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I've recently sent an article to a conference, and now I've received this technical revision:

figure 3 should be in vector format

What does it mean exactly? My diagram is in PNG format. Which format should I choose?

Bob Brown
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Ayhan Buyuk
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2 Answers2

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TL;DR: If you have an actual photograph, rebut the request. Otherwise export to a vector format from source. Never trace.

A vector format is a format that stores information in terms of graphical primitives (lines, cricles, etc.). They are in contrast to pixel formats which store the colours of pixels on a grid. As a rough example, a similar graphics would be stored as:

  • Pixel format: 1,1: white; 1,2: grey; 1,3: black; …
  • Vector format: black circle with radius 5 centred at (7,8) on white background.

Examples of vector formats are PDF, EPS, SVG. Examples of pixel formats are PNG, JPG, BMP, TIFF. Note that most vector formats can embed pixel graphics.

My photo is in .PNG format, which format should I choose?

If you have an actual photograph (taken with a camera), the request to convert it to a vector format is ridiculous. Photos are best stored in a pixel format, usually JPG or TIFF. There is a process to deduce vector information from pixel data (called tracing), but applying it to a photograph will either destroy information or dramatically increase the file size (the only faithful conversion would be one square per pixel). You can theoretically embed your photograph in a vector format, but that is a pointless exercise, since the typesetters can do the same.

If instead your figure does not contain a photograph but a diagram, figure out how to directly export to a vector format with whatever software you used to create it (and do this). Tracing will again almost certainly yield inferior results (and is quite tedious to tune).

A related and relevant question is: Is increasing the DPI of a low resolution image a good idea?

Wrzlprmft
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  • My picture is a flowchart that I have drawn using https://www.draw.io/. I converted the picture to .svg format, but unfortunately when I want to insert it in the word file, the texts on the flowchart changes to "[not supported by viewer]", so I'm confused about what I should do now. – Ayhan Buyuk May 24 '19 at 13:58
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    You can convert SVGs to other vector formats (like PDF), e.g., using Inkscape. – Wrzlprmft May 24 '19 at 14:27
  • I actually tried PDF, but it got a low quality when I inserted it into Word file. – Ayhan Buyuk May 24 '19 at 14:36
  • @AyhanBuyuk - the issue with Word changing the quality is one that you can remedy through Word. – Jon Custer May 24 '19 at 15:09
  • @AyhanBuyuk: Unless the conference wants to publish your Word document as it is, why does everything have to be provided in one Word file anyway? – Wrzlprmft May 24 '19 at 17:23
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I'm not sure how a photo would come out, but vector format is just another image format. If you google:'png to vector format' you will learn how to do the conversion.

Apparently the conference doesn't care for png files for some reason. But the conversion should be easy with the correct tools.

BTW, this question is marginal here for scope.

Note that I haven't commented here on the advisability of using vector formats for photos. In fact, I think it is a bad idea. I merely provide information about how you can learn how to do it if it is necessary.

Buffy
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    Converting a PNG to a vector format is almost never a good choice in this context (see my answer). – Wrzlprmft May 24 '19 at 13:49
  • @Wrzlprmft, I don't disagree, but the editors/chairs rule here, not we mortals. – Buffy May 24 '19 at 14:21
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    Downvoted. "Vector format" doesn't just refer to the specific file format, but to the resolution-independence of the figure itself. Converting a PNG file to PDF doesn't magically turn the pixels into vectors. – JeffE May 24 '19 at 14:59
  • @JeffE, odd reasoning for the downvote since I didn't mention pdf at all. You are free to do so, of course. – Buffy May 24 '19 at 15:03
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    @Buffy: the editors/chairs rule here, not we mortals. – If this is to appease a clueless editor, just embedding everything in a vector format should suffice (and produce better result). If this is to honour the requests of the typesetters who know what they are doing, a pixel-to-vector conversion will likely not suffice. – Wrzlprmft May 24 '19 at 17:27
  • Please take extended discussion to [chat]. – eykanal May 24 '19 at 20:35