Raster image

A raster image, also called a bitmap, stores a picture as a grid of tiny colored squares called pixels. Photos from a phone or camera, screenshots, JPGs, PNGs, WebP and most images on websites are raster files. They are ideal for photographs, where smooth shading and fine texture matter.

The tradeoff is size. A raster image only has as many pixels as it was made with, so stretching it bigger spreads those pixels out and the edges go soft or blocky. Logos, lettering and anything that will be cut, engraved or stitched usually work better as vectors.

Say a landscaping crew called Bright Fern Landscaping wants its logo on yard signs, but all it has is a JPG from an old flyer. As a raster it prints with fuzzy edges at sign size; turned into a vector, the lettering stays crisp.

In aiKit, Vectorize Kit turns raster logos, even blurry JPGs or a phone photo of a sign, into clean vectors and tells you when a picture is a photo rather than a logo. Photo Studio and Pro Designer can enlarge photos when a raster image needs more pixels.

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