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Please, somebody save my aching brain!!! I have been scouring the web for quite a while now and cannot really find what i'm looking for - maybe you guys can help??

I love creating Flyers/Posters and Logos in Blender but i'm hitting issues when it comes to having a finished render/file that is printable or usable in a design context once i have chosen my desired angle/camera/lighting environment... I know how to render a basic image or animation, that's fine but i apparently need these to be in a format that is scalable and lossless in quality. I hit a similar issue with doing a logo for a website for a buddy, i managed to get the image without a background and keep all the colours/lighting etc, but i felt that i may have missed a vital part to this process as it definitely had its limits if i were to go for a large scale...

I keep coming across the terms vector / raster / SVG / TIFF and some others - i managed to have Blender create an SVG, but was literally the lines/vectors/wireframe of the 3d body and it had no colour /textures/lighting with it when i opened it...

I understand that if i were to send a file to a print shop to get, let's say a large banner printed then i would need a print-friendly file type rather than just a picture file...

is Blender able to do this or should i totally change my approach and go with a standard 2d program instead? I LOVE Blender, i don't want to use a different program, I'm invested in the awesomeness of this amazing program!

Please if somebody could point me in the right direction i would be so grateful, i'm starting to lose my motivation!

EDIT:

added a couple of images - if the poster was going to the printers rather than online then i would have needed to try and have a vector i belive

enter image description here

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ People at the print shop may be expecting vector based file formats, like say a PDF, commonly EPS, illuatrator, or Coreldraw. The thing is these are mainly 2D file formats, used in the 2D graphic design industry. While it is possible to extract these from a 3d model it is rarely used. A regular rendered image should suffice in most cases, depending on what type of work you do. Just make sure its resolution is big enough $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
    May 13, 2017 at 13:21
  • $\begingroup$ Can you show us what type of work you use blender for? A few example images should suffice, please edit your question and provide some more details. $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
    May 13, 2017 at 13:22
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    $\begingroup$ @Pogo Factory What you wish is a vector output. Through rendering any 3d program like blender (or else) produces a raster image, not a vector image. You could try to "trace" your raster render image with a vector program (Inkscape has an option to do this), to produce a vector version of it, results may vary though... (first link found about this tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Trace.html) $\endgroup$
    – m.ardito
    May 13, 2017 at 16:49
  • $\begingroup$ Hi all - thank you so much for lending your brains to this one, sorry for the late reply, i've had a busy week at work... - @Duarte - Yeah i've managed to get away with some higher quality ones so far, but I just love putting stuff together on Blender (even though i'm still a noob and an amateur lol!), unfortunately for my next project i definitely need to produce a vector graphic. I'll put up a couple of things i've made to show y'all what i mean (not from the current project though, it's still being created). $\endgroup$
    – Pogo Factory
    May 20, 2017 at 19:43
  • $\begingroup$ And @m.ardito that's the conclusion i have also come to! Many thanks for the link! $\endgroup$
    – Pogo Factory
    May 20, 2017 at 19:43

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People at print shops expect most illustration, desktop publishing and page layout graphics design work to be handed in a vector format like say PDF, commonly also EPS, Adobe Illustrator, Coreldraw, Indesing, and to a lesser extent even SVG.

The advantage of these vector graphics formats is that they don't pixelate when zoomed in on, so they provide a theoretically infinite quality and definition. They can also be much smaller in file size for higher image quality levels.

And for much of your work it does look like it could be made in a vector graphics editors, like say Inkscape, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Indesign, etc. Logo designs usually benefit from vector formats, so does page layout like fliers, posters, advertising.

That being said not all stuff can be done in vector graphics, images, photos, renderings, and elements with many color variations benefit from raster graphics file formats like JPG, TIFF, PNG, TGA, HDR, etc..

Renderings from 3D models are among those that are generally represented by raster images. These can and should be combined with the remaining vector elements in a mixed document whenever possible. While it is possible to extract vector drawings from 3D models directly, it is quite more limited in terms of representation, and not trivial to achieve.

Under Blender you have a few options, which is using Freestyle which is implemented as a rendering engine that allows extracting non-photorealistic images. There is one plugin shipped with Blender by default that allows exporting SVG from freestyle.

One other option under Blender is using the third party addon SVG Output Script, which while more basic at times, allows viewport exports that may produce closer to expected output for certain situations.

You can also look into NURBS modelling applications like Rhino or Moi that have math based geometries and allow more accurate vector output in PDF format.

You can then import those into any vector graphics editor and tweak it further.

Have in mind that non of these options aim to export a fully realistic raytraced image of your model, like traditional rendering, quality may also vary. Most of the time though, a high enough quality rendering, with dense enough resolution images should suffice even for printing, if correctly combined with vector info for all non 3D elements.

For purely bidimensional graphics like most of the logos, they are likely right, you should probably change your workflow and use proper drafting tools like say free and open source Inkscape, or Scribus.

I see no good reason (other than enjoying your current workflow) for doing basic 2D graphic design in a fully 3D workflow. It is more complex and doesn't really provide any benefit.

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