How Do Vector Graphics Work?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2017-05-06
·
1,020 words · ~5 min read
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you know how in movies some important person can just walk into a room wave
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their hand say and hands and they get
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like this super detailed closeup of the drug kingpin's nose hair or whatever
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well for most of us the experience of trying to enlarge a photo more often
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results in a blur that looks like a smear of melted rainbow ice cream now
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we've tried to solve this problem in recent years with digital cameras that
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capture images with ever higher pixel counts as well as more powerful
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computers that can process these images more easily but what if that's not good
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enough and you want something that will still look good when it's blown up to
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the size of Kim Kardashian's Caboose well this is where vector graphics can
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be extremely helpful since they can be rescaled to be as big or as small as
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you'd like without any loss of quality but how is that even possible well you
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see the reason that traditional raster
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images tend to blur and distort when you resize them is because the image file
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itself it's like a JPEG or a PNG is
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really just a collection of instructions
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that tell the computer how many pixels there are what color they should be and
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where they go so if you take a lower resolution JPEG and try to stretch it
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out Beyond how many pixels are actually defined in the file the computer has to
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just guess at what the other pixels in the enlarged image would be a very
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imperfect science that might be okay for something like blowing up a 4x6 to a 5x7
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for the wall but can result in horrible
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looking enlargements and the bigger you go the worse it gets vector graphics on
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the other hand work in a fundamentally different way instead of telling a
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computer what pixel goes where Vector
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files Define images using lines and
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shapes and their positions relative to
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each other for example the file might
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tell the computer I want a line here a
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triangle here and a curve that bends exactly like this in some other place
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the computer can then render these instructions into a nice looking smooth
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lined image each time you enlarge or Shrink it a little like a graphics card
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can render a frame of a video game in any resolution you choose providing your
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video card can handle it from a set of instructions specifying where things
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like polygons should go and because
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these instructions remain exactly the same no matter how large or small the
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image ends up being Vector files have the significant advantage of taking up
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the same amount of space on your computer's drive so you can end up with
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an image large enough to look crisp on a highway billboard while still taking up
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less than a megabyte well G Linus that sounds fantastic with better quality and
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smaller file sizes why aren't all images
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Vector great question because vector
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graphics are defined by lines and polygons they don't have as much
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granularity as raster images which Define Graphics pixel by pixel meaning
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that vector graphics at least currently aren't usually a great choice for photos
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and other images that are designed to look photorealistic and while there are
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tools that can vectorize traditional raster images they tend to lose detail
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during this process because the computer has to guess at how to convert the
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patterns of pixels into lines and shapes and it's very easy to see the problems
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with this if you've ever tried to convert something like a photo of a
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person to vector and because modern
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screens are raster displays since they're just large arrays of individual
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pixels Vector images need to be rastered
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ized before they can be displayed properly anyway with lots of modern
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software only having partial support for rasterizing vector graphics think about
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how you can't resize svgs in Google Chrome for example so they're a good
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option for graphic designers and visual artists trying to design cool looking
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logos or some such but if you were hoping to upscale all your porn to 8K
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using vectors then you've got another thing coming shout out to Pearl Auto for
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supporting our Channel pearl auto makes a set of rear view cameras that fit
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around your license plate and sync with your smartphone they're quick and easy
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to install you only need a screwdriver to mount a camera frame on your license
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plate then you just plug in the adapter to your onboard diagnostic port and
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mount your phone to your dash you can actually operate it with an app that's
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already available for iOS and Android the camera frame has two HD cameras
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which give audio and visual alerts to warn you of obstacles in your way
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allowing you to switch between normal and wide-angle lenses and even see
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around corners in day or night it works on any car has a solar powered panel so
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it stays charged on its own it uses Bluetooth technology to connect to your
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camera without wires and the Pearl app will automatically update to add
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additional features soon rear view cameras will be mandatory on all new
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cars in the US not because it's like a fancy pants feature but because it
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legitimately improves the safety of the vehicle's operation and pearl auto has a
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special offer just for our viewers head over to peo.com tequ to get free 2-day
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shipping if all that sounds pretty darn sweet we've got that Linked In the video
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description thanks for watching guys if you like the video like it if you disliked it dislike it if you want to
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check out other channels boom right over there if you want to comment with a
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