Why to choose manual vector service
Considerable amount of explanations exist about differences between raster and vector images, the methods used to covert images into vectors. Yet, it has never been talked about why automated vector tracing software programs keep failing to overcome powerful human hand traced vectors.
Before jumping straight to the core of the issue, I would like to remind readers that raster images (we also call them; bitmaps, jpegs or pngs) are images generated from colorful pixels which are mere squares dots. Zoom in your favorite picture that you took recently, and you will notice that after 100% zoom the more you enlarge it, the more your picture starts losing its quality turning into color squares. Most of the pictures that we come across in social media or paperbacks are most likely raster images. In the meantime vector images are precise mathematical descriptions in the form of shapes and can be scaled limitlessly without blurring or dotting i.e. losing their quality. This unique feature gives a number of advantages over raster images in large format, screen or vinyl printing.
Read where vector graphics is used.
Along with development of technology vector related software has rapidly been developing as well. Two well known vector software programs - Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw, have been around for many years offering their embedded “cool” automated tracing features. However, up till today none of them has managed to produce desirable neat and clean end results. Apart from Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw some less popular programs have been created which specifically provide automatic image to vector conversion. Even though they are good and may give better results than the above mentioned two major graphic design programs, they also often produce clumsy looking and unprofessional results (see photo in the corner).
To understand the reason why with the fast pace of technological development the automated vectorization tool still fails to produce neat results, it is necessary to think about the human eye as a superpower endowed with ability to see 7,000,000 colors. Besides, humans can give aesthetic and artistic solutions when for example the quality of the images is too poor and for high-end vectorization there is a need for artistic improvisation solutions. Therefore, nothing so far can perform image vectorization better than humans and especially professional graphic designers. During automatic vector conversion, the vector tool calculates the pixels in a picture and converts them into mathematical numbers in forms of shapes.
Thus, if you need to convert your logos or other artworks into vector image and you want your vector look smooth with crisp angles and correct colors, its's better use special vectorization services. One of the well known with competitive prices in the market is iVectorize.com which offers a 24/7 online vector service with high customer care orientation, fair prices and professional results. You can also open a free account and access your vector orders from there.
In case you are new to vector concept and you need an image vectorized for your project, but you are unsure what file formats are usually used for vector images, you can go for the most commonly used vector file formats which are .ai, .eps, crd, .pdf.