When applying your logo to any item, from mugs to bathmats, in order to create screens for screen printing, it is necessary to have the art in what is called a “vector” formatted file. Though uncommon outside of the world of promotional items, this is a fundamental part of the process of getting your art onto the bag or mug of your choice. But what does “vector art” really mean?

To understand vector formatting, let’s first look at the art you’re familiar with. I’m sure you know  JPEGs, .gifs and probably even .png file tags. These are very common formats to for art to be in. They are not changeable. These images are made up of pixels, all those tiny, tiny squares that work together to create an image. These images are called “Raster” art (Bitmapped art is another term used for these file formats).  It is easy to make raster art smaller, without losing resolution or visibly altering your image, but when you try to make raster art larger, you lose the resolution and end up with an image the is much blurrier or more pixelated.

 *Notice how jagged and blurry raster art becomes when it is enlarged

Vector formatted art is a workable, changeable art.  With the right program, vector art can be easily modified. Is the umbrella in your logo yellow, but you would really prefer it to be purple? With vector art this is an easy fix! Rather than being composed of pixels, like the raster art we discussed previously, vector art is made of points that are plotted on paths, outlining every component of given artwork. While pixel artwork cannot be sized up, and has very limited resizing capabilities, while the possibilities with vector art are practically limitless! With vector art, any component can be altered, sizing , coloring and even design.

*Notice all the outlines and plotted points which allow the art to be resized without losing resolution.

We can imagine vector art like a layout board. You can choose your colors, your fonts, your images and if you don’t like them, you can move them around or resize the components until you find the perfect balance! A jpeg is then the final product. Everything has been cemented together into one; there are no longer any components or potential to change, as it has all been glued together as one image.