Raster and Vector Graphics - What's the Difference?, tshirt vectors, Logo Development SoftwareYour product creation process is not complete without graphics. Illustrator is, in many ways, a very flexible and powerful tool, but it can be hard to find all the cool features. Most Illustrator pros know where to look things up to see if Illustrator can do them -- in a lot of cases it can.

If you are a designer or even if you need some graphics or images to use on a project then you need to read this article about vector graphics that are legal to use for free. Back in the time when the internet was just beginning, and when every document designed in Microsoft Word was covered in ugly generic cartoon images, there were freely available images called Clip Art. The idea behind Clip Art was to provide images that could be used freely in documents, without having to worry about copyright. This concept was something invented by Microsoft, and now is slightly dated. In 2009, the internet is now awash with free legal media licensed under what is called a creative commons license.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative commons is a license that allows original artists to share their work, be it a song, an image, a video, and have others use it under the conditions supplied. Licenses may come with restrictions such as "Not for commercial use" or "You must attribute me as the original author". However, this is a good thing as it lets you know where you stand in regards to copyright, which if you are a designer is a very good thing. You don't want your clients to get into trouble over a mistake you have made with copyright.

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics are images created in applications such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel draw. Vector graphics are scalable, and an efficient format for images that use a lower colour range, such as cartoon illustrations and logos.

Free Vectors for the graphically challenged

Now the cool part is if you combine vector graphics with a creative commons licence is that you have a whole heap of legal images available to use for your graphic design projects. Maybe you want to design poster for work, and you are unsure about how to find legal images to use, or you need some images to use on the company website, but are unsure where you stand with copyright. There are literally 1000's of free vector images out there for you to use, many of which have no restrictions. So feel free to design away, and use these images to create a creative masterpiece. That's what they were intended for.

Word processing software such as Open Office Writer, Word Desk or Microsoft Word and presentation software such as PresentationMaker or PowerPoint are not logo design software. Often time's entrepreneurs, who even don't know the basics of logo making, try to create a logo using the drawing tools in these types of programs. But certainly get a problem when trying to extract those logos for use in other applications. Likewise, the drawing tools desktop publishing software such as PageMaker, InDesign or Publisher are not even suitable for serious logo design.

Preferably, logos should be created first in a drawing program like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, and Macromedia Freehand.