What is Vector?
Making sure your designs are VECTOR is one of the most important step in making sure your labels print to the best quality.
It can sometimes also be tricky, and frustrating when your artwork is not vector. So we have put together a bit of information to help make sure your artwork is provided as vector.
In design, there are two types of files. A Raster file, and a Vector file. A Raster file is made up of pixels, just like a photo. When you make a Raster file bigger, the pixels will get bigger too, which may make your design blurry, or pixelated.
A Vector file on the other hand, doesn't use pixels, but mathametical equations. Therefore, you can scale it smaller, or bigger, and it won't distort the design. You could blow it up as big as a billboard and the design would still look good!
As a Vector file doesn't contain flat pixels, it can be edited. For specialty printing like Foiling, Spotgloss or White Ink, we need to edit your artwork to tell the machine where to apply your special embellishments. If your artwork is not vector, then we can't edit it to do this.
Making sure your artwork is vector is important for a number of reasons, but here at LSS these are generally the main four main reasons:
1. If your artwork is vector, it means it is PERFECT quality. It means it shouldn't print grainy, or blurry, or pixelated. As the design is perfect quality, the print should be also.
2. The second, and most important reason is that if your artwork is vector, it means it is editable. For most of our specialty printing, we need to edit 'spot colours' into the design. Spot-colours communicate to the machine not to print a regular CMYK colour, but rather to do something 'special' in that space. This could be Spotgloss, Foiling, or White ink.
3. If you ever want us to make any small changes to your label, like deleting a word, or a line. Then we need the artwork to be editable, and thus vector.
4. Lastly, for us to colour correct or colour match your files, they must be editable. We have very minimal control over colour if your design is not vector.
While Vectors are NECESSARY for specialty printing, it isn't for regular CMYK printing. That said, for the reasons above, we do always recommend it, for all artwork.
How can I ensure my designs are vector? And how can I check?
An experienced Graphic Designer will ALWAYS make sure your artwork is vector. So it is important to make sure your logo is professionally designed, to make sure there are no issues.
You can check if your artwork is vector by zooming in on the saved file. If it corrects itself, and is not pixelated, then it is most likely vector. If there are any parts of your label that is pixelated once you zoom in, then it isn't vector.
Canva is a great tool, as it is one of the only non professional design softwares that will design in vectors. However, like any tool, it does need to be used correctly.
So long as you are natively designing in Canva, then your artwork should be vector. What this means, is not importing other elements inside of Canva, make sure to choose elements and fonts within Canva itself. Where people can have problems, is if they import a PNG or JPEG file into the artwork, then your design will no longer by vector.
Once you natively design your artwork in Canva, save it as a PRINT PDF. Then, select ADD BLEED AND CROP MARKS.
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