I sent you my logo, but you can’t use it?

Have you ever sent your logo to be reproduced in some fashion; for a brochure, a promotional item or screen printed, only to hear back that the resolution is too low and “Could you please send it in a high resolution or vector format?” If so, you are not alone. Here at Printing Specialists, we produce many different products. Some are small, like a business cards and some are really big, like a banner that hangs on the side of a building. So having the artwork in the correct format makes a big difference in how your finished product will look. Let’s take a look and compare raster vs vector images. We’ll keep the information pretty basic.

Raster Format

So what does it mean to have your logo in raster format? What’s wrong with the version that’s on your website? Or the JPEG file you use in Office documents? Well, what it comes down to is pixels. The way your computer displays images is with pixels, and that’s also how raster graphics are built. All photographs are raster images and if you zoom in close enough you can see the pixels. Any image ending in the extensions, .jpg, .gif, .tiff, .png are raster images.

For offset printing, your raster based image should be 300 ppi/dpi (pixels per inch or dots per inch) at the size you plan to print. For wide format printing, such as banners or trade show displays, 100 ppi will work. Most web graphics are 72 ppi, which means you will see the pixels when you try to use them in print document. Try not not to use those in your print designs.

Raster version of our logo at 100%

Raster version of our logo at 100%. Looks pretty good.

 

A one inch by one inch image will have 90,000 pixels if the image is 300 dpi. A bigger image is going to have more pixels. Increase the resolution, even more pixels, and the more pixels you add the bigger the file. So keep an eye your file size for your raster graphic, a bigger file in some cases means a higher resolution.

Raster vs Vector - raster logo at 600%

Raster version of our logo resized to 600%. You can now see the pixels that make up the image

 

Vector Format

Vector images are created in a drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator. These drawings are created using mathematical equations which means that there are no pixels, only paths and points. Your logo does not need to be at print size. We can resize it up or down and we won’t have to worry about resolution. Fonts are also vector images. Take a look at a PDF file and zoom in as close as you can, the fonts will still look crisp. Fonts can cause issues if we don’t have the correct version. If you are sending an Adobe Illustrator file you will want to convert your fonts to outlines.

Raster vs Vector  - A close up of vector format

A close up of our logo in vector format. Clean and crisp.

Because a vector image is drawn using paths and points they won’t usually have the color detail a raster image would have, where each pixel can have it’s own color.  Programs like Adobe Illustrator also allow you to include color information, such as special PMS colors and these files are easily editable, whereas a raster image, such as a jpg, would be difficult to edit.

Raster vs Vector - vector outlines

Outline of our logo showing the paths that create the vector version.

 

Raster vs Vector Wrap-up

  1. Raster images are pixel based.
  2. There’s nothing wrong with Raster images, they just need to be the correct resolution.
  3. Raster image formats include; .jpg, tif, png, gif.
  4. Vector images are math based and are made using paths and points
  5. Vector images are scalable and can contain PMS color information.
  6. Vector formats include; .ai, .eps, and .pdf. Keep in mind that just because your file ends in one of these extensions it does not mean that it’s an actual vector image. You can embed raster images in these files.
  7. This is a basic explanation, many of todays graphics programs can have both Raster and Vector graphics contained in the same image.

As always, we are here for you. If you have any questions about raster vs vector image formats, if you need to know if your logo is raster or vector, or have any questions about printing  just drop us line. You can leave a comment below, and please feel free to share this.