Many customers want to know whats the best file format to send their artwork in. While we will always guide you in the right direction if the file quality isn’t the best we thought we would show exactly what we are talking about when you hear us mention Vector images or Raster images.

To put it simply, Vector Images are the ultimate in print quality. No matter how large or small the image is printed, the quality will remain the same. This is because the image isn’t made up of pixels. Vector images are made from paths between one point to another. Creating a nice clean line.

Raster images however are made up of 1000′s of individual squares called ‘pixels’. The higher the resolution of an image the more ‘pixels’ that image is made up of which creates a clearer image. If however the Raster image is low quality there are less pixels and your image can look blocky, blurry or ‘pixelated’ like the image above.

In the diagram above it shows quite well the difference between the 2 styles. of images. The left is a vector image, and the right is raster made up of pixels. You can see how blurry the raster image is compared to the vector side.

Examples of Vector formats are: .ai .eps .pdf (On occasions these can also be raster images so our designers will be able to let you know if they are actually vector)

Examples of Raster formats are: .jpeg .tiff .png .giff

Hopefully this has cleared up some of your confusion. If you ned any more help please contact us and talk to one of our designers. Call 1300 864 755