Written by Leah Jeffery Different types of graphics are based on different types of graphics file formats.
Graphics formats are how images are compressed and stored for transfer to other places.
Understanding the different types and how they work will help you choose which graphics and formats are best suited to your needs. When you draw something in a vector-image drawing program, the program translates your instructions into mathematical equations, which then tell the program what image to produce. Bitmap, or raster images, are created with a series of dots. When you draw something in a bitmap painting program, the program creates the image with a series of dots that make up the picture. The following file formats are used to compress and send these different types of images.