AI, EPS, SVG and PDF: Which Vector Format to Send
Someone asks for "the vector file" and you have four things on your desktop with different extensions. Here's what each is genuinely for, and which one to send where.
The four formats
AI — Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator's native format. Holds everything: editable paths, layers, effects, text as live type. Best possible file to hand another designer working in Adobe software. Outside that ecosystem, support is patchy.
EPS — Encapsulated PostScript. The old interchange standard, and still the most universally openable vector format. Almost every design, print and signage application reads it. It's older technology — transparency and modern effects can behave unpredictably — but for reliability it's hard to beat.
SVG — Scalable Vector Graphics. The web-native format, plain XML under the hood. Ideal for websites, and increasingly for cutting machines and laser work because the path data is easy to parse. Not a commercial print format.
PDF — Portable Document Format. A container, not a format in the same sense. A PDF can hold true vector artwork, and a print-ready one is a perfectly good deliverable. It can equally hold a photograph. This ambiguity is where most confusion comes from.
Which to send where
| Recipient | Send |
|---|---|
| Commercial printer | EPS or print-ready PDF |
| Screen printer | EPS or AI, colours separated |
| Sign maker / vehicle wrap | EPS or AI |
| Vinyl cutter / laser | SVG or EPS |
| Web developer | SVG |
| Another designer | AI (or EPS if unsure of their software) |
| Embroidery digitizer | Any of them — see below |
If you're unsure, EPS is the safest single answer. Almost nothing refuses it.
Verifying a file is actually vector
The trap: renaming or re-saving a PNG as a PDF or EPS converts nothing. You get the same pixels in a different wrapper, and it opens without complaint. Plenty of people have sent a "vector file" that was exactly this.
Two quick checks:
Zoom test. Open it and zoom to 1600%. Vector edges stay perfectly crisp at any magnification. Raster goes blocky.
Selection test. Open it in any vector editor — Illustrator, Inkscape (free), Affinity. If you can click individual shapes and see anchor points, it's vector. If the whole thing selects as one rectangular image, it's a raster file wearing a costume.
What embroidery digitizers actually need
Worth clearing up, because it's counterintuitive: embroidery machines do not read vector files at all. They read stitch files — DST, PES, EXP — which are lists of needle movements, not shapes.
So why do digitizers ask for vector? Because it's the cleanest possible reference. Crisp edges and unambiguous shapes make it faster and more accurate to rebuild the design as stitches. It helps the human, not the machine.
Which means a large, sharp PNG is genuinely almost as useful. Don't delay a digitizing order hunting for a vector file you may not have — send the best raster you've got. See logo digitizing.
Fonts: the thing that breaks files
One practical point that causes more problems than format choice. If your vector file contains live text and the recipient doesn't have your font, their software substitutes something else and your logo changes shape.
The fix is outlining your text (Type → Create Outlines in Illustrator) before sending. The letters become shapes, so they render identically everywhere. Keep an editable copy with live text for yourself — outlining is one-way.
What a good conversion delivers
If you're having artwork redrawn, you should receive all the common formats, not one. A proper vector art conversion hands back AI, EPS, SVG and PDF with clean editable paths, outlined text and correct colours — so you never have this conversation again regardless of who asks.
Only have a JPG? Send it over — we'll tell you whether it's worth redrawing and what it will cost.