DesignFix Design Studio
Raster to vector
If you have been told your file is “raster” and you need “vector”, this page is about that gap: what the difference actually is, why enlarging your image breaks it, and when converting is the right answer rather than starting again.
What this covers
What we work on in raster to vector
Understanding what you have
We look at the source and tell you plainly whether converting it is sensible, or whether a redraw is the better spend.
JPG, PNG and screenshots
The everyday sources — exports, downloads, things pulled off a website, images pasted from a document.
Scans and photographed artwork
A printed item scanned or photographed, where the original file no longer exists anywhere.
Rebuilding at working quality
The result is artwork you can enlarge, recolour and hand to a printer, rather than a bigger copy of the same problem.
Projects that fit here
Examples of the kind of thing people send us. If yours isn’t on the list, describe it anyway.
- A logo saved as a 300-pixel PNG that now has to go on a van
- A screenshot of a design where no original file survives
- A scanned sticker or printed label being reproduced
- A JPG with visible compression blocks around every edge
- An image that looks fine on a phone and falls apart on a poster
- Artwork inherited from a previous supplier in the wrong format
Who this tends to be for
People told their file “isn’t vector”
Usually by a printer, usually with no explanation of what to do about it.
Businesses that lost their original files
A supplier changed, a laptop died, and what remains is an email attachment.
Anyone enlarging artwork
Signage, banners, vehicle graphics and exhibition work all expose a raster file immediately.
Why your image breaks when you enlarge it
A raster image is a grid of coloured squares. A photograph, a JPG, a PNG, a screenshot — all of them are a fixed number of pixels arranged in rows. That grid was decided when the file was made, and nothing can add to it afterwards. Enlarging simply makes each square bigger, which is why edges go soft and stepped and why detail turns to mush rather than becoming clearer.
A vector file stores instructions instead: this curve, that thickness, this colour. Because it describes shapes rather than samples, it can be drawn at any size — a badge or a billboard — with edges that stay exactly as crisp. That is why printers, sign makers, cutters and embroiderers ask for it.
Converting is not enlargement, and this is where expectations usually need setting. Nobody can recover detail the original file never contained. What conversion does is rebuild the artwork as shapes, using the raster image as a reference — so the result is as good as the shapes are, not as good as the original pixels were. For a logo, flat graphic or piece of lettering, that is usually excellent. For a photograph or anything with continuous tone and soft shading, it is the wrong tool: the honest result there is a stylised illustration, which is a different project with a different intent.
So the first useful step is showing us the file. We will tell you whether it converts cleanly, needs redrawing from reference, or would genuinely be better redesigned — and which of those it is changes the cost enough that it is worth knowing before you commit.
How it works
From a sentence to a finished design
- Step 1
Tell us what you need
One or two sentences is enough to start. You don't have to know what the work is called or which category it belongs in.
- Step 2
We discuss the project
We ask what we need to know — where it will be used, what size, what it has to work on — and tell you honestly what is and isn't possible.
- Step 3
Share files or references
Send the artwork you already have, a photo, a sketch, or examples of the look you're after. Files go straight into private storage.
- Step 4
You get a custom offer
A written scope and a fixed price for your project specifically. Nothing is charged and nothing is started until you accept it.
- Step 5
Approve and pay
Accepting the offer creates the order and takes you to payment. Decline it or ignore it and nothing happens.
- Step 6
We complete the design
The work runs through the same production and delivery process as every other DesignFix order, with revisions included in the scope.
What to send us
You don't need to know what to ask for
None of this is required, and a single sentence is enough to start. It's simply what tends to be useful, so a first message doesn't turn into three.
Whatever artwork you have
The file itself, however rough — an export, a screenshot, a photo of something printed, or the version a supplier rejected.
A reference or a sketch
Something you like the look of, a rough drawing, or an existing design you want the new work to sit alongside.
Where it's going
The product, the size, and the process if you know it. Print, garment, screen or sign changes what the artwork has to be.
Any specification you were given
A printer's requirements, a supplier's template, or the rejection message you received — that usually says exactly what needs fixing.
Colours and brand material
Existing brand colours, fonts or guidelines, so new work matches what you already have.
What you want changed
A sentence is enough. "Make this printable", "this needs to work on a dark shirt", "I want something like this but ours".
Questions
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the project in a sentence or two. We’ll ask what we need to know, then send a written scope and a fixed price before anything is charged.