Printing and export

PNG, SVG or PDF: which export to use

Use SVG or PDF for anything that will be printed — they are vector, so they stay sharp at any size. Use PNG for screens. A PNG scaled up for a poster is the most common cause of a blurry, unreadable code.

Reviewed August 20, 2026

Steps

1. Export SVG or PDF for print, and hand that file to the printer rather than a screenshot.
2. Export PNG for email, social, slides and anything that stays on a display.
3. Never enlarge a PNG to fill a print size — resample it from the vector instead.
4. Send the printer the vector even when they ask for “an image”; they can rasterise it correctly, you cannot un-blur a PNG.

How to check it worked

Zoom the file to 800%. Vector edges stay crisp; a raster export goes soft, and that softness is what the printing press will reproduce.

What usually goes wrong

• A PNG stretched to poster size.
• A screenshot of the preview sent to the printer.
• A PDF placed at the wrong scale in the layout.