What the heck is a "Vector Graphic" format?!?!?

[Radtech1]

I am having one of my shots printed as a t-shirt. The printer needs it in a "Vector Graphic" format. From the sounds of it, I know that "Vector" is the type, or style, as opposed to the name of the format.

Does PhotoShop save in a Vector format?

Rad

[Pekka]

Vector graphic is an image which is represented by vectors (polygons and lines), fills and effects and it is always drawed realtime and is capable of infinite scaling either direction (you can zoom in or zoom out endlessly). In other words it is a complex mathematical vector model without any pixel data (no definite output resolution).

Vector graphics are used by all printed media: advertising, books, illustrations etc because fonts are natively "vector" and you do not have to worry about output resolution.

Adode Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, Corel Draw and Corel Xara are examples of vector programs. All DTP programs are also vector-based.

Bitmap images can be "vectorized" but results are usually not very good. Genuine Fractals does it pretty well.

You can embed bitmap images in vector documents. Usually it works so that you embed an image to a vector frame (perhaps as fill) and the original image is attached to document to serve as a resource for various print sizes.

I'm pretty sure PS can save AI and EPS formats, too, it has a selection of vector tools. Don't know more about that, I've used Xara and Freehand. Consult the manual.

[Scottes]

Be warned that PS does not convert an image to a vector format, but can save the image embedded as binary data into a vector format like EPS. So the resulting file is not infinitely scalable like a true vector format.

But it will most likely satisfy the printer if you open an image in PS and then just save it as an EPS file.


I have to say that I'm surprised that he wanted it in vector format. It just seems weird to me.

[Skinner]

The previous explanations about vector format are excellent.

I spent 25 years in the screenprint industry. What the screenprinter seems to be telling you is that they are going to have trouble giving you a photographic reproduction.

Screen printing is done predominantly by printing spot color separations. By that I mean they pull out a basic blue screen and a basic red screen and then trap or print outlines around those colors. Think of it like cartoons printed in color.

Now, when you print a photograph in full color you only print the four basic colors of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black arranged in dot patterns. This is called Four Color Process printing and is what you see in magazines and other paper printed materials that represent full photographic reproduction.

Unfortunately, this kind of printing is extremely difficult to reproduce in the screen printing media. T-shirt textures, Screen mesh sizes, The cost of getting separations done, the gamut of colors that can be reproduced by their inks.... all this and a multitude of other problems have plagues Screen printers when trying to reproduce photographs.

What you might seek out instead is a t-shirt printer that has a copy/inkjet type system where they can produce a sublimation iron on transfer. These must be used on at least a 50% polyester content garment and it is best to stick with white as the inks are not opaque.

Hope I haven't insulted anybody's intelligence here and I hope I have explained this briefly but clear enough to be helpful.