If you work with computers sooner or later you’re going to find you need an image that is in a raster (AKA bitmap) format (e.g. .gif, .jpg, .wmf) translated to a vector format (e.g. .svg, .cgm, .dwg).

Just as you'd never send an IT person to do a human resource manager's job, digital image file formats all have their rightful place in the world, complete with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Although JPEG images are bitmaps -- images built of many individual pixels -- and vector images in formats such as EPS are built of lines, curves, and other geometric shapes, you can use a simple ...