Types

• Illustrator, as its name implies, is used to create and manipulate illustrations or drawings. Illustrator files are known as vector-based images. Photoshop is used mainly to work with photos, or what are known as raster-based images, sometimes called bitmaps.
  
  

Vector Images

• Vector images, like those used in Illustrator, are made up of paths connected by anchor points. They can easily be edited and changed on the computer, and can even be re-sized and made much larger without losing much detail.
  
  

Raster Images

• Raster images, such as those used in Photoshop, are made up of thousands of pixels, or tiny dots, and are generally much larger file sizes than vector files. Raster images do not re-size like vector images. Instead, the file loses detail and looks chunky when made larger.
  
  

Identification

• Vector-based file formats may include the following extensions at the end of the file name: .ai, .fh, .eps, .ps and .svg. Raster-based files may include these extensions: .jpeg, .jpg, .gif, .png, .tiff and .bmp.
  
  

Considerations

• Photoshop can also create vector-based images, but the program lacks many of the finer abilities available in Illustrator. Likewise, Illustrator files can be saved as raster-based images, but once done so, the files can no longer be easily re-sized without losing quality.