Up and Running with Xara Xtreme - Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide - page 2

drawing programs, and the following sections describe the
differences. As you work through this topic, you proceed with a
concrete understanding of how to get the most out of what Xara
Xtreme does.

Bitmaps and Vectors
Bitmap-based design work is relatively simple to understand
when compared to vector drawing: A bitmap is a “canvas,”
divided into cells to which you apply color by using a brush or
other tool. The cell, the basic unit of color in a bitmap, is called
a pixel , a placeholder for color, which has an undefined size
until an artist contextualizes a bitmap drawing by using real-
world units. Bitmaps are measured in resolution, a fractional
expression called pixels per inch. Dots per inch is slang we
use; it actually refers to print resolution, but the two terms are
used synonymously. Although bitmap programs enable artists
to change the size of a bitmap image, this usually leads to some
blurriness or other type of visual distortion. This is because
all bitmap images are resolution-dependent , unlike vector
drawings. The visual content of a bitmap-based image is a
“done deal” with respect to resolution the moment you create a
new document, such as a digital photo or painting. You cannot
ask a bitmap application to intelligently change the resolution
of a bitmap image any more than you can ask a digital camera
to go back and add detail to a photo you're unhappy with.
Enlarging a bitmap always introduces some loss of focus and
duplicated pixels without adding visual data.

Understanding the Unique Characteristics
of Vector Artwork
Although paint programs might be fairly intuitive to use, they
do not own the category of digital design media, largely because
of the resolution dependence of bitmap images.
Vector drawing tools bring with them a host of design
advantages over bitmap-based artwork:

N

Vector artwork can scale without distortion

Drawing programs do not use the canvas and pixel
sort of math that bitmap programs do. The building
blocks of vector artwork are paths and the attributes
you assign to paths, most commonly outline width and
shape fill . Vector artwork is resolution- in dependent;