PhotoCamel - Your Friendly Photo Forum - View Single Post - correct file for printing on T-shirts?

templeinmn · 03-20-2009

Digital files come in two forms: Bitmap and Vector

A photograph that you take has a specific resolution ie 300 dots per inch. If you double the size of the photograph the resolution is cut in half. If you enlarge the photo to much the image will pixelate since there is no accurate way to make up information that was never there to begin with.

Vector format is a mathamatical formula that defines the art work. Start at point 0,0 and go to point 20,10. If you want to double the size of the image you multiply the formula by 2 and no resolution is lost.

Vector is used for drawings and created in programs such as CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator.

Photographs are bitmapped images and you would typically provide a file to the printer at the size and resolution that they require for printing, similar to having the photo printed. I usually send something along the lines of an 8 x 8 at 150 dpi TIFF or JPG.

03-20-2009	#2 (permalink)
templeinmn Guanaco Location: Shakopee, MN Posts: 409 CamelKarma: 3879 Editing OK?: Yes Gallery \| Blog	Re: correct file for printing on T-shirts? Digital files come in two forms: Bitmap and Vector A photograph that you take has a specific resolution ie 300 dots per inch. If you double the size of the photograph the resolution is cut in half. If you enlarge the photo to much the image will pixelate since there is no accurate way to make up information that was never there to begin with. Vector format is a mathamatical formula that defines the art work. Start at point 0,0 and go to point 20,10. If you want to double the size of the image you multiply the formula by 2 and no resolution is lost. Vector is used for drawings and created in programs such as CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator. Photographs are bitmapped images and you would typically provide a file to the printer at the size and resolution that they require for printing, similar to having the photo printed. I usually send something along the lines of an 8 x 8 at 150 dpi TIFF or JPG.
	__________________ Tom ~ Attempting photography one genre at a time [Canon Rebel XSi][EF 50;f/1.8 II][EF-S 18-55;f/3.5-5.6 IS] [Fujifilm Finepix S5000]