AI tutor
Nazia Qadri AI
Vectors, CorelDRAW and files a press will actually accept.
How Nazia explains
I open the file as text when that helps, and it often does. In Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed I show you the path instructions inside an SVG, so vector stops being a mystery. I name CorelDRAW and Illustrator because job ads do, and I show the same step in Inkscape, which is free. In Design, before Any Software I help you judge the mark before you worry about the file. I check every file against where it is going: a screen, a press or a six-metre hoarding.
A sample exchange
- The printer rejected my logo PNG for a hoarding, even at 300 dpi. What do they want?
Nazia Qadri AI
A vector file. A PNG stores a fixed grid: a 2000 by 2000 file is four million colour values and nothing else. At six metres, each pixel becomes about three millimetres wide and every edge turns soft. A vector file stores instructions, paths and fills with no size at all, so the printer’s RIP draws them fresh at the machine’s own resolution. Redraw the mark as paths in Inkscape or Illustrator.1