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Bitmaps are made up of pixels at a fixed resolution. Photos are typically bitmaps, and JPEG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF files are all in bitmap formats. They can display subtle colour differences and smooth gradients much better than vectors, which makes them good for photos. Because bitmaps are saved at a fixed resolution, you can’t resize them bigger without seeing pixelation or blurring, or shrink them without losing pixels and detail.

Vectors are made up of paths that can scale to any resolution. Logos and icons are typically vectors because they have a small file size, can be scaled up or down, and always look crisp. SVG is the most common vector format you’ll find online, though PDF is also a vector format, and fonts are vector-based, too. Unless vectors have a lot of detail, they’re usually much smaller file sizes than bitmaps, which means they load much faster on the web.

With Penpot, you’ll mostly work in vector, though you can import bitmap images to use in your designs as content or backgrounds. You can export Penpot designs in either bitmap PNG and JPG file formats or vector SVG and PDF file formats.