Logo Resized as a Vector (top) versus a Bitmap (bottom)
Vectors are a combination of shapes and or lines that make up a drawing. Each individual line or shape is made up of either a vast collection of points interconnecting all of them or just a few control points that are connected using Bézier (Pronounced bez-ee-ay) curves.
Vector drawings can usually be scaled without any loss in quality. This makes them ideal for company logos, maps or other objects that have to be resized frequently. Vector drawings are typically small files because they only contain data about the Bézier curves that form the drawing. EPS file format is often used to store vector.
Applications that can handle vector data
There are hundreds of applications on the market that can be used to create or modify vector data. In prepress, the most popular programs are Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw.
File formats that are used for vector data
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
| EPS | (Encapsulated PostScript) the most popular file format to exchange vector drawings. |
| (Portable Document Format) Is a versatile file format that can contain just about any type of data including complete pages. | |
| AI | The native file format of Adobe Illustrator. |