Rasterbilde

Rasterbilde is a term used in Norwegian and Danish to refer to a raster or bitmap image. A raster image is made up of a grid of individual picture elements, or pixels, arranged in a two-dimensional array. Each pixel stores color and brightness information, so the overall image is formed by the collective values of all pixels. The image’s size is defined by its width and height in pixels, and color depth determines how many colors can be represented per pixel. Raster images are commonly stored in formats such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and BMP, as well as in camera RAW formats.

Raster images are well suited for representing complex, continuous-tone imagery like photographs. However, they have a fixed resolution: when enlarged beyond their original size, they can appear blocky or blurred because new pixels must be interpolated from existing ones. Common interpolation methods include nearest neighbor, bilinear, and bicubic, often supplemented by anti-aliasing to smooth edges.

Compared with vector graphics, which describe images using mathematical shapes and can be scaled without loss of quality, raster images are resolution-dependent. They are widely used in digital photography, web graphics, and printing workflows. The rasterization process converts vector information into a pixel grid for display on screens or for printing.

Formats vary in compression and quality. JPEG uses lossy compression suitable for photographs; PNG provides lossless compression and transparency; GIF supports indexed colors; TIFF offers flexible options for professional workflows; RAW formats preserve sensor data for post-processing. Factors such as color space (for example sRGB or Adobe RGB), resolution, and file size influence how rasterbilder are created, edited, stored, and printed.