Vector clip art is a collection of images stored as mathematical formulas, which are scalable and faster to load than raster images. They can mimic photorealistic effects and are used in animation, web design, and online games. Many websites offer copyright-free collections.
The term “vector clip art” refers to a collection of images stored electronically as a mathematical formula. From a computer perspective, a vector image is a mathematical map of lines, points, polygons, and color information. Together, this data serves as a set of instructions for rendering the image into visual form on a computer monitor or hard copy printout.
Vector clip art images have several unique advantages over their counterpart, raster images. They are scalable, which means that they do not lose resolution or clarity when increased in size. They are also generally much smaller and faster to load into a web page or download than raster images.
Raster images are a realistic pixel-by-pixel representation of an object or scene. This is why photos have generally always been stored as raster images. Vector clip art consisted primarily of images that contained far fewer colors than the millions of colors that can be found in a typical raster image. An example of this clip art limitation was the first GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) file which contained a maximum of only 256 colors per image.
Today, vector clip art can approximate the actual look of a photo using complex equations that mimic three-dimensional effects, light, and shadow. A vector image’s size, viewing angle, colors, textures, and other properties can be changed without distortion using modern computer graphics software. Such flexibility with raster images is impractical, as any alteration to the size or shape of a raster image will permanently add or remove pixels from the original file, resulting in image distortions that cannot be undone.
One of the most popular uses for this type of clip art on the internet is in animation. Vector animation programs can provide elaborate photorealistic effects for websites. Animation is stored and transmitted as a collection of calculations that computers can process much faster than raster images could be displayed on a screen from memory.
Vector clip art is easy to produce and transmit, so many websites contain copyright-free collections. In addition to content such as images of people, animals, and inanimate objects, vector processing is also used to create background graphics for the web. Elements such as interactive buttons, menus, background layouts, and color schemes are designed using clip art galleries. Additionally, many modern online games are designed based entirely on the use of vector clip art.
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