Bitmap and vector are two different types of digital graphic formats used to store and display images. Bitmap images, also known as raster images, are made up of a grid of pixels, where each pixel contains information about color and brightness. Common bitmap formats include JPEG, PNG, and GIF. When you zoom in on a bitmap image, you can see individual pixels, which can result in loss of quality if the image is scaled up too much. Vector images, on the other hand, are made up of mathematical formulas that define shapes and lines. Instead of being composed of pixels, vector images use points, lines, curves, and shapes to create graphics. This means that vector images can be scaled to any size without losing quality. Common vector formats include SVG, AI, and EPS. GIMP is a resource for creating Bitmaps in which the images have three bytes per pixel. Using GIMP we can explore the idea of indexing and choose the number of colors we think will best represent the image. For example, 5 bits per pixel means the option of 32 colors; meaning that every time we add a bit, we are also adding a color. The fewer the bits the fewer the colors. I have attached some images to this blog post that show an experiment we did in class where we played with indexing a photo and changed the amount of bits/colors used. We can see that there is lots of detail in color in the first original image; however, when we decrease the number of bits to something like 5, or 2, there is less detail and color in the images.
