All You Need To Know about Vector Artwork for Promotional Products

By: Lisa Jay and Michelle Sheldon – Eco Promotional Products, Inc.

Why do promotional products and apparel printers require “good” vector artwork? 

It is required in order to produce clean, non-pixelated output on items such as mugs, pens, t-shirts, bags, 
golf balls, apparel, etc. Vector artwork provides sharper and smoother output. It is the only file type for 
clean resizing. Without vector artwork, most promotional products producers will not accept nor 
guarantee their work. 

What Is a Vector File? 

A vector file is made up of lines, curves, shapes and fonts all saved in outlines; different to files many 
people are more accustomed to via Microsoft Office A Vector file is a graphics file that contains a vector 
image, rather than a raster, or bitmapped image. Shapes and lines make up vector graphics, which are 
fully scalable images, while raster images are made of pixels and cannot be scaled up without loss. Vector 
graphics appear smooth at the edges no matter how they are sized, whereas raster graphics appear 
jagged, or pixilated, when scaled up. Vector files provide a high quality of reproduction based on their 
clean lines and curves.

Vector files are usually created in dedicated vector graphics editing programs, such as Adobe Illustrator. 
The acceptable output files from Illustrator saved in outlines are: .ai, .eps or .pdf. 

If a file is saved in one of these formats (.eps, .ai or .pdf), that does not mean it is truly vector art. Only art 
originally created in a vector editing program, such as Adobe Illustrator, is truly vector art. 
The most common examples of file types people try to save as vector art - .jpeg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .psd, .tif. 
These files cannot become vector art.

If you had a professional designer create your artwork or logo, most likely they did this in vector art. 
However, they may not have sent it to you in this format. If so, ask them for the “native vector file” Even 
though you may not be able to open it, this will be good to send to your promotional products partners. 

What if I don’t know how to make my artwork into a true vector file? 

Easy, for most artwork we offer this service for a small fee of $20. When completed we give you the file to 
own and reuse. This is a tremendous savings of time and money. Note – you must have the rights to the 
artwork being vectorized. 

For more information visit: www.ecopromotionsonline.com, email: info@ecopromotionsonline.com or 
call: 877.326.9467.