Vector vs Raster: Which File Does a Printer Need?
This one distinction decides whether your logo can go on a building or is stuck at the size you already have.
Raster: a grid of pixels
JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, PSD and every photograph are raster. The image is a grid of coloured squares, and the grid has a fixed count. A 1,000-pixel-wide logo has one thousand columns of information, and no software can increase that.
Enlarging a raster file spreads those same pixels over more space. Photoshop will interpolate new ones, but interpolation is informed guessing between known values — it does not recover detail that was never captured. That is why an enlarged logo looks soft or blocky.
Vector: shapes, not pixels
AI, EPS, SVG and vector PDF store artwork as instructions: a curve from here to there, filled with this colour, stroked at that weight. There is no grid and no resolution. When it prints, the shapes are recalculated at whatever size is needed.
A vector logo is as crisp on a business card as on a fifty-foot wall, from one file. For anything that will ever be enlarged, this is what you want.
How to tell what you actually have
- Extension is a hint, not proof. .ai, .eps and .svg are almost always vector. .jpg and .png are always raster.
- PDF is genuinely ambiguous. It can hold either. A PDF from Illustrator with live paths is vector; a scanned page saved as PDF is raster.
- Zoom in hard. Open it and magnify to 800%. Vector edges stay razor-sharp at any zoom. Raster edges break into squares.
- Check for embedded bitmaps. An SVG or PDF can contain a placed photo. The file is technically vector but those parts are still pixels — and this is the most common reason a "vector" logo still prints badly.
Our Print-Ready Studio reports this directly: drop an SVG in and it tells you how many embedded bitmaps it contains and whether any text is still live.
The live-text trap
A vector file can reference a font instead of storing the letterforms as shapes. If the shop does not have that exact font, their software substitutes another one — and your logo prints in the wrong typeface, usually without anyone noticing until it is produced.
The fix is to convert text to outlines (Illustrator: Type → Create Outlines) before sending. The text stops being editable, so keep an editable master, but it now prints identically everywhere.
If all you have is a JPG
You have three options, in order of preference:
- Find the original. Whoever designed the logo has the vector. It is worth an email.
- Trace it. Our free vectorizer converts flat, high-contrast artwork to clean vector paths in the browser. Excellent for a simple two-colour logo; poor for photographs or soft edges.
- Use it at a size it supports. Work out the effective resolution and keep within it — see how many DPI a banner needs.
The short version
- Raster = fixed pixel grid; enlarging never adds detail.
- Vector = shapes; prints at any size from one file.
- PDF can be either — check before assuming.
- Convert text to outlines or risk a font substitution.
- Watch for bitmaps hiding inside a "vector" file.
Put this into practice
Design your piece at its real finished size, see the trim and safe lines as you work, and send it to a print shop near you as a job they can quote on sight.
Open the Designer Check Artwork You HaveCommon questions
Artwork stored as mathematical shapes — points, curves and fills — rather than a grid of pixels. Because the shapes are recalculated at whatever size it is drawn, a vector file prints identically on a business card and a building. AI, EPS, SVG and vector PDF are the common formats.
It can be traced, which redraws the shapes as paths. That works well for flat, high-contrast artwork like a simple logo, and poorly for photographs or anything with soft edges or gradients. Tracing approximates — it cannot recover detail the original never had.
Sometimes. A PDF is a container and can hold either. A PDF exported from Illustrator with live paths is vector; a PDF containing a scanned page or a placed photo is raster wearing a PDF wrapper. This is the single most common file mix-up in printing.