Raster vs vector: pixels, paths and why it matters

What is the difference between raster and vector?

Both describe a picture, but they describe it in completely different ways.

A raster file is a map. Adobe describes raster files as images built from pixels, tiny color squares that, in great quantity, can form highly detailed images. Every pixel has a position and a color, and there are only so many of them. Open a raster file and you are looking at a recording of the artwork.

A vector file is a set of instructions. Adobe describes vector files as using mathematical equations, lines, and curves with fixed points on a grid to produce an image. Nothing is sampled. A circle is stored as a circle, so it is drawn as a circle at any size.

Why does resolution matter for a raster image?

Resolution is how many pixels sit in a given physical distance, written as DPI (dots per inch) or PPI (pixels per inch). It is the reason a logo that looks sharp on a website can be useless on a shirt. A 500 pixel wide PNG is 500 pixels wide forever. Print it 2 inches across and it has 250 pixels per inch, which is usable. Print it 10 inches across and it has 50, which is not.

This is also why screen printers ask for raster elements at 300 DPI at the actual print size, not 300 DPI at whatever size the file happens to be. Enlarging afterwards does not help: the software can only spread the pixels it already has, or invent new ones by averaging its neighbors, which is what makes an upscaled logo look soft and smeared.

A vector file has no resolution setting at all, because there is nothing to count. The paths are rendered at the output device's own resolution each time it prints, cuts or displays. That is the whole argument for redrawing a logo once as vector instead of hunting for a bigger JPG before every job.

Where does each one belong?

Neither is better. They answer different questions.

• Photographs are raster, always. A photograph is millions of subtly different colors with no hard edges, which is exactly what a pixel grid records well and what paths record badly. Adobe notes that the lack of pixels in an SVG makes displaying high quality digital photos difficult, and that JPEG is generally better for detailed photographs.
• Logos, type and flat artwork are vector. Adobe says vector files work better for digital illustrations, complex graphics and logos, because of how well they scale. These are shapes with defined edges, which is what paths describe exactly.
• Anything cut, burned or engraved must be vector. A vinyl cutter follows a path. It has no way to follow a pixel.

Mixed artwork is common and legitimate: a vector logo placed over a photographic background. The point is knowing which part is which, because only the vector part scales.

How can you tell which one you have?

The file extension is a hint, not an answer. A PDF or an EPS can contain nothing but a scanned photograph, and it will still open, print and look fine at the size it was made for.

1. Check the extension first. JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF are raster with no exceptions. AI, EPS and SVG are usually vector. PDF could be either.
2. Zoom in hard. 800 percent on an edge settles it. Pixels are pixels.
3. Try to select a shape. In a vector file you can click a single letter or a single color area and see its anchor points. In a raster file you get one flat image object.
4. Look at the file size against the artwork. A two-color logo that weighs several megabytes is almost certainly a high resolution raster image, not paths.
5. Open it if you can. Our free EPS and AI file viewer opens AI and EPS files in the browser without Illustrator, which is the quickest way to see what a supplied file really contains.

The formats themselves, including which ones can hold true vector data, are covered in vector file formats.

What does raster vs vector mean for embroidery and print?

For screen printing the difference is practical and immediate. Separations need one clean shape per ink, and a raster file has no shapes, only pixels that happen to be similar colors. A compressed JPG makes it worse: Adobe notes that images with clean edges and lines lose some of their sharpness in JPEG compression, so the edge your printer has to separate on is no longer a single definite edge. What a press needs from a file is covered in vector art for screen printing.

For embroidery digitizing the difference is real but smaller than people expect. A digitizer does not trace your paths into stitches. Every object is rebuilt as satin, fill or run with its own underlay, density and pull compensation, so the artwork is a reference, not a source file. What a vector file adds is certainty about shape: exact corners, exact curve, exact color boundaries. That matters most in small lettering and fine detail, where guessing an edge by a fraction of a millimeter changes whether the text stays readable. This is also why an image cannot simply be converted into a machine file, as explained in PNG or JPG to DST.

If what you have is a raster logo and you need paths, that is a redraw, not a conversion: see JPG to vector conversion. More background on both sides of the question is in the vector artwork guides.

Sources

• Adobe: raster vs vector files
• Adobe: JPEG file format
• Adobe: PNG file format
• Adobe: SVG file format
• Oregon Screen Impressions: screen printing art guidelines (300 DPI at print size)

Sources checked 21 September 2026.