A vector image stores shapes as mathematical instructions rather than pixels, which is why it stays sharp at any size. Here is how vector files work, what SVG, EPS, PDF, and AI are each for, when vector is the wrong choice, and how to tell whether a file is really a vector.
A vector image is a graphic built from mathematical instructions: points, lines, curves, and shapes with defined fills and strokes. Because the file stores those instructions instead of a grid of pixels, a vector image stays sharp at any size, from a 16-pixel favicon to a billboard.
A photo works the other way around. It stores a fixed grid of colored pixels, so enlarging it past its native resolution gives you soft edges and visible blocks. That single difference drives almost every decision about which format to use, and it is the reason your printer keeps asking for the vector file.
Open an SVG in a text editor and you will see the actual instructions: a path with coordinates, a fill color, maybe a stroke width. The file is a set of directions for drawing the artwork, not a record of what the artwork looked like at one particular size.
Your browser, your printer, and your design software each follow those directions and draw the shapes at whatever size they need. Scale the logo to 10 times its original size and the math simply produces bigger curves. Nothing gets stretched, because there was never a fixed pixel grid to stretch.
Curves come from Bezier math: anchor points with handles that control how the line bends between them. This is why vector artwork stays editable forever. Every shape remains a selectable object you can recolor, reshape, or delete, long after the file leaves your hands.
Resolution is not part of a vector file at all. There is no 300 DPI version of an SVG, because the resolution is decided at the moment something renders it.
Raster images, also called bitmaps, are the other half of the picture. Every photo you take, every screenshot, and every PNG you download is raster. Here is how the two compare where it matters:
The short version: vector for anything with flat color and defined edges that needs to work at multiple sizes, raster for anything with continuous tone.
Four formats cover almost every professional handoff. The differences come down to where the file is going.
Scalable Vector Graphics is an open W3C standard written in XML, and it is the only vector format browsers render natively. That makes it the default for web and product work: icons, logos in a site header, illustrations, and diagrams.
SVG has advantages the others do not. You can style it with CSS, animate it, manipulate it with JavaScript, and keep text as real text that search engines and screen readers can read. File sizes for flat graphics are usually a few kilobytes.
Encapsulated PostScript is the old print exchange format, and Adobe now treats it as legacy. You will still get asked for it, mostly by print shops, sign makers, and merchandise vendors running older workflows.
EPS opens reliably almost everywhere, which is exactly why it persists. If a vendor requests EPS, send EPS. For anything new, prefer PDF or SVG.
PDF is the safest universal handoff for print. It preserves vector paths, embedded fonts, color profiles, and spot colors, and every prepress operator can open it.
One caveat matters: PDF is a container, not a guarantee. A PDF can hold vector paths, raster images, or both in the same document. Exporting a photo to PDF does not vectorize it.
The native Adobe Illustrator format keeps everything live: layers, effects, editable type, and artboards. It is a working file, not a delivery file.
Send an AI file to a collaborator who uses Illustrator. Send almost anyone else a PDF or an SVG.
DXF and DWG come from CAD and drive cutting machines, laser cutters, and CNC routers, where the paths become toolpaths. CDR is CorelDRAW's native format, common in signage and apparel shops. SVGZ is a compressed SVG. EMF and WMF are Windows legacy formats you may meet inside old Office documents.
PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, and BMP are all raster. So is a PNG with a transparent background, which is the most common point of confusion: transparency and vector are unrelated properties.
PSD is a Photoshop document and mostly raster, though it can contain vector shape layers and live type. A file is vector only if the artwork inside it is made of paths.
Different industries want vector files for different reasons, and knowing which reason applies tells you what to send.
A logo has to work on a business card, a website favicon, a trade show banner, and an embroidered polo shirt. Only a vector master file can produce all of those from one source, which is why every brand guideline demands one. If your logo exists solely as a PNG, you do not really own a usable logo yet.
