Vector graphics 

Motivation

For example, consider a circle of radius r. Main pieces of information a program needs in order to draw this circle are

1. the radius r
2. the location of the center point of the circle
3. stroke line style
4. fill style (possibly empty)

There are two major advantages to this style of drawing over raster graphics. First, this minimal amount of information translates to a much smaller file size (the size of representation doesn't depend on the dimensions of the object).

Second, the parameters of objects are stored and can be later modified. This means that moving, scaling, rotating, filling etc. doesn't degrade the quality of a drawing. Moreover, it is usual to specify the dimensions in device-independent units, which results in the best possible rasterization on raster devices.

Typical primitive objects

• lines and polylines
• polygons
• circles and ellipses
• Bézier curves
• Bezigons
• Text

This list isn't complete. There are various types of curves (Catmull-Rom splines[?], NURBS etc.), which are useful in certain applications.

Often, a bitmap image is considered as a primitive object. From the conceptual view, it behaves as a rectangle.

Vector operations

Vector graphics editors typically allow to rotate, move, mirror, stretch, skew, generally perform affine transformations of objects, change z-order[?] and combine the primitives into more complex objects.

More sofisticated transformations include boolean operations on closed shapes (union, difference, intersection...)

Vector graphics are ideal for simple or composite drawings that need to be device independent or do not need to achieve photo-realism. For example, the PostScript and PDF page description languages use a vector graphics model.

3D modelling

In 3D computer graphics, vectorized surface representations are most common (bitmaps are used only as height-field data). At the low-end, simple meshes[?] of polygons are used to represent geometric detail in applications where interactive frame-rates or simplicity are important. At the high-end, where one is willing to trade-off higher rendering times for increased image quality and precision, smooth surface representations such as Bézier patches[?], NURBS or Subdivision surfaces[?] are used.

See Also

Penthesilea. O Koeniginn! Um eines Wahns, barbarisch-- Penthesilea. Sei ganz ruhig. Wo sie.html">sie.html">sie.html">sie dem Herzen um so naeher wohnen. Fuerwahr! Ein Traum, getraeumt in Morgenstunden, --Doch weiter. Penthesilea. Wie? Achilles. Du bist den Schluss noch schuldig. Der ohn' der Maenner Huelf' entstand, wie pflanzt er Wirft euch Deukalion, von Zeit zu Zeit, So oft nach jaehrlichen Berechnungen, Was ihr der Tod entrafft, ruft sie die.html">die bluehendsten (stockt und sieht ihn an) Mich duenkt, du laechelst, Lieber. Achilles.--Deiner Schoene. Ob du mir aus dem Monde niederstiegst?-- Penthesilea. (nach einer Pause) Die Koeniginn, was ihr der Tod entrafft, Der Fraun, von allen.html">allen Enden ihres Reichs, Der Artemis, auf ihre jungen Schoesse Ein solches Fest heisst, still und weich gefeiert, Bis--wenn das Schneegewand zerhaucht, der Fruehling Diana's heil'ge Priesterinn verfuegt, Und traegt, am Altar hingestreckt, dem Gott Der Gott dann, wenn er sie erhoeren will, Die schneeigen, der Nahrung nicht zu viel-- Ein Volk an, keusch und herrlich, das, statt seiner, Des Volkes Nam' und Wohnsitz ausgesprochen, Marsbraeute werden sie begruesst, die Jungfraun, Mit Pfeil' und Dolch, und allen Gliedern fliegt, Das erzene Gewand der Hochzeit an. Gedaempfter Tuben Klang ertoent, es schwingt Und still und heimlich, wie auf woll'nen Sohlen, Zum Lager fern der Auserwaehlten hin. Uns noch zwei Tage, Thier' und Menschen, aus: Wir ploetzlich in den Wald der Maenner ein, Wie Saamen, wenn die Wipfel sich zerschlagen, Hier pflegen wir, im Tempel Diana's, ihrer, .

 On wordlookup.net  

All is still licensed under the GNU FDL.
It uses material from the wikipedia.