The Importance of Being…Vectored ?
One of the most common problems that we encounter when processing an order for promotional gifts is the file type that our clients supply their artwork in. Many of our clients haven’t even heard of a Vector file, and to be honest, many of them don’t want to know what one is either! But those of you who have a burning desire to understand the difference between a Vector and a Raster file…grab a cuppa, a nice digestive, and read on…
All printers of promotional gifts require artwork in an Illustrator EPS Vector file (or Vector file from a similar industry-standard illustration application). The reason for this is that a Vector file is the only file type that contains all of the necessary information to guarantee a perfectly printed product. I like to think of a Vector image as one that has been made up using a join-the-dot system - it consists of a series of dots, with lines that join these dots together. The beauty of a Vector image is that it can be enlarged or decreased in size without any loss of detail whatsoever - so if you’re buying branded folding city bikes (and yes, we can do these), beach balls or yoyos, you know your logo will stay perfectly clear and beautifully proportioned.
In contrast, we have the Raster file (and no, it doesn’t feature dreadlocks or Bob Marley lookalikes). These types of files are made up of pixels, rather than paths (the name given to those lines in my join-the-dot analogy above), meaning that when scaled to a certain size loss of detail may occur, and edges may appear blurred. We have all experienced taking photos on a digital camera - blow the image right up and all you see is a series of coloured squares. This is pixellation, and doesn’t make for a very good print job!
To demonstrate the above quick overview of the necessity of a Vector file, I have produced a quick illustration (click on the image to view a larger file - pdf):
Hopefully this quick overview of the difference between a Vector and a Raster image has helped clear the mists of confusion as to why we so desperately need a Vector file (and to think you all thought we were just being fussy!).
You can find more notes like this from the Redbows Design Studio on our corporate website.
