raster

American  

[ras-ter] / ˈræs tər /

noun

1. Television. a pattern of scanning lines covering the area upon which the image is projected in the cathode-ray tube or liquid crystal display of a television set or other screen.

2. Digital Technology. a set of horizontal lines composed of individual pixels, used to form an image on a screen or in matrix printing.

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raster British  

/ ˈræstə /

noun

1. a pattern of horizontal scanning lines traced by an electron beam, esp on a television screen

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verb

1. to use web-based technology to turn a digital image into a large picture composed of a grid of black and white dots

Etymology

Origin of raster

First recorded in 1950–55; from German, from Latin rāstrum “toothed hoe, rake,” derivative of rādere “to scratch, scrape”

Example Sentences

There’s no trickery going on — I’m not changing a raster image with Photoshop or anything.

From The Verge • May 6, 2022

Bottom, raster plots, with time linearly warped between the onset and the offset of the sound.

From Nature • Mar. 28, 2017

The key difference is that Google Maps on iOS 5, because it uses raster graphics, needs repeated downloads.

From The Guardian • Sep. 28, 2012

Onscreen, the car is constantly “acquiring” targets, surrounding them in red boxes, tracing raster lines to and fro, a freeway version of John Madden’s Telestrator.

From Forbes • Feb. 8, 2012

Allegedly inspired by    `Rasta Blasta', British slang for the sort of portable stereo    Americans call a `boom box' or `ghetto blaster'. :raster burn: /n./

From The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0, 24 Jul 1996 by Raymond, Eric S.