Handbook

Often, we will ask a client for their visual identity/logo as a vector eps. What is that? Vector images typically contain elements such as curves and shapes of various colours that are well-defined.These elements can either be pure graphics, western alphabets or Asian characters. Each element is defined mathematically by the computer. Here’s an example of a red, five-inch circle:

Information about the location of the circle’s centre point, the length of its radius and its colour, red, would be the essential information for this image file. And that’s it. Imagine you went to IKEA and bought a graphic. Un-assembled, it comes in a smaller package and you use the instructions (!) to assemble it.

The real beauty of a vector file (and why we insist on it) is scalability. Since the information contained is mathematical, we can go up to any size:

The drawback of a vector is that it’s not very good at displaying photo-realistic images.

Common extensions include .eps, .ai (Adobe Illustrator), .cdr (Corel Draw) or .dwg (AutoCad).

OK, so what’s a bitmap then?
Bitmaps “dohn need no steenking math.” What you see is what you see. Bitmapped images are mapped into a grid, whose size is determined by the image’s resolution. A 2x2 inch bitmap with a resolution of 300 ppi (pixels per inch) would be set in a grid of 300 x 300 pixels. Think of a bitmap as an interesting image set in tile like a mosaic. Each tile (pixel) holds a specific colour to support the image.

Great for photos, bitmap files are typically photo-realistic files that have lots going on in them. Like a tif file. BUT, they don’t scale all that well. At all. They are mapped to a non-flexible grid so when enlarged, they lose sharpness and the edges appear jagged:

Common extensions include .psd (PhotoShop), .jpg, .gif, .tif and .bmp (bitmap).