A vector portrait is basically a computer-generated work of art made up of lines. The coordinates of these lines, which contain blocks of colour between them, are plotted with the aid of computer software. Vector images can easily be differentiated from bitmap (raster) images, which are arranged as arrays of individual pixels.

Unlike bitmap images, vector images tend to look quite ‘simple’ with a limited palette and little or no fine detail or shading. It is this simplicity, however, which gives them great power over the viewer.

Humans find vector images particularly attractive and memorable for one main reason: the human brain itself interprets and stores images of the world around it in vector format. The lack of fine detail in a vector image means it has a relatively low demand on memory (both in the brain and on a computer) and can therefore be stored more easily.

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