Schematic Support for Vector Graphics

Altium Designer's Schematic Editor has long supported the ability to add graphical images in a variety of popular formats. However these formats - including bmp, png, jpg, and tiff - are all Raster-based. Simply put, they are created (or composed) graphically, of a fixed series of dots. And while all of these image formats render adequately, their attraction diminishes when the image is scaled. Zoom right in to an image in one of these formats and the 'blocky' or 'pixelated' nature of the image's dot composition soon becomes apparent. The solution to this, is to use a Vector-based image format. Vector images are composed of graphical shapes rather than dots, which are preserved upon scaling.

In Altium Designer 14.2, the Schematic Editor has been boosted with the arrival of support for vector-based graphics in the form of WMF (Windows Meta File) and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) formats.

An example image on a schematic. A PNG version above, with its SVG incarnation below. When zoomed-in, the quality of the latter becomes appreciatively noticeable.