If you’re a new client placing an order for a promotional product with us, you’ll hear us ask for a “vector art file” of your logo. With this file, we can reproduce your logo in any size from the dome on a ballpoint pen to the side of a building – always giving you crisp and clean reproduction that will burnish your image with your clients and be consistent every time it’s used.
But what is vector art?
Vector art is composed of continuous lines and shapes. It’s made using mathematical equations, which remain sharp and clear regardless of the image scale. Its Evil Twin, Raster art, is composed using pixels. When a pixilated image is increased in size, the individual pixels become very prominent. This results in blurred, low quality images and unacceptable results.
So by definition, a vector image is different from the very beginning. That is why a raster image cannot be “saved” or converted to a vector image. If the image was originally built in Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator, then we’re home free! This would create one of these file types: .eps, .ai, or .cdr (although not all eps files are vector art). The only way to tell is for us to open your file and examine it. If a raster image was placed in Illustrator and saved as an eps – it won’t be vector and it won’t work.
These file types are raster art, and we won’t be able to use them: JPEGs, GIFs, BMPs. PhotoShop or TIF files may work for a full color imprint if they are built to the size of the image area or larger.
If a raster art image is all you have, we can work with a skilled artist to recreate your logo as a vector image. Your account manager will be happy to quote a one-time cost for this and manage the details of getting it done. We’ll archive it for use on all your orders, and provide it to you as well.
And we’ll have what we need to produce that pen with the dome logo, or the graphics for the side of your building.