Raster vs Vector Artwork For Imprinting
Some clients may not be familiar with different types of art formats required for imprinting. While we won’t be covering all the technical or specific methods of converting logo images into an acceptable format, hopefully we can help provide some more basic image format information for imprinting.
IMAGE FORMATS
GIF, JPG, PNG, CDR, AI, TIF, PSD ?!?
While these file types may confuse some clients, let's try simplifying things a little for you... At the most basic level (without delving into all the reasons for picking a specific graphic format), most images fall into one of two group: vector or raster.
RASTER IMAGES
Images you see on websites are almost always Raster formats [GIF, JPG, PNG]. They are made of little squares (pixels). If you resize them to be bigger or smaller, you’ve probably seen how some images become distorter, blocky, or fuzzy. This is because, when you change the size of the picture, you’re actually just making the squares bigger or smaller.
Example of Resizing a Raster Image
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Original Size  |
Expanded Size  |
Another problem with raster images is you pretty much have to print the entire image; background and all. Now some of these images may have what's called a transparent background – you’ll see such images online, where the webpage background shows up around and behind the image, rather than looking like a square picture is pasted over the background.
While it may look like these 'transparent background' pictures work like vector files, the actual transparent part of the image is still really there. One colour is just picked, and told not to show up on the screen. If the turned off colour isn't white, you can try printing out the image itself, and will likely see the hidden colour printed out as well.
Imprinting your [raster] logos would mean imprinting both the picture your eye sees and the background too. If you're doing a single a single colour imprint, then both the image and background would print as the same colour: it would imprint as just a single colour square.
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What The Eye Sees
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What The Imprinting Film Sees
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Even if you decided to imprint the file in two colors (black and white for example), you might figure you'll still have your black logo inside a white square. Unfortunately, with ink imprinting, the film still needs to know parts are supposed to be which color. It looks obvious to our eyes, but the printing film only sees one color, and needs to be told all the separate parts that need to be included and excluded.
VECTOR IMAGES
Unlike raster images (which are made up of pixel blocks), vector images are created very differently. The edges of the images are actually calculated through coordinates. If you make the picture bigger, or smaller, all the image sections are recalculated and redrawn proportionally.
You could take a 2 inch vector circle, blow it up to an 8 foot circle, and it would look just as smooth and undistorted. That's because it's not physically changing the image itself. Rather, it's taking all the coordinates, and simply redrawing the whole image using the newer coordinates for the bigger image.
Example of Resizing a Vector Image
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Original Size |
Expanded Size  |
Because a 'vector' image recreates all the parts of a picture individually, with each segment considered a separate piece; the imprint film simply gathers all the bits and pieces that are told to be the same colour, and ignores all the other sections as being non-existent. To create a second imprint color, it simply repeats the process: it considers all the pieces meant for the second color, and ignores the first color entirely.
For two colour imprinting, we’re actually using two separate film negatives - one film for each color. If your colours are red and black, we'll have one film negative for just the red ink areas, and another film with just the black areas. This is a two step printing process, whereas raster images could only be done with a single film negative printing - the image and background all considered to be the same color: in other words, a single colour square, with no way to differentiate between the image and the background.
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Raster vs Vector Artwork Imprinting
