.
Vectors, when working with a graphic or shapes are without doubt the better format to work with. Vectors aren't made up of pixels, they're essentially made up of lines and mathematical equations allowing you to stretch them infinitely without ever losing quality. They are like people without emotions, you can stretch them to the limit. Their file sizes are smaller too, although they do take up more processing power. Have you ever seen despicable me ? the villain called vector? Vector graphics have essentially absolutely nothing to do with him, other than the fact he's good at maths.
However, a big drawback to vectors is that you can't use them in photoshop, they sort of just convert to a bitmap image and are made up of pixels all of a sudden. Vectors are really only used for designing graphics, logos, leaflets, websites and the like. Bitmaps on the other hand aren't very useful in this area because they aren't as flexible.
The important distinction to make here is that anything thats created with pixels is a bitmap, things like jpegs, gifs, bmp's. Common file formats for vectors are xml's, eps's, svg's, essentially all kinds of weird formats that, if you are a photographer at least, you hope never to see in your life. I guess, it's kind of like driving a car and hoping never to see a cyclist. I mean their there and your glad that they exist in the world, compensating for all of the things you, as a driver aren't currently doing, but you just hope not to see them because they kind of might get in your way. I do however, even as a driver like to see cyclists. It refreshes me, I like that people cycle and are doing good for themselves and the world. I kind of like to remove the boundaries between me and everything else and live in kind of a subtle and blissful oneness of it all, where there is little distinction between you, yourself and the cyclist over their in the rain, it's kind of like we're all in this together ? you know ? I'm driving because I have a young daughter and most of the time have too but at the same time the cyclist doesn't and instead of just sitting on his back, she's using that opportunity to better the world and them-self whilst just living out there in nature you know ? their stoicism inspires me, even though I can remind myself I do the same thing on a run sometimes, in the wind and the lashing rain I still feel their stoicism you know ? it still feels good to me ? I guess I was just trying to create a metaphor from the general perspective to help you understand, because I care about you too ? you know ? However, still as a photographer, I hope never to see an SVG file. Do you understand ?
So there you have it, Vectors Vs Bitmaps.
Vectors are based on Mathematical equations and so don’t alter or show pixels when you stretch them or zoom in. (vector data)
Use more processing power than bitmaps
Made up from lines equations and calculations
Individual elements can be grouped
images are more precise than bitmaps
take up less memory than bitmaps
take up less storage than bitmaps
Bitmaps are of a specific size and don’t stretch well, they also show “stair case edges” when you zoom in. (raster data)
Use less processing power than vectors
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