Rasterize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To transform a visual representation into a grid made of pixels for viewing on screens or for printing purposes
2. The method of changing an image from a vector format to a raster structure, which consists of a matrix of pixels
3. To convert an image or graphic from a scalable form into a pixel-based format suitable for display or printing

Etymology: Raster comes from the Latin "rastrum", a rake, and it names the grid of scanning lines that an image is built from. Its ancestor was a tool for scratching or dragging through soil, which is why the word still carries the sense of lines laid out in a regular pattern. Early image technology, such as television scanning, adopted "raster" for those parallel lines, and the sense then carried over to the pixel grid of digital screens. "Rasterize" is a plain formation: "raster" with the suffix "-ize", which turns a noun into a verb meaning to make or convert into the thing named. To rasterize an image is to turn it into a raster, a fixed grid of pixels. The suffix has an old pedigree of its own, passing from Greek through Late Latin and Old French before reaching English, so the verb is a modern technical coinage built from long-established parts.

Synonyms: convert, bitmap, render, pixelate, graph

Antonyms: vectorize, smooth, scale, refine, enhance