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Need to convert to vector format.

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
May 22, 2011
3 replies
38598 views

I have a document with pictures. I need to convert it to vector format before sending to printer. Not sure how to do it. Using CS5. Is converting to outlines the same?

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Correct answer medicineheads_no

Hi

If you have made something in Adobe Illustrator and save it you have a vector format - but the pixelbased images you have put into your document remains pixels.

Vector formats are a mathematical description of the drawing - and not dependent on the printer-resolution. Bitmap or pixel formats are just that - lots of pixels with information about each pixel. If you magnify a pixel image you do not get more pixels, and at some point you will be able to see the pixels. meaning your image looks bad.

If you by "pens and cups" means you have printed a logo on these objects I can understand they say "vector formats" (e.g. freehand or illustrator) because they have most likely had cases of beeing handed a pixel-image from a website as an original. Such originals have a too low resolution to print well. Screen resolution is mostly 72 pixels per inch or lately 94 (?) pixels per inch. To get a clean line in professional print you need around 1000 pixel per inch in the correct size. The Adobe logo on top of this page is 39x64 pixels - if you wanted to use a picel image in the size you see for print it would need to be about 500x800 pixels.

Illustrator IS vector format. Eps IS vector format. Both can hold and display bitmap. Gif, jpg, tif, bmp etc are pixel formats. Pdf = Printer Description Format, a further developement of eps and uses all types of images.

more about pixels:

http://www.dpiphoto.eu/dpi.htm

ps I see someone have posted while I was writing this

hope this helps

medicineheads_noCorrect answer

Participating Frequently

Hi

If you have made something in Adobe Illustrator and save it you have a vector format - but the pixelbased images you have put into your document remains pixels.

Vector formats are a mathematical description of the drawing - and not dependent on the printer-resolution. Bitmap or pixel formats are just that - lots of pixels with information about each pixel. If you magnify a pixel image you do not get more pixels, and at some point you will be able to see the pixels. meaning your image looks bad.

If you by "pens and cups" means you have printed a logo on these objects I can understand they say "vector formats" (e.g. freehand or illustrator) because they have most likely had cases of beeing handed a pixel-image from a website as an original. Such originals have a too low resolution to print well. Screen resolution is mostly 72 pixels per inch or lately 94 (?) pixels per inch. To get a clean line in professional print you need around 1000 pixel per inch in the correct size. The Adobe logo on top of this page is 39x64 pixels - if you wanted to use a picel image in the size you see for print it would need to be about 500x800 pixels.

Illustrator IS vector format. Eps IS vector format. Both can hold and display bitmap. Gif, jpg, tif, bmp etc are pixel formats. Pdf = Printer Description Format, a further developement of eps and uses all types of images.

more about pixels:

http://www.dpiphoto.eu/dpi.htm

ps I see someone have posted while I was writing this

hope this helps

S

soshagayle7Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you very much. This is very helpful and the web site you suggested was good.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain some things to me. !!

Have a great evening.

JETalmage

Inspiring

Be careful of terminology (and over-eager misinformation).

If you have made something in Adobe Illustrator and save it you have a vector format

Not necessarily. Many features in Illustrator (effects, transparency...) result in raster content without actually importing raster images. So an Illustrator file is not necesarily "a vector file."

Illustrator is a program. Its native file format can contain any combination of raster, vector, and/or text objects.

If you by "pens and cups" means you have printed a logo on these objects I can understand they say "vector formats" (e.g. freehand or illustrator)

Same goes for FreeHand. Just because it's an AI or FH file does not necessarily mean its content is vector paths.

Screen resolution is mostly 72 pixels per inch or lately 94 (?) pixels per inch.

The "94(?)" is an erroneous reference to screen-draw resolution in the context of Windows (96 or 92 PPI, not 94). Nowadays, it's largely moot on both platforms, because it depends on what specifically you are talking about. If you're talking about actual inch-measure of the screen, that varies all over the place, depending on the monitor, and would vary according to zoom anyway. If you're talking about number of pixels which the OS generates to describe an inch of content, that depends on the application. For example, even on Windows, Adobe Illustrator builds its screen image on the assumption of 72 PPI. That's why you have set AI's zoom to 133% if you want to take a screen capture in AI and paste it back into AI so as to have its size on the page match that of the objects you captured.

To get a clean line in professional print you need around 1000 pixel per inch in the correct size.

