What is a vector. Imageready... why?

Tengis

Tengis

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Im a self taught photoshoper. Im not a master or anything, but I for sure know my way around Photoshop and I can make alot of decent stuff...

But what the hell is a vector?

What is the point of using Imageready? I never touch it.
 
Tengis said:
Im a self taught photoshoper. Im not a master or anything, but I for sure know my way around Photoshop and I can make alot of decent stuff...

But what the hell is a vector?

What is the point of using Imageready? I never touch it.
Click to expand...

Vector basically means that you can resize however large you want with no loss of quality. It's based on mathematical points to define an image. Photoshop is a raster based program mainly...even though it does have vector capabilities i.e. shape tool, pen tool. Raster means that it's pixel based. There is a set amount of information in the image and if you resize larger, you loose quality.

ImageReady is used for say .gif animations or laying out webpages...doing rollovers or image maps, it can also save your layout with the html code. If you're slicing and doing rollovers and stuff it can save the html and images so that you can view it in a browser...stuff like that.
 
Good Vector Tutorial?

Ive been trying to get into the more advanced stuff, I assume this is the place to start.

I am making a vector of a ninja picture I have....
 
Tengis said:
Good Vector Tutorial?

Ive been trying to get into the more advanced stuff, I assume this is the place to start.

I am making a vector of a ninja picture I have....
Click to expand...

Check out heathrowe.com...some really good vector tuts there for photoshop. Otherwise just google...I'm sure there are millions.
 
se7en1ne said:
...some really good vector tuts there for photoshop.
Click to expand...

Photoshop is not a vector based program. Try Illustrator instead.
 
Lethal said:
Photoshop is not a vector based program. Try Illustrator instead.
Click to expand...

Right, I already said that. It has vector capabilities however. If all he has is Photoshop, then why not learn the pen tool and use the vector capabilities it has? I've seen some really great vector art come from Photoshop. If he has the money to buy Illustrator then by all means, he should buy it. Basically what you're saying is if you have a Ford Taurus instead of a Mercedes Benz, you shouldn't bother driving.
 
I have a Ford Taurus you bastard.

Lol... its green.
 
Okay... here's your answer.

Photoshop, MS Paint (useless, I know), and similar programs use what are called bitmap formats, such as *.psd, *.bmp, *.gif, and *.jpg. These files keep track of what they should look like via the same way that MS-DOS did. They simply store the coordinates of each and every pixel and what color that the pixel(s) should be.

CorelDRAW!, Adobe Illustrator, and I guess there are others I don't know, they use what's called vector imaging. These uses mathematical formulae to keep track of what should be what color where. Unfortunately, there are no universal vector graphics that *every* program can handle, unlike bitmaps.
 
The one thing I like ImageReady for is the rounded marquee tool.

Photoshop really needs that :rolleyes:
 
Vector


Vector graphics are images that are completely described using mathematical definitions. The image below shows the principle. To the left you see the image itself and to the right you see the actual lines that make up the drawing.

formatvector.gif


Each individual line is made up of either a vast collection of points with lines interconnecting all of them or just a few control points that are connected using so called bezier curves. It is this latter method that generates the best results and that is used by most drawing programs.

formatvectorbezier.gif


Characteristics of vector drawings

Vector drawings are usually pretty small files because they only contain data about the bezier curves that form the drawing. The EPS-file format that is often used to store vector drawings includes a bitmap preview image along the bezier data. The filesize of this preview image is usually larger than the actual bezier data themselves.

Vector drawings can usually be scaled without any loss in quality. This makes them ideal for company logo's, maps or other objects that have to be resized frequently. Please note that not all vector drawings can be scaled as much as you like:

Drawings containing trapping information can only be scaled up to 20 percent larger or smaller.
Thin lines may disappear if a vector drawing is reduced too much.
Small errors in a drawing may become visible as soon as it is enlarged too much.
It is fairly easy to create a vector based drawing that is very difficult to output. Especially the use of tiles (small objects that are repeated dozens or hundreds of times) and Corel Draw lens effects can lead to very complex files.



Applications that can handle vector data

There are hundreds of applications on the market that can be used to create or modify vector data. In prepress, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw and Macromedia Freehand are the most popular.


File formats that are used for vector data

Vector data can be saved in a wide variety of file formats. Among these are:

EPS: the most popular file format to exchange vector drawings although EPS-files can also contain bitmap data.
PDF: versatile file format that can contain just about any type of data including complete pages, not yet widely used to exchange just images
PICT: file format that can contain both bitmap and vector data but that is mainly used on Macintosh computers.



this info was taken from
http://www.prepressure.com/image/bitmapvector2.htm
more info is available at that site.
 
TheGamerZ said:
The one thing I like ImageReady for is the rounded marquee tool.

Photoshop really needs that :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Alt+marquee tool what you're looking for?
 
starhawk said:
Okay... here's your answer.

Photoshop, MS Paint (useless, I know), and similar programs use what are called bitmap formats, such as *.psd, *.bmp, *.gif, and *.jpg. These files keep track of what they should look like via the same way that MS-DOS did. They simply store the coordinates of each and every pixel and what color that the pixel(s) should be.
Click to expand...

Close, but not semantically correct. They're not bitmap formats, they use raster data -- basically individual information for each pixel or group of pixels in an image. As opposed to vector, which uses mathematics to graph the curves and lines of an image resulting in something that can be resized without any quality loss and requires much less space for the data. Bitmap is a specific file format (typically uncompressed lossless) that stores exact information for each pixel of the image. PSD does the same but also holds information for layers, blending, fonts, alpha channels, all that, hence they're enormous (I have many 100+MB PSD files on my drives). JPEG is compressed and lossy, and stores information only for certain groups of pixels, instead of every individual pixel, to save space.

Raster and vector have very different purposes to meet the very different demands of their users. While vector is perfect for undetailed clipart, it's useless for photographs. While Photoshop is great for paintings and textured drawings, but comics are much better suited for vector. Photoshop has limited vector capabilities, enough to get one by without absolutely needing vector. I anticipate at some point the two programs will merge entirely for a seamless workflow. That would be best, in my opinion.
 
My father is a graphic artist for the EPA... he uses a combination of Adobe Photoshop and CorelDRAW! for the posters he does.

Each one does what the other cannot, thus making an excellent result.
 
The best way to get the feel of vector in Illustrator, outside of using books, is to take pictures of your favorite cartoon characters and re-draw them. Then, when you feel comfortable, take an entire scene and re-draw it... then work with taking a 3-d scene and making it 2-d in a cartoonish format... and eventually you can work your way up to doing photo-realistic people with vector, which can be pretty challenging considering you really can't use blurs and crap like that.
 
:eek:

@ Ezteh, I have corrupted you! I almost thought I posted that, I mean you even have the bold headings! :D

@ Lethal, freakin' amen ... if you want to do vector illustration, use Illustrator (or in my case CorelDraw)! ;)
 
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