What is Vector Graphics?

Here is the wikipedia version of it:

Vector graphics (also called geometric modeling or object-oriented graphics) is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons, which are all based upon mathematical equations to represent images in computer graphics. Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics, which is the representation of images as an array of pixels, as it is typically used for the representation of photographic images. There are times when working with vector tools and formats is best practice and times when working with raster tools and formats is best practice. There are times when both come together. An understanding of the advantages and limitations of each technology and the relationship between them is most likely to result in efficient and effective use of tools. Printing Vector art is key for printing. Since the art is made from a series of mathematical curves it will print very crisp even when resized. For instance one can take the same vector logo and print it on a business card, and then enlarge it to billboard size and keep the same crisp quality. A low-resolution raster graphic would blur incredibly if it were enlarged from business card size to billboard size.

3D modeling

In 3D computer graphics, vectorized surface representations are most common (bitmaps can be used for special purposes such as surface texturing, height-field data and bump mapping). At the low-end, simple meshes of polygons are used to represent geometric detail in applications where interactive frame rates or simplicity are important. At the high-end, where one is willing to trade-off higher rendering times for increased image quality and precision, smooth surface representations such as Bézier patches, NURBS or Subdivision surfaces are used. One can however achieve a smooth surface rendering from a polygonal mesh through the use of shading algorithms such as Phong and Gouraud.

Vector Graphic editors - Free and open source software

Inkscape

A vector graphics editor application released under the GNU General Public License. Its stated goal is to become a powerful graphic tool while being fully compliant with the XML, SVG and CSS standards. Has good multi-lingual support particularly for complex scripts.

Ipe

A vector graphics editor for creating figures in PDF or EPS format. Can process LaTeX source code and import PDF figures.

Karbon14 (formerly Kontour, which was formerly KIllustrator)

Is a vector graphics editor, part of KOffice, the KDE office suite.

NodeBox

An application for programming 2D animation and graphics in Python. It runs on Mac OS X.

OpenOffice.org Draw

Currently OpenOffice.org supports exporting to SVG format officially, though with some limitations to be resolved. It also shares many features with Desktop publishing software.

Scribus

A desktop publishing application with SVG & PDF capabilities.

Skencil (formerly Sketch)

A vector graphics editor implemented almost completely in Python. A fork of Skencil sK1 is oriented for prepress industry.

Sodipodi

A vector graphics editor intended for producing vector graphics, and be a drawing tool for artists. Development ceased in 2004, but Inkscape is based on Sodipodi.

Synfig

A 2D vector graphics and animation program intended to produce feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources.

Tgif

A 2-D drawing tool under X11 for Unix and Unix-like platforms. Note: has several quirks due to being developed long before many features common in many editors were standard.

Xara Xtreme for Linux

A 2D vector graphics editor created by the British software company Xara.

Xfig

A 2-D drawing tool under X11 for Unix and Unix-like platforms. Xfig saves figures in its native Fig format, but they may be converted into various formats.

ZCubes

A 2D and 3D online vector drawing and painting tool. Primarily supports IE. Firefox supported for viewing using SVG in most platforms.

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