When you’re in the process of getting customized garments or products from MOTIF, one of the most important steps along the way is the preparation of your artwork or logo. Having the proper files is very important in order to have your logo looking its best when it is applied, but how do you know what will work?
There are different types of digital images that have different advantages and uses, they are known as raster and vector.
Raster images are usually photographs, made out of tiny squares holding colour information called pixels. Every raster image has a limited number of pixels and the number of pixels dictates the level of detail possible. Fewer pixels, lower quality. I bet you can guess what happens with more pixels. Common raster image files will be JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, and PSD, they are created and edited in Adobe Photoshop. Raster images can contain incredible detail but are also limited by file size and scalability, meaning that enlarging the image will decrease the image quality and turn out blurry.
Vector images are typically logos and text, shapes made by connecting points with lines, they have the ability to be enlarged or shrunk without any loss of image quality. How is that possible, you ask? Through the magic of mathematics, the points and lines can be resized infinitely and retain crisp lines because the image is not bound by a limited number of pixels. Common vector file formats are AI, EPS, and PDF, which are created and edited in Adobe Illustrator.
So, how does all this technical information affect you when getting custom goods made? Not a whole ton, actually, this is what we do! Here at MOTIF, we require a vector format file in order to print and embroider the image at various sizes. That would be an AI, EPS, or PDF file. Don’t have one? No problem. The art department here at MOTIF are more than able to handle any files you throw at us. We can make a vector version of your logo based on a decent quality JPG image. Just like you, we want your finished products to look the best they possibly can.
