Using Bitmap Programs for Print Jobs

[Jason Dunn]

This will be heresy to the graphic designers reading this site, but for the rest of you, it's amazing what can be accomplished when you have enough pixels and a high enough PPI value - the line between vector and bitmap images starts to disappear.<br /><br />For instance, common wisdom holds that business cards should be designed in a vector-based program such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw - something that mixes graphics with text and outputs a vector file where the text can be scaled up and down in size without a loss of quality. But what if you don't have access to that kind of software? Crank up the PPI and you'll be fine: my business cards are designed in bitmap-based programs such as PhotoImpact and Photoshop, and you'd need a magnifying glass to see the pixels. As long as you start out with a high-resolution image (I'd say 3000 x 2000 pixels or so), and you're printing at a small size, you can achieve excellent results without needing to go with a vector graphics program.

[Janak Parekh]

OK, as a huge fan of CorelDRAW, I must scream heresy. :P

In particular, I like the typography options that an illustration provides. Corel makes it trivial to take text and convert it to curves, and you can then play with the features of any fonts, spacing, sizing, etc., without any fear of loss-of-quality. Plus, the natural "object-like" behavior makes it trivial to edit, moreso than layers.

I'll grudingly admit your business cards do look good, though. ;)

--janak

[James Fee]

Still a vector image will be much smaller in size. Printing a raster image is not needed for many products. The control that vector based tools give you over lines just can't be found in raster editors

[dean_shan]

OK, as a huge fan of CorelDRAW, I must scream heresy.

I'm an Illustrator man myself. I must agree, there is a certian look you get with vector-based that you can't get with bitmaps.

[Jason Dunn]

I'll grudingly admit your business cards do look good, though. ;)

Point, match, GAME! :D That was my only point. In an ideal world, sure, things meant to be printed should be designed in a vector-based program, but with enough DPI on the page, bitmap prints can look damn fine. :-)