The Best Graphic File Formats for Your Perfect Custom T-Shirt and Apparel

Whether you are trying to build team unity, celebrate and memorialize an important event, infuse a professional look, or make a lasting impression, you want to make sure your custom apparel looks perfect.   If you are the person in charge of your custom design you have a variety of graphic formats to choose from, but what is the best choice for your graphic format?   Which format will give you the best results?   Choosing the right graphic format can save you money and make the different between a mediocre and your perfect custom apparel.

What the HECK is a Vector File

There are two main types of image files: vectors and bitmaps (or rasters).

Vector artwork is art that's made up of vector graphics.   These graphics are points, lines, curves and shapes that are based on mathematical formulas.   So, you can scale or resize a vector image file, to however large or small you need it to be without any loss of quality.

Vector graphics allows designers to build high-quality works of art, with clean lines and shapes that can be scaled to any size.

Vector formats include:

• An EPS file of a graphic, text or illustration
• SVG files, scalable vector graphics
• An AI file, created or edited with Adobe Illustrator
• CDR files, created or edited with CorelDRAW
• Some PDF files depending on how the file was built and created

In comparison, raster art, also referred to as bitmaps or raster images, is created using colorized pixels.   When you enlarge a raster file with pixel-based art too much, the edges look jagged and the quality is lost.

Raster formats include:

• JPG (or JPEG) file formats
• PNG image types
• GIF file images
• TIF (or TIFF) is a large raster file
• Some PDF files depending on how the file was built and created

Raster files that are saved as PDF or EPS files without going through a conversion process are not vector files, they are still raster files.

High-5 Printwear can provide you with all the design work necessary to create your perfect custom t-shirts and apparel.   But, if you already have your favorite design or want to create your own designs, make sure you build your designs in a vector format.   Using this format will save you time, money and ensure a perfect custom t-shirt or apparel.