Common Graphic File Formats
July 22, 2009
It is import to know the difference between raster and vector art. Raster images are like photographs, they are made up of many colored dots/pixels that make up the image. Vector art is like mathematical coordinates and in between each coordinate is either a line or curve. Because of vector art’s mathematical basis it can be scaled to any size without loss of quality whereas, raster images have a limited ability to be scaled up before loss of quality occurs.
ai – A vector based file format used in the Adobe Illustrator program. While this is a vector format, raster images such as tiff or psd formats can also be placed in the ai file.
eps – A common vector file format but like the ai format it too can contain raster images. Many software applications can import, open and export this format so it is often provided by designers to clients.
pdf – The Portable Document Format is an extremely popular format developed by Adobe Systems.
It’s popularity is due to its ability to be viewed and printed how the author intended on many computer platforms and as a result it has also become an industry standard in the print industry. The pdf format can contain type, raster images & vector art just like the ai format, and even interactive media.
tiff – This is a raster image format. It supports many features and is used primarily in print.
psd – Adobe Photoshop’s primary file format. This is a raster image format but supports many features like vector type and art. Designers often work in psd, then export to the appropriate file format for the final output.
jpg – This is a compressed raster image format commonly
used for web images. It supports various
compression levels to keep file size down. This format
is often used in digital cameras.