So if we're dealing with vector we're going to be using Illustrator. A very large vector file takes up virtually nothing because it's just simply shapes and fills. Also a very large Photoshop file is going to take up a lot of space. We can scale it larger but the larger we make it the lower the quality that we have.

So getting something really nice and neat and clean and smooth, we have to have a really good quality image, a lot of pixels in there and it's not really scalable to an infinite extent. When we're dealing with raster though, raster is a fixed amount of information and all the pixels are square. We can scale it to 50 feet across and it's still going to look just as good as it is at an intercross. With vector it doesn't matter how big we make it because it's just simply shapes and fills, that's all it is. So if we scale this image larger and larger and larger we're taking that information and we're scaling it over a larger area which means we're basically stretching everything out and our quality degrades. Well the one unfortunate thing with a raster image is we have a fixed amount of information. So, if you have a camera or a device that's going to capture pictures, your cell phone, your tablet, and you capture an image, the higher quality the image generally that means the more pixels that you have in your image. Now, with a raster image we have a fixed number of pixels, a fixed amount of information. And when we look at something in Photoshop we have, if you look up close here, every pixel is it's own color, and images are made up of hundreds of thousands or millions of pixels, all of which contain their own, uh, this unique color and it actually forms the entire image. And when we open up an image in Photoshop, it's broken down into pixels or squares of color. So when you hear 'Whats the difference between vector and raster?' Now we know what vector is. We have scalable vector graphics which allow us to use any type of shape or fill or type that we use or create in Illustrator to be used on the web as well, user interface, phones, Ipads, tablets whatever, all those graphics created in Illustrator, universally scalable and that's what its actually used for. We can create a logo in Illustrator, we can place it in any other application, we can scale it infinitely, its always going to retain its quality, it's always going to look good, and we don't have to worry about scaling issues whatsoever. And that's what Illustrator is used for, shapes and fills, infinitely scalable to any size and virtually any application. So a vector graphic is the main reason why we use Illustrator. No matter what size we use the type, it always scales beautifully. So, type is the perfect example of what a vector graphic really is. One of the benefits of having this is that its completely scalable at any size, and the most common form of vector graphic that we use is type because any time you use type in any application you can increase or decrease the size of the type and it always prints out nice and smooth. We draw a shape with a path, we can fill it with a color, that's what Illustrator does. A vector graphic is literally shapes and fills. We have vector graphics and we have raster graphics. Well, we have a basic understanding here of what we actually deal with in terms of graphics. One thing we have to talk about is when we actually use each and every individual application and why. Best Project Uses for Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign

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