FREE Tutorials on Adobe Illustrator
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Illustrator is or was Adobe's direct competition for Macromedia's Freehand (before Adobe bought Macromedia). Illustrator, like Freehand, is a "vector graphics editor." Raster graphics is more like photographic images, where "vector graphics" is more like stick drawing in that it involves precise mathematical aspects. Compression with raster graphics is limited by the shear amount of information stored in an image. Where in vector graphics much of the information is "calculated," "interpolated," or estimated based on mathematical formulae. If you need unique details you need raster graphics, if you need cartoon (or for more advanced users... comic book characters) like seen in animation, or even Hollywood animation movies, you need vector graphics. For a full study of "new media" tools and methods, you will need both. And eventually those who study new media will use applications that combine raster graphics, vector graphics, and 2D/3D/4D interactive animation.

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