What Are Vector Graphics?

Vector graphics are non-pixel based lines and shapes. Adobe Illustrator is a very common program that uses vectors.

Okay, so they aren’t pixel based, but what does that even mean? What are pixels? Explained simply, pixels are tiny squares of color on a digital canvas that, when combined into a bigger picture, make something comprehensive.

Take a look at this shampoo bottle design. It is an image made up of pixels…tiny squares that are filled with the colors that make up the image you see to your right.

Look pretty good right? It’s not blurry, it has some nice neutral colors. You can’t see any solid color squares, right?

At first, that’s true. When the image is at a normal size and magnification level, there are no visible pixels, it looks like a total normal image of a shampoo bottle.

But now take a look at this image…

It looks kinda blurry now, right? That’s because when you zoom in on an image that uses pixels, those pixels become more visible as you zoom closer to them.

Try opening a photograph in Photoshop

or your desired editing program. Use the zoom tool to zoom in as far as you possibly can. What happens? You may see something like this.

Now you can see the pixels very clearly. Those little squares are each assigned one single color. A single pixel cannot hold more than one color.

The problem with pixel based images is that they lose quality very quickly an easily when you manipulate them. If you are using the move tool in Photoshop to shrink or expand a pixel based object, that image is going to quickly lose its quality because the pixels will lose information as they change. That’s why when you are using pixel based images for a design, you always want to make sure you adjust their size a little as possible, and avoid it all together if possible.

“Okay, that’s cool and all, but I’m here to learn what vectors are…not pixels!”

To understand vector graphics, you first need to understand pixels, because now you can understand what it means when I say that vectors don’t use pixels. Take a look at this graphic designed with vectors:

This allows designs to be created and manipulated without losing information and quality like you would with a pixel based design. You can zoom in as far as you want on a vector graphic, and the lines will stay just as sharp as they were before you began zooming. Same goes for resizing. You can expand a vector graphic by 200% and it will still be as sharp as it was when you first drew it.

As you can see in the image to your right, there are no visible pixels or lost quality even though this image is zoomed in to 1500%

This is great news! You can create high-quality designs and no matter what you do to them, they will have amazing quality and never lose any image information! …Right?

There are a few drawbacks to vectors.

Disadvantages of Using Vector Graphics

1. You cannot take photographs as vector images. If you’re into photography, you’re out of luck when it comes to taking vector photographs…it just ain’t gonna happen, sorry.
2. Vectors take a long time to learn and work with. They are far from easy to use, and while they are definitely far from impossible to learn…it may take you some time. So be patient with yourself.
3. Vectors are primarily for simple graphics with little shading. If you are looking to do a lot of shading on a product, vectors may not be your best option. You can do some simple shading with vectors, of course, but it takes a lot of time and effort to make it look good.
4. After you’re done creating your vector image, you’ll probably need to rasterize it (convert it to a pixel based image) for practical use. Most places that you’re going to upload images to are going to require a image format like .jpg or .png …raster formats.

We’ve learned a lot about vector graphics (and pixels!)…but how can you use it? Vectors are awesome for creating shape based graphics like logos. I design all my logos as vectors and deliver them to clients as both a vector file and a raster file. This gives them a lot more flexibility and ensures that they will always have a high-quality image to go back to even if their raster file quality gets messed up.

The possibilities of vectors are endless, so get out there and be creative with it!