rasterarkistojen

Rasterarkistojen is a Finnish term that translates to "raster archives" or "image archives." It refers to digital collections of images, typically stored in a raster format. Raster images, also known as bitmap images, are composed of a grid of pixels, where each pixel has a specific color value. This stands in contrast to vector graphics, which are defined by mathematical equations and can be scaled infinitely without loss of quality.

These archives can contain a wide variety of visual content, such as photographs, scanned documents, maps, or digital art. The purpose of a raster archive is to preserve, organize, and provide access to these visual assets. They are often used by institutions like libraries, museums, historical societies, and government agencies to manage their visual collections.

The organization of raster archives can vary. They might be structured by subject matter, date, geographic location, or the source of the images. Metadata, which includes descriptive information about each image (e.g., title, author, date, keywords), plays a crucial role in making these archives searchable and usable. Digital preservation techniques are also important to ensure the long-term accessibility and integrity of the stored images. The term emphasizes the digital and archival nature of image collections, particularly when dealing with scanned or pixel-based visual data.