Vector logo (vector file)
What is a vector logo (vector file)?
A vector logo is a mark stored as mathematical curves instead of a grid of pixels, so it scales up to the size of a shop sign without going soft. The vector formats are ai, eps, svg and pdf. Raster files such as png and jpg hold a fixed number of pixels and break into steps when enlarged, which is why printers and sign makers ask for the vector original.
Example
A sign maker asks for the mark “in vector”. The company sends a png downloaded from its website, 600 pixels wide. The sign is 3 metres. At 100 dots per inch that size needs roughly 11,800 pixels across, so the file is about twenty times too small. Large signs are printed at lower resolutions than that, because they are read from a distance — but 600 pixels does not stretch that far either. Enlarged, the mark shows steps along every diagonal and a halo around the letters.
From the vector file the same sign is cut at any size, and that one file also serves embroidery on workwear, engraving and vinyl on a van.
Vectorising: from png to curves
When the original is lost, the mark has to be redrawn. Automatic tracing produces curves with dozens of stray points and a wobbling outline; a clean vectorisation is hand work with the right typeface and the right radii. The result is a new file that looks like the old one — and from then on it is kept as the original.
Why it matters for a business
Every carrier that comes later wants vector: a printed shirt, a sign, packaging, a catalogue, an avatar. Without it each supplier redraws the mark their own way, and within a year the company has five slightly different logos in circulation. The differences show the moment two pieces end up side by side.
What to ask
- Do you receive the vector original, not only exported pictures?
- Is the lettering converted to curves, so the file does not depend on a font installed elsewhere?
- Is there a one-colour version and a version for dark backgrounds?
- Are the colours specified for print as well as for screen?
If the mark exists only as a picture, redrawing it is part of logo design, and the redrawn file is the one every supplier should be sent afterwards.