If you’re still scratching your head, take a look at this handy video which explains what is an SVG file in more detail: (And without having to spend any time tracing.) Without having to worry about pixelation, or our craft cutter having a meltdown. SVG files allow us to cut all kinds of shapes, in all kinds of sizes. In these machines, the blade will follow the vectors (lines) of your design as it cuts. It does not understand pixels or grids of colors. The craft community relies on SVGs because our electronic cutters are only designed to handle vector graphics. So - as you should be able to guess from the name - an SVG file is a vector graphic. Raster vs Vector graphics (By Yug: CC BY-SA 2.5 licence) Relying on a mathematical formula instead of a grid of pixels means that a vector graphic can scale from a tiny image on your desktop to a billboard poster… without any loss in quality. Because there is no grid of pixels, your vector graphic won’t pixelate when it is resized. This is because pixels do not scale well.Ī vector graphic is a mathematical formula that produces images through the joining of lines, as points on a plane - something which, in contrast, scales very well.
The biggest problem being, if we try to increase the size of a raster graphic, it pixelates and becomes blurry. Together the grid of pixels forms an image that to the naked eye can look very impressive - but it comes with some limitations. In a raster graphic, each pixel is assigned a color. It can be produced in low quality like a blurry videogame screen from the 80s, or high quality like a panoramic photograph captured by one of the world’s most expensive cameras. There are generally two types of graphics used on the web: vector and raster.Ī raster graphic is a grid of pixels.