Vectorize vs Digitize

[Danny Baronian]

OLD FORUM POSTS

Posted by Bob on December 11, 03

Mike,
Or anyone else I gues , what is the difference between something that has been vectorized as opposed to digitize?
The two have always confused me. Bob

Mike Jackson

Bob,
Many graphics programs have a raster to vector utility which converts scanned bitmaps to vector outlines. Besides the ones that come packaged with programs like Omega, Signlab, Flexi and so forth, stand alone programs like Adobe Streamline does the auto vectorization. Most of the time, good, clean, black and white artwork is scanned, then vectorized.

Generally speaking, when someone "digitizes" an image, they physically place points, curves, bezier handles and lines one point at a time to accurately define the outline edges. If well done, the final image is far superior to an auto vectorized image.

The image above is from my recent Americana Collection. That one probably took me a couple of hours or more to digitize and then another hour to clean up edges and fine tune it. The original was in one of the Atkinson books.

Hope this helps,
Mike Jackson

Bob

Yep that helps alot. Bob

[Mike Jackson]

Besides what we think about in the sign/graphics world, some people use the word "digitize" when they "scan" a book and turn it into "digital information", vs hard copy pages. They might say the book was digitized, or the photograph was digitized. I find it slighly misleading, but it is still a common use of the word from a different viewing position.

Within the graphics arts trade, another term is "raster to vector". That is basically a software process of turning bitmap images into vector outlines, typically with something like Streamline or Corel Trace. Even with the most crisp black and white line art, the auto trace programs often have interpret whether a corner is really square or slightly rounded, or the bottom of a serif on a Goudy letterstyle really has the dip or whether it should be straight.

Mike