Vector Graphics & Vector Illustration

Illustration is now an amazing trend in the market. Due to the convenience with the vector, vector illustration and vector graphics are popular and used preliminary in the media at the time of designing. These can be used in blogs, fashion design and in the professional and corporate web sites effectively. Vector illustration can create and enhance corporate entity and can establish brand.

Once up on a time, vectorgraphic design and vector illustration were inseparable. But it has been found that many great illustrator of 20th century also became designer and could comfortably work in both the fields. It was due to the development of computer hardware and software and drop in price which make superior technology within the reach of mass people.

Hand touched vector illustration could contain signature on the illustration as like the art work and could be sold in the market. A vector illustration contains personal authorship. These two treats are absent in the vector graphics. However, it is alleged that in 90s the illustration sector were dominated by the business minded illustrators.

Vector graphics uses some geometrical element on both the x axis and y axis of a graphic. By using some complex mathematical calculations vector graphics are made of some points, lines, shapes of various kind and curves to create an image in the computer. However, vector graphic designer need not to be bothered with mathematics. In a vector graphic we may apparently see only lines but vector graphics are not.

If we think other ways, vector graphics based on images that contains many paths. Every path has a control point which can change the direction of that path. That is in a vector graphic it is possible to manipulate every parts of the vector illustrations in it. It has benefited both the vector graphic designers as well as the illustrators creating vector illustration. Manipulating a track in a vector illustration with color, color fill or change of thickness does not change the size of the file significantly. Because all the details of that vector illustration remains in a database. This is a great advantage for graphic designer and illustrator when portability is concern.

Small size vector file can be converted to any raster file of any resolution but converting a file from raster to vector again very difficult; especially if there is a need to edit the vector illustration again.

In practical world especially in printing media vector illustration and vector graphic is not always appropriate. Because there other images like photographs and scanned documents used in printing. Photographs and scanned images are continuous tone raster images. It is not practical to convert a continuous-tone raster graphics in a vector graphics. Graphic tools use both the images from vector and raster sources and it is likely that in a graphic design some images comes from camera and / or scanner and some may contain vector graphics.

To become a good graphic designer one must be conversant in both the vector and raster images’ tools and theories. That would help them to use both the comprehensive tools of image editing.