Logo to SVG: the vector file your printer asked for

What your printer means by 'vector, EPS or AI'

Your logo file is probably raster: a grid of pixels, like a PNG or JPG. A vector file describes shapes instead, so the same file prints just as sharp on a business card or a banner. Converting a logo to SVG turns those pixels into shapes.

SVG, PDF, EPS and AI can all hold vector artwork. If your printer asked for a vector file, they want shapes they can scale, recolor and cut, not a picture of your logo.

Changing the extension doesn't help. Renaming logo.png to logo.eps, or placing the PNG inside an EPS, just wraps the same pixels in a different file.

Why the logo from your website isn't enough

Web images are made for screens. The promo-products company 4imprint asks for artwork 'at least 300dpi or vector art' and notes that 72-dpi web images are not enough for print.

A 300-pixel-wide logo printed at 300 DPI is only one inch wide. Stretch it across a banner and the edges turn soft and blocky.

Tracing a logo to vector is the fix when the original is gone: the designer moved on, the files were lost, or all that's left is an email signature. The same goes for legacy artwork, such as old logos and scans of old letterhead or stationery.

They asked for EPS or AI. SVGR gives you SVG or PDF.

SVGR downloads SVG and PDF files. The PDF is a vector PDF your printer can scale: it's RGB and sized to the image, with no bleed, and it isn't CMYK or PDF/X.

Most printers accept a vector PDF, so ask before converting further. If they specifically need EPS or AI, open the SVG or PDF in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and save it in that format. The shapes stay vector.

If your printer works in CMYK or needs bleed, they may need to convert the file or add bleed in their own software. It's worth asking whether they'll do it or want you to.

Getting a clean trace from a JPG, screenshot or photo

• Use the largest version you can find. The fewer pixels, the less shape information there is to trace.
• Prefer PNG over JPG. If a JPG logo to vector conversion is your only option, use the least compressed copy, because compression specks around edges can be traced as extra shapes.
• For a photo of a business card, shoot straight on in even light, then straighten it and crop tight to the logo before uploading.
• If the logo is small, upscale it 4x in an image editor before uploading. A bigger source keeps thin details above the filter that strips anti-aliasing, which works better than raising Quality.
• Crop out anything that isn't part of the logo, such as a background pattern or a tagline you don't want in the file.

Wordmarks, live text and gradients

Turn on Recognize text and SVGR can replace the letters in a wordmark with live text you can edit. That's handy for small tweaks, but leave it off for print: print shops want text as outlines, and live text relies on fonts their computer may not have.

With the Logo type, colors come out flat, and a gradient in the source becomes solid color. That suits most print jobs, since screen printers, cutting machines and Canva often mishandle gradients anyway.

If a gradient is part of your brand, switch Image type to Infographic, which fits real SVG gradients to those areas. That's one difference from Illustrator's Image Trace, which Adobe says can't generate gradients.

What a logo to SVG trace can't fix

• Exact geometry. Adobe's own guidance says auto-tracing struggles with exact shapes, so perfect circles and straight lines can come out slightly off. A designer may still want to redraw key parts.
• Tiny sources. Adobe's example is a 70x70-pixel GIF, which cannot be improved by auto-tracing. If a detail isn't in the pixels, no tracer can bring it back.
• Stacked shapes. The hole in an 'O' is a background-colored shape on top of a solid shape, not a cut-out, and Transparent background only removes the outer background. For cutting or recoloring, subtract those shapes in your editor, for example with Cricut Slice or Inkscape Path > Difference.
• Trademarks. Only vectorize logos you own or are licensed to use.
• Transparent background removes the shape painted in the color found at the image corners, which is what people mean by the background. If your artwork bleeds into all four corners, or the corners are different colors, nothing is removed and the background stays — give the artwork a plain, even margin and convert again. Areas fully enclosed by artwork are never removed, and a PNG that already has a transparency channel is left as it is.
• Curves are traced as many short straight segments. Traced from a small image, they can look slightly angular when enlarged, so start from the largest copy you have.
• With the Logo type, SVGR may split a larger image into sections, each held in place by a clipping path. Printers, Illustrator and Inkscape handle that; Cricut Design Space does not, so for a cutting machine use the settings on the Cricut guide instead.