Someone asks for your logo 'in a vector file' and you're not sure what that means. Here's a plain-English breakdown of every format you'll actually need.
Almost every business owner eventually runs into this: a printer, a promotional products vendor, or a web developer asks for a specific logo file type, and it's not clear which one to send. Here's what each format actually is and when to use it.
Raster files (PNG, JPG) are made of a fixed grid of pixels. They look great at the size they were created for, but scaling them up causes blurring or pixelation. Vector files (SVG, EPS, AI) are built from mathematical paths, not pixels — they can be scaled to any size, from a business card to a billboard, with zero quality loss. This distinction is the single most important thing to understand about logo files.
A raster format that supports transparent backgrounds, making it the standard choice for placing a logo over a colored background — a website header, a document, a slide deck. Not suitable for large-format printing or resizing significantly larger than its original dimensions.
Use it for: websites, digital documents, email signatures, social media.
A raster format without transparency support — it always has a solid background. Common for photos, less ideal for logos unless the background color is known and consistent.
Use it for: situations where transparency isn't needed and file size matters.
A vector format built specifically for the web. Scales perfectly at any size, loads fast, and is increasingly the standard for logos used on modern websites.
Use it for: websites, especially responsive designs where the logo needs to scale across device sizes.
A vector format that's long been the standard for professional printing — most print shops, embroidery digitizers, and promotional product decorators specifically request this format because it scales cleanly to any size and works across most professional design software.
Use it for: professional printing, embroidery, large-format signage, promotional products.
The native, fully editable vector file format. This is the "source file" a designer works in — it contains every layer, color, and detail that can still be adjusted. Most vendors don't need this file, but it's worth keeping on hand in case future edits are needed.
| Need | File Type |
|---|---|
| Website | SVG (or PNG with transparency) |
| Email signature | PNG |
| Print materials (business cards, flyers) | EPS or high-resolution PDF |
| Promotional products / embroidery | EPS or AI (vector) |
| Social media profile | PNG |
When in doubt, sending a vector file (EPS or AI) is the safest option — it can always be converted down to PNG or JPG, but a raster file can never be converted up to a true vector without redrawing it.
A high-resolution PDF built from vector artwork can function similarly to an EPS file for many print applications, and it's often easier for non-designers to open and preview than a raw EPS or AI file. If a vendor asks for a "vector PDF," this generally means the file should contain scalable vector paths rather than a flattened raster image embedded in a PDF wrapper — the distinction matters even though both are technically ".pdf" files.
This happens more often than people expect — a business changes designers, loses access to an old account, or simply never had the source files to begin with. In most cases, an existing logo (even a low-resolution image pulled from a website or old business card) can be recreated as a clean, scalable vector file by a designer. This is a common, straightforward request, and it's worth doing once so every future vendor or use case has access to the right file rather than repeatedly working from a low-quality source image.
Send us what you have — we'll get it into every format you need.