system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why don't we use vector instead of raster?

1) Is there a difference between bitmap and raster?

2) From what I've read, vector is smaller, and can be blown up to any size without becoming blurry or pixelated. But it's only used for logos and text. Why don't we use vector for literally everything?
gpt
1) bitmap is a slightly ambiguous term. It's either mapping of pixels that represent an image - which is the same as a raster image. Or it's the specific format (.bmp) which is a type of raster image (alongside things like .jpg or .png).

BMP format directly stores the data of each pixel in one big list / grid. Other formats also ultimately produce a list of pixels to be rendered, but are stored compressed in different ways.

2) Vector is smaller for images that are fundamentally shapes, or lines etc. As said elsewhere, vector formats store the mathematical representation of the images.

i.e. instead of "here is a grid of all the pixels", it's "Draw a line from the top left to the bottom right, then a circle in the middle" (obviously encoded in a more specific way).

Vector graphics are smaller and scaleable for images that can be thought of as lines or shapes (logos, text, simple drawings), but for real-world images, like a photo of somebody's face, they don't do so well, because a face with say trees in the background or whatever, can't easily be broken up into lines and shapes, and in order to accurately represent the image this way, you're essentially describing each pixel individually anyway.