Egads. Now poor soshagayle7 is going to think everything in print requires a raster resolution of 1000 PPI.

What if I told you I can give you a razor-sharp print of a line--of any length, any weight, and at any angle--using a single-pixel raster image?

The Adobe logo on top of this page is 39x64 pixels - if you wanted to use a picel image in the size you see for print it would need to be about 500x800 pixels.

Maybe. If it were line art (no screen tints, therefore no halftone dots) and if it were printed on an imaging device with a hardware resolution of 1000 printer spots per inch. But if "for print" meant, say, printing on a high-speed on-demand printer like a Xerox DocuTech (just as common nowadays as offset litho), 600 ppi would be plenty.

It is ridiculous to advise someone about appropriate raster resolution for print without mentioning screen ruling and method.

Illustrator IS vector format.

No. See above.

Eps IS vector format.

No. EPS is Encapsulated PostScript. PostScript is a page-description language. PostScript can describe pages which contain any combination of raster, vector, and/or text objects. An EPS's content may as easily be entirely raster as anything else.

EPS is a meta-format. It's a "wrapper" or a "container" used to convey PostScript code to a printing device that understands the PostScript language.

Pdf = Printer Description Format

PDF. Portable Document Format.

JET

medicineheads_no

Participating Frequently

Hi

Back to your printers statement "a vector format". I have done print jobs for a couple of decades - and no printer has, so far, asked for "vector format" what kind of printing is it? 4-color, inkjet or.... - perhaps they are referring to a pdf? That is a format containing vectors for objects etc but also includes bitmap (jpg, gif, tif etc) for images. It is also the most common and preferred format for printers around the globe

S

soshagayle7Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks for your response on this. A PDF is perfect for brochures, forms, checks, envelopes and other things that I have printed but I have been ask by the Advertising Specialty Printers for my file to be in vector format. I don't know why. I am working on some magnets. It will be 4 color process. (or however they print in full color). Other jobs I have done though is like pens, mouse pads, cups etc... They ask for Vector files ???

Scott Falkner

Braniac

What document do you have? Is it an Illustrator file or some other type of file? What makes you believe it is not currently vectors and, more importantly, what makes you believe it must be vectors. Almost everything I get printed is not completely vectors. Raster or bitmap are the common terms for a graphic that is not vectors.

Tell us more about the file and about how it will be printed. If there are non-vector elements, tell us the resolution in pixels per inch (ppi). For example, a 300 x 300 pixel image that prints at 2 inches square is 150 ppi. A screen grab of your file may help understand what you need as well.

S

soshagayle7Author

Participating Frequently

It is an Illustrator file. I am trying to put together some information that will go on a magnet. It concerns recycling so I googled it and pulled some photos from there. When I open them in photoshop, it tells me that they are all from 183 ppi and up.... One of them that I really wanted to use was just 72. I googled how to change the resolution and was guided on how to do that. I changed it to 300 ppi and hope it will turn out good. They were all jpegs. I placed them in my illustrator file and set the type that needs to go on there. I understood from the place that does the printing that they need me to send it in a vector format.

I can easily save it as a pdf or eps but not sure about vector ??

Also, not sure what you mean by a screen grab but trying to learn.

S

soshagayle7Author

Participating Frequently

The resolution of the JPG images in Photoshop is irrelevant. Resampling does nothing to improve the quality or smoothness of the image. When you place the unmodified JPG in Illustrator and scale it, you can then use the Links panel or the Document Properties panel to see the final resolution of the image. This is all that matters.

As for the print shop telling you your file must be all vector, it sounds like you are dealing with a sales rep or someone who has nothing to do with printing the file. There is no reason a printed (as opposed to plotted) file must be all vector.

If you want to make you file vector anyway, perhaps to improve the sharpness of low resolution images, then you need to use the pen tool to trace the artwork. Put the JPG image on one layer then make that layer a template layer by selecting Template from the Layers panel flyout menu. On another layer use the pen tool to trace over the shapes of the JPG. Search for Illustrator Pen Tutorial.

Thanks for your great information. I placed one of the jpegs into my document and it was 72 ppi. I scaled it down to the size it needs to be and now it says that it is 280. Visually, it doesn't look as good. But... you are saying that I can use this file and save it as a pdf or eps and it should be enough for the print shop?

I did check out the tutorial using the Pen tool. I will work on that but it will take some time. I also need to work on the live trace option. I am such a beginner but determined to learn this !!!

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