Vector graphics are commonly used in creating digital graphics for all sorts of marketing content. They have many advantages over other types of art that make it a convenient option for marketers. Besides, with the help of so many image editing tools available these days, businesses do not have to spend huge amounts of budgets on graphic designers to create vector art. You can simply use ready-made vector images and tweak them according to your needs.
The advantages of vector graphics are many. They facilitate businesses more than other image formats, such as pixel graphics. But before we dive into those, let’s clarify what vector art really is.
What are Vector Graphics?
Vector graphics are images of points or coordinates connected with lines and curves. The connecting lines are called paths. The points marked on the screen help measure each line in the graphic and scale the image perfectly.
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Vector graphics are used to create brand logos, 3D renderings, animations, and others. Graphic designers work with vector art as part of their daily jobs.
The mathematical method of creating vector images dates back to the 1800s. The images created with a similar method back then were called Euclidean vectors. These vectors were used to describe points in a place by spotting their direction and location.
Why does it matter to know this brief history? It helps to know that vector images are actually coordinated on a plane. If you know where at least two points are placed on a plane, you can draw a line between them. That’s how to start making a drawing or creating an image.
In short, vector graphics are simply the lines drawn between any two points until a complete picture is made. These are complex images that take time to be created, but once done, they are easier to edit or resize than other forms of images.
Let’s discuss the major advantages of vector graphics in marketing content.
Advantages of Vector Graphics
There are numerous advantages of vector graphics, especially when businesses use them in their marketing content. There must be reasons why this method of image creation has become so common in such a short time. Companies hire graphic designers and pay them hefty amounts for creating vector art. Brand logos and other branding visuals use images in vector art. Here is why.
1. Vector Graphics Have Infinite Resolution
What does this mean? How can any kind of art have an infinite resolution? We say that vector art has ‘infinite’ resolution because an image created with vector art never loses its quality. You can zoom it indefinitely and still see it sharp and clear. This means vector graphics are independent of their resolution.
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This is not the same for other forms of images. If you zoom an image too much while its original resolution is low, it will get blurry. This is the case with pixel graphics. They heavily depend on the resolution. Thus if you need an image for a large banner or billboard and are not using vector art, you would have to create a high-resolution image. If the image is created small and then stretched or enlarged to fit the size of the billboard, it will become very unclear.
But if you create a vector image for use on a billboard, you can draw it with tiny little lines on your computer screen and resize it to the size of the billboard without losing its sharpness and quality. The exact form and features will be visible when someone sees the billboard from a distance.
This is how vector graphics save hours and hours of work for graphic designers and marketers. They never lose the director and position between two lines. This makes the contours remain intact no matter what.
2. Vector Graphics are Scalable
The scalability of images generally refers to changes in size or scale. But when we talk about vector graphics, scalability refers to the following three aspects.
- You can view a vector image in any size you want.
- You can scale up or down a vector image however much you want.
- You can export a vector image in any size you want, and its quality will not be compromised.
This means if, for instance, the vector graphics on a website’s homepage are too small. You are having difficulty viewing them. You can simply grab the vector art, paste it elsewhere, and zoom in on its tiny details. You will be able to examine all of its features, understand what it’s connoting, and return it to its original size without changing its quality.
On the other hand, you can also grab a vector image and scale it down to a very small or microscopic size. It will not lose its detailed features. When you scale it up again, you will see the exact same image initially created.
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A use for vector graphics is marketing content. You can scale them up or down indefinitely and an unlimited number of times, depending on the suitability of the marketing platform you have to upload it on.
3. Vector Graphics are Lightweight
This is next among the advantages of vector graphics. Lightweight images are very good for use on websites. They do not occupy too much space at the backend, thus increasing the web page loading time.
A website full of vector graphics is lightweight, while one with a lot of stock images and pixel imagery will be quite heavy. Pixel images take longer to load. Therefore, they are not the recommended form of images on web pages.
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Why are vector graphics lightweight? It is because vector files contain less information. Pictures taken with a phone or digital camera have a lot of information, making them heavy. That’s why stock photos and photos were taken by cameras make up large-sized files.
Vector graphics only contain a bunch of coordinates. There is no complex information or millions of pixels in a vector image. They require less information to be produced yet comprise complete but compressed drawings. This means you can have very complex vector art, including different shapes, colors, text, and gradients, and yet carry all of it in a lightweight file. Even if you increase the dimensions of the graphics, the file will remain lightweight.
4. Vector Graphics are Created With Intuition
Expert graphic designers create vector art intuitively. The process is similar to drawing on a piece of paper. This is quite obvious because the building blocks of vector images are lines. There are many vector editing software out there, which allow you to easily create objects and shapes. These tools make use of gestures that resemble how one would draw on paper.
In making vector art, you are free to draw lines in any direction and length you want. You are free to use your intuition. This makes vector graphics very creative, making them suitable for use in sales copy, website content, social media posts, and newsletters. Customers like to see stylish and creative images. It keeps them engaged with your marketing content.
Whether you make imaginary objects and shapes to explain complex theories or create realistic illustrations of your product and its features, you can impress your customers and entice them to spend more time looking at your marketing content.
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5. Vector Graphics Can be Easily Manipulated
Besides being created intuitively, vector graphics are easily manipulated. For example, if you make a square, you can pick it up or move it around on your canvas or computer screen. You can also rotate it, skew it, scale it up or down, or invert it. All these actions will not have any effect on its quality.
This saves a lot of time for graphic designers and marketers. If they need to draw two shapes where one is the inverted form of the other, they just have to create it once and simply invert it to produce as many inverted versions of it as they want. This also makes vector graphics easily reusable.
6. Vector Graphics Look Realistic
You can create images with vector graphics that look absolutely realistic. A car drawn with vector art can look like an absolutely real car. When created with vector art, models of buildings and residential areas look exactly like the real ones after they are constructed.
This means you can use vector graphics to represent your products on your website or social media. If you create them in good quality, your customers won’t complain that the actual product looks different from what was advertised or shown on your online store.
It has become common for businesses to use vector art in marketing content. You can do the same with complete freedom if you have a website of your own. If you do not have a website yet, you can build one easily on Strikingly.
Our platform is meant for those individuals and organizations to use for making websites that are not experts at coding or programming languages. We provide you with a drag and drop interface and an easy-to-use editor, which will allow you to create professional web pages in a matter of minutes.
Once you key in your business information, you can use vector graphics to showcase your concepts, products, services, methods, sales offers, and anything else that you like.
