Hari's Corner

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Pros and cons of using a vector drawing package

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted on Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 23:10 IST (last updated: Tue, Dec 29, 2009 @ 23:17 IST)

One of the things I've attempted recently is to switch from a raster-based image manipulation program to a vector drawing software to create my comics. Based on my own experience of using Inkscape, as opposed to the GIMP, I have compiled a short list of pros and cons of both approaches.

Obviously I am no guru at using any of these tools and I'm no expert artist either, so many of these points may not apply to the power users. Nevertheless, for what they're worth, I thought I'd share my thoughts on them.

First the pros:

Extremely flexible drawing ability. Modifying line thickness is a breeze, as is adjusting contours and shapes. Small corrections which would involve considerably painful pixel manipulation in a raster tool can be achieved with ease in an vector drawing tool.
A variety of pre-built shapes available (including stars and regular polygons).
The ability to edit a picture does not diminish after saving and reloading a file from disk.
The option of exporting the drawing as a bitmap at whatever resolution/DPI you wish without loss of quality. This makes it a great option to use as a source for both online and print publishing (printing requires a much higher DPI count for quality.)
Finally makes it much easier to draw without an external pen/tablet as curves can be smoothened automatically at whatever level you wish. As a result, lines look much smoother than lines drawn in a raster image editor.

Now, the cons:

Detailing the image requires more vector objects, adding complexity to the existing drawing and making it much more cumbersome to edit.
Use of layering can be awkward and not always obvious. This might be specific to Inkscape, I suspect, but because of the complex relationship between objects which already have an existing Z-order, layer management is a tad cumbersome.
Adding effects like gradients require more thought. Also it's not trivial (though possible) to add realistic shading, lighting and other special effects to a vector drawing.
Too much flexibility in editing can actually turn out to be a drawback as you can keep on tweaking a picture to achieve perfection losing productivity in the process.
Last but not least, the sheer enjoyment and fulfillment of drawing naturally will be missed.

I personally think that the pros outweigh the cons. In the final analysis I believe in using whatever tools do the job well and if that involves using both, I would gladly do it (I already post-process an Inkscape-exported bitmap to add shading using the GIMP)

2 comment(s)

I don't do much graphics nowadays but for most editing when I do deal with graphics, I'm usually fine with The Gimp.

Comment by drew (visitor) on Wed, Dec 30, 2009 @ 13:03 IST #
Drew, GIMP is fine for detailed, photographic type images and for post-processing and special effects work, but for sketching/drawing and basic colouring I think vector graphics tools have a distinct advantage.

The debate of vector vs raster graphics is probably as old as emacs vs vi.

Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Wed, Dec 30, 2009 @ 14:26 IST #

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Hari's Corner

Pros and cons of using a vector drawing package

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