Commercial printing needs crisp edges at high resolution and, for brand colors, exact spot color values such as Pantone references. Vector artwork carries both. Packaging dielines, the cut and fold lines that define a box, are vector paths by definition.
Screen printing separates artwork into one plate per color, a job that is trivial with vector shapes and painful with pixels. Embroidery digitizing converts vector outlines into stitch paths. Vinyl cutters, laser cutters, and CNC machines read paths as movement instructions, usually from SVG or DXF.
Icon systems live as SVG because one file serves every screen density without a 1x, 2x, and 3x export set. SVG icons also inherit color from CSS, so a single file works in light and dark themes.
A vehicle wrap or a building sign is viewed at scale, and there is no such thing as a raster file large enough for every application. Vector removes the question entirely.
Floor plans, schematics, transit maps, and charts are all line work with labels. They need to stay legible when someone zooms in, and they often need individual elements to remain editable as the underlying data changes.
Vector is not a quality upgrade you apply to everything. It is a description method, and some subjects resist description.
Photographs are the clearest example. A photo is millions of subtly varying pixels with soft edges, grain, and gradients, and converting it to paths either produces a posterized, flat-looking result or generates tens of thousands of paths that make the file slow and unwieldy. Photographic textures, painterly brushwork, and anything with heavy noise or blur hit the same wall.
Very complex vector artwork can also be heavier than the equivalent raster and slow to render, especially in a browser. If an illustration has thousands of overlapping paths, exporting a PNG for display is often the sensible move.
The file extension is a hint, not proof, because an EPS or a PDF can contain nothing but an embedded photo. Three checks settle it:
There are three routes, and the right one depends on what you have now.
Draw it. Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Inkscape, and Figma all produce vector artwork directly. This gives you the most control and takes the most time.
Vectorize an existing raster. Auto-tracing converts a bitmap into paths. It works well on clean, flat source material such as a scanned logo, a black-and-white sketch, or a simple icon. It works badly on photographs, and no tool changes that.
Generate it. AI image tools can produce vector artwork directly, which skips the tracing step and the cleanup it usually needs.
Recraft Studio covers the last two routes. The AI vector generator creates artwork as true SVG rather than a raster image converted after the fact, so the output arrives as editable paths you can recolor and reshape in the Vector Editor. The image vectorizer handles the other direction, turning a raster file you already have into SVG.
Both work best on the material vector suits: flat color, defined edges, and clear shapes. A photograph put through any vectorizer, Recraft's included, will come back either simplified past the point of usefulness or carrying more paths than the artwork needs. For cleaner results, our guide to simple vector images covers what to feed the tool, and the high-resolution vector guide covers output for print.
The rule underneath all of this is simple: if the artwork has flat color and defined edges and will be used at more than one size, make it a vector and keep the vector master. Everything else is a delivery detail.
Neither. JPEG and PNG are both raster formats that store a fixed grid of pixels. Vector images use SVG, EPS, PDF, AI, or DXF. A PNG with a transparent background is still raster: transparency and vector are unrelated properties.
At normal size it can look identical to a raster image. The difference shows when you zoom in. Vector edges stay perfectly crisp at any magnification, while raster edges soften and break into visible pixels.
Zoom to 800% and check whether the edges stay sharp, or open the file in a vector editor and look for anchor points along the shapes. An SVG opened in a text editor should contain path tags rather than embedded image data. The file extension alone is not proof, because a PDF or an EPS can contain nothing but a photo.
Run it through a vectorizer, which traces the bitmap into paths and exports SVG. Expect good results from flat, high-contrast source images such as logos and line art, and poor results from photographs.
Not in any practical sense. You can trace a photo into paths, but the result is a stylized, flattened interpretation rather than the original photograph. Continuous tone, grain, and soft edges are what vector formats handle worst.
Ask the printer first, then default to a PDF with fonts embedded or converted to outlines. Send EPS only if the vendor specifically requests it, and send an AI file only if they work in Adobe Illustrator.
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