Use the vector technique to export line art, type, or shapes that can be printed professionally, published, or printed at very large sizes. It’s also helpful to create a file that can be edited further with a program like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator. Raster images are useful when exporting an image from a program that does not refresh its background each frame. If the image accumulates by adding each new frame to the display window, it may not be possible for vector data to achieve the same effect, or it may be too much geometry to store in a single file. A raster file does not represent each visual element separately (it saves it as a series of pixels), so it is editable only by programs like GIMP and Photoshop. A raster file can be printed with as much resolution as a vector file if it is output with a large enough width and height setting to give the file a high resolution when scaled for print. For example, to print a four-inch image at 600 dpi would require size(2400,2400) inside setup(). Vector files are eventually rasterized during the printing process, so it’s simply a matter of when the rasterizing takes place—whether directly from the program, or inside a professional raster image processor (RIP). After a file is generated through software, it is often modified before it is printed. Common changes include tweaking color or changing the weight of the lines after print tests. To make changes, load raster files into a program such as GIMP or Photoshop. Load vector files into a program such as Inkscape, Illustrator, or CorelDRAW. The following examples clarify the strengths and weaknesses of each technique.
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