Talking about vectors, you can easily relate your thoughts to graphics, editor, markup language, and many more. Interestingly, when you ask your younger siblings, they may say something like vector math, geometry, and all that. Let us now be more specific in the computer term and application areas.
Vectors in Computer
Let me in on a couple of computer terms about vectors.
- Vector graphics are images in geometrical primitives, including lines, curves, points, and polygons. The images are displayed and stored in vectors, so you can easily execute the storage and scaling due to the mathematical expressions of the geometrical primitives. On the contrary, you use bitmap for more special, if not limited, purposes, including bump mapping, surface texturing, and height-field data.
- SVG describes 2D dynamic and static graphics in XML-based format of file.
- Vector editor is a computer program to edit and compose graphics images. You can save the file in EPS, WMF, SVG, PDF, or VML format.
- VML is a deprecated language of XML with which you can produce graphics.
Vectors Trend Inspiration
Enough about the terms, let us go on with the application. I am sure you are familiar with pixel whenever you talk about digital picture. A single digital picture consists of thousands of pixels or cells – the closer and smaller they are, the higher the resolution of quality of the digital picture or image. Now, you are also familiar with the computer graphics of 2D and 3D. The 2D was a complete graphics while the 3D is the extension. Other materialization of graphics includes multimedia and text. Our outline fonts today are made from quadratic or cubic mathematical curves. In short, most vector files support:
- Text (in font format of computer) or quadratics
- Color gradient
- Bitmap images when they behave as rectangles
- Catmull-Rom splines
- Iterated function-system
- Super ellipsoids and super ellipses
- And also other graphics of vectors