iStockphoto Tip – Rasterize your Vector

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Just before you download an illustration from iStockphoto, you may be warned that ‘This is a vector illustration and requires vector editing software, such as Adobe® Illustrator®, Freehand®, or CorelDRAW® to edit.’

Does this mean that people who don’t know their way around Illustrator won’t be able to use the image? Not at all. Even if you don’t own or have the hang of vector software, you can always create your own rasterized version of the EPS file with several different applications.

‘Raster’ is just another name for a grid of pixels. ‘Rasterization’ is a fancy term for turning the lines & curves of an illustration into pixels like a normal photo. You won’t be as free to edit and modify this rasterized version of the file, but you will be able to create it at a specific size, resolution, or mode. And you’ll always have the original EPS file on hand for the day you’re able to use it.

You can use many different applications to create a raster version of a vector illustration, including:

Preview
Mac users already have a free feature built into OS X that can do the conversion for you. Open the EPS with Preview. It will automatically convert to a PDF. You can save it as a variety of other file types as well.

Photoshop®
Open the EPS or AI file in Adobe Photoshop. You’ll get a menu that allows you to set the pixel dimensions, resolution, and mode. Set these to any size that you need – the vector file is fully scalable. You can then save this photoshop document to whatever format suits you best – jpeg, psd, or tiff.

Acrobat®
In your ‘Open’ menu in Acrobat (Standard or Professional), the default setting beside Show is Adobe PDF Files. By changing this to All Files, you’ll be able to open your EPS file. Acrobat will automatically create a rasterized PDF document from the file.