SVG files are essentially printable text that describes both straight and curved paths, as well as other attributes. In recent years, SVG has become a significant format that is completely independent of the resolution of the rendering device, typically a printer or display monitor.
Many web browsers now have some support for rendering SVG data but full implementations of the standard are still comparatively rare. The standard is complex and has been relatively slow to be established at least in part owing to commercial interests. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard for vector graphics is Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). This vector-based image of a round four-color swirl displays several unique features of vector graphics versus raster graphics: there is no aliasing along the rounded edge (which would result in digital artifacts in a raster graphic), the color gradients are all smooth, and the user can resize the image infinitely without losing any quality.
Plotters used in technical drawing still draw vectors directly to paper. Virtually all modern 3D rendering is done using extensions of 2D vector graphics techniques. Other modes include text, multimedia, and 3D rendering.
Vector graphics can be uploaded to online databases for other designers to download and manipulate, speeding up the creative process.
It is one of several modes an artist can use to create an image on a raster display. The term "vector graphics" is mainly used today in the context of two-dimensional computer graphics. Storage scope displays, such as the Tektronix 4014, could display vector images but not modify them without first erasing the display.
There was a video game console that used vector graphics called Vectrex as well as various arcade games like Asteroids, Space Wars, and many cinematronics titles such as Rip-Off, and Tail Gunner using vector monitors. Subsequent vector graphics systems, most of which iterated through dynamically modifiable stored lists of drawing instructions, include the IBM 2250, Imlac PDS-1, and DEC GT40. Vector graphics were also used on the TX-2 at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory by computer graphics pioneer Ivan Sutherland to run his program Sketchpad in 1963. Vector graphics systems were retired from the U.S. Vector graphic displays were first used in 1958 by the US SAGE air defense system.
Vector graphics are commonly found today in the SVG, WMF, EPS, PDF, CDR or AI types of graphic file formats, and are intrinsically different from the more common raster graphics file formats such as JPEG, PNG, APNG, GIF, WebP, BMP and MPEG4.Ī free software Asteroids-like video game played on a vector monitor Instead of sectioning off a large region of computer memory and mapping that to the display device, vector display devices use a variable number of lines to create images-hence the term "vector graphics." Since vector display devices can define a line by dealing with just two points (that is, the coordinates of each end of the line), the device can reduce the total amount of data it must deal with by organizing the image in terms of pairs of points. The points determine the direction of the vector path each path may have various properties including values for stroke color, shape, curve, thickness, and fill. Vector graphics have the unique advantage over raster graphics in that the points, lines, and curves may be scaled up or down to any resolution with no aliasing. Vector graphics are computer graphics images that are defined in terms of points on a Cartesian plane, which are connected by lines and curves to form polygons and other shapes. Example showing effect of vector graphics versus raster graphics