Vector Art or Raster Art - What’s the Difference?

Have you ever ordered promo items from your promotional products consultant only to have them tell you they need vector artwork?  Do you know what vector artwork is?  Most people are familiar with file extensions such as jpg, gif and png.  These are raster images and while they may look okay, they won’t work for most print jobs.  File extensions such as eps, ai and cdr are vector images and are just what’s needed. 

Let’s improve your understanding of these different file types with definitions:

Raster images (also known as bitmaps) are made up of tiny squares called pixels.  These pixels contain bits of color and when combined, they make images.  The more pixels in an image, the higher the quality.  These images however, are fixed, so the color cannot be changed and when they are enlarged, the details become blurry.  The best example of a raster file is a photograph.

Vector images use paths and curves to create separate objects within an image.  Vector art is really “created” artwork instead of a digital file.  Vector files can be manipulated to change colors and will keep their integrity when they are enlarged.  Objects can be added to or removed from a vector file.

When you reach out to your promotional products consultant to order branded merchandise one of the first questions we will ask is how many colors are in your logo.  Let’s use the example of a three-color logo being screen printed on a t-shirt. 

Your logo colors are red, grey and white.  If you print this logo on a black t-shirt all three logo colors will be visible but we will need to separate the colors to print them one at a time.  If you decide on a white t-shirt, the red and grey will be visible but the white portion of the logo will need to change, most likely to black.  

Maybe you also want to remove an element of the artwork such as an anniversary year that has now passed.  If you’ve provided your logo as a jpg this can’t be done.  A vector file will work perfectly as we can add or remove objects and change/separate colors.

Vector artwork is a valuable tool to have in your marketing toolbox.  It provides high-quality images that can be modified or sized to meet all your marketing requirements and will ensure continuity in your marketing efforts!