[CLUE-Tech] Scalable Vector Graphics on Linux?

[mgushee at havenrock.com]

On 5 Mar 2003 at 8:53, Michael J. Hammel wrote:

> On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 21:52, mgushee at havenrock.com wrote:
> > Sure. The GIMP, as you surely know, is primarily for bitmap graphics 
> > (AKA "paintings"), and Sketch is mainly for vector graphics (AKA 
> > "drawings") ... though I suppose the distinction is less important 
> > than it used to be.
> 
> No, it's still important.  Vector graphics can scale indefinitely up
> (and pretty much down, to a point) without loss of detail.  You can't do
> that with raster images.  Lots of poster art is done in vector so it can
> be done in small scale on the computer, then sized up for printing.  To
> do the same poster art in raster you have to start with a very large
> image, and that requires lots of memory and disk space - and a very fast
> computer.

Certainly true--and I'm well aware of the difference for creating 
technical diagrams, which are the main thing I use vector graphics 
for. What I meant by that comment was that conversion tools like 
ImageMagick allow you to go from almost any format to almost any 
other with ease ... though as you rightly point out elsewhere, bitmap 
to vector is not generally very feasible.

--
Matt Gushee
Englewood, CO USA