Logo Battle of the Century: Vector vs. Bitmap

by Tony Pesavento
Art Director at Advent Media Group

(Queue: Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger)

In the blue corner, fighting out of Adobe Photoshop, this bitmap weighs in at hundreds of pixels, with a professional usage for websites and PowerPoint presentations:

“Kid Pixellate” dot GIF!

(CROWD ROARS)

And in the yellow corner, fighting out of Adobe Illustrator, this vector graphic weighs in at an astonishing mathematical equation consisting of points, lines, and curves, with an undefeated professional usage for print media:

"Macho Vector" dot AI!

(CROWD GOES CRAZY, WAVE FLAGS)

Let’s Get It On!
So whom are you betting on? Probably the format that is most readily available to you, right? You may say to yourself, “I’ll call my web guy and have him send me my logo, and I’ll forward it on for my magazine ad. Done. I can now move on to my other pressing needs for today, like updating my Facebook status.”

Wrong. If you’re a smart bettor (and I know you are), and you’re publishing an ad in a print magazine, you’ll want to contact the designer who originally created your logo. Let the designer know the medium (in Advent Media Group’s case, we’re publishing an ad for you in a national print magazine), and they’ll send you the appropriate file format, most likely a vector file or a very hi-res jpg.

And here’s why…

Bitmap Graphics
Bitmap graphics, also called raster graphics, are the most commonly used file formats on the web. All scanned images and images from digital cameras are bitmaps. They are composed of pixels—minute blocks of color that, when taken as a whole, compose an image. Most computer monitors display approximately 70 to 100 pixels per inch. This is why most of the logos saved as bitmaps for the Web are 72 dpi. Anything with a higher dpi would just increase file size while decreasing download speeds.

Typically, bitmaps come in different file extension (format) names:

• .bmp
• .gif
• .jpeg
• .png
• .tiff
• .psd

Vector Graphics
Vector graphics are the other major graphic type. They are made up of points, lines, and curves rather than pixels. Because they are not resolution dependent, vectors are scalable. You can use the same vector graphic on a billboard as you do on your biz card, without any pixellation or loss of sharpness occurring.

Common vector formats:

• .ai
• .cdr
• .eps (Adobe Illustrator vector file)

And The Winner Is!
When it comes to print, this fight doesn’t go to a judge’s decision. It’s a first round knockout by the Vector File Format (it’s macho time).

So when it comes time to submitting a file format for our print magazine, go vector. You can’t go wrong.