Friday

What Is Vector Artwork?

Are you trying to design a product for your company such as a name badge or business card? Is the vendor you're ordering from asking you for your artwork in a "vector format"? If you're not a graphic designer, you might not know exactly what the means. Here is a little information that may help you out.
At first you may not even be able to tell the difference between a vector and a flat bitmap image, except for the file type. The file extension for a standard bitmap image would be something like a jpg, tiff, giff, or a bmp. A vector image will have a file extension of something like eps, ai, or cdr. These file types are created in programs such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW and you would need one of these programs to view this type of artwork on your computer. When using one of these programs to view a vector image, you can easily tell the difference between it and a standard bitmap or jpg image.
When opening a jpg image in the professional art program like those mentioned above, you will see that the edges of the artwork are jagged and the outlines are actually made up of squares. In a professional art program, the outlines of a vector object are curved and smooth, without any of these squares. This is why one might refer to vector art as being "converted to curves" or "converted to outlines". The benefit of having the smooth curved lines and outlines is that vector objects are scalable and maintain their proportions and high quality when sized up or down to position them on name badge or business card templates for printing. Another advantage of vector art is that the colors can be adjusted so they perfectly match the Pantone colors used in your corporate logo.
Aside from being more precise, a vector object is also not a flat image. A bitmap is however a flat image and can't be changed or manipulated in any way. If your logo has a white square in the background as most flat images do, the logo is stuck to it and the white cannot be taken out or made transparent to show a background color. For example, if your name badges or business cards will have a black background and you will be placing your oval logo in the top right corner, any areas of the logo that are supposed to be "transparent" or the white square around the oval logo will actually show up white on the black background when using a jpg image. So your black badges or business cards will then have a white square in the corner, rather than just having your oval-shaped logo printed in your company colors on the black background. Having the layered vector artwork allows any of the different parts or segments of a logo to be changed. You can change the size or thickness of lines, as well as adjust the colors and even remove unwanted bits of the logo such as the surrounding white square. Parts of the logo can also be made transparent so that any colors in the background can show through as well.
A question that is very commonly asked about vector artwork is, "Can I just drag a jpg I already have into a program such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW and save it as an eps file?". The answer is definitely NO. Saving a bitmap inside a file type like an eps or ai will not turn it into a layered vector file. It will only embed the bitmap in the file. Some professional programs have a function to trace bitmap images into vector images, but even still this can be a difficult process without the proper knowledge on how to navigate these types of programs and art files. In addition, purchasing these types of art programs if you don't already have them can be quite expensive.
One of your options for getting your bitmap into a vector file if your company doesn't have its own design team is to have it professionally converted by a graphic designer. There of course will probably be a small fee for re-creating your logo, but the benefit is that once created, the logo is yours to keep. You might run into different printing or business branding scenarios that you will need vector artwork for in the future any way, so spending the extra money up front to create a quality logo might be worth the investment in the long run. Additionally, since you won't have the professional art program to view the new logo, you can always ask the graphic designer to export the vector file to either a jpg or pdf format that you can easily view on any computer. This re-creation service is very often offered by the vendor designing your name badges or business cards and would most likely be more cost effective than using a graphic design company or buying the artwork program and taking the time to learn and create the logo yourself. If you have any questions, you can always contact your vendor for more information and they will be able to direct you on exactly what type of vector artwork you will need and how to obtain it.

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