About Vectors

The difference between .ai (Adobe Illustrator) and
.eps (encapsulated postscript) file formats

Vector Art Inc. provides both .ai and .eps formats -- most customers use .eps format but a few customers still need the more basic .ai file format for legacy versions of software applications, specifically with plasa cutting CNC platforms as well as other output devices.

These two (2) formats are quite similar, however .eps maintains “editorial” features embedded in the original file and .ai does not. In the donut example below the .ai version does not maintain the “compound path” feature which “knocks the hole out of the donut. In the .eps version below, that ”compound path feature” has been maintained and the image appears as a donut, rather than as a black blob. As is obvious, the wire frame version of the image is identical.

The difference between raster and vector files: