raster image
compound.compound. a digital picture made of a grid of tiny colored dots called pixels. When you zoom in very close, you can see the individual squares that make up the image.
compound. a digital image file format composed of a fixed grid of pixels, where each pixel is assigned a specific color value. Unlike vector graphics, these images lose clarity and become pixelated when scaled beyond their original resolution.
A photograph on your phone is a raster image.
The designer explained that a raster image is perfect for complex photographs but poor for logos that need to be resized.
While vector graphics rely on mathematical paths to maintain sharpness at any scale, a raster image is resolution-dependent and will exhibit aliasing if enlarged significantly.
Derived from the Latin 'rastrum', meaning a rake. The term refers to the rake-like pattern of parallel lines used to scan a surface, a method established in early television technology.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Commonly contrasted with 'vector image' or 'vector graphic'.
Last updated July 22, 2026