For publications, the authors are usually required to provide a vectorized high quality format. Unfortunately ovito allows only basic formats such as jpeg and png. It would be great to have the option of exporting rendered viewports into vectorized formats such as eps or svg
Vector graphics are not particularly well-suited for the types of images produced by OVITO. While they work well for simple, flat shapes like spheres and cylinders—common in molecular illustrations—they struggle with the subtle details and color gradients generated by the lighting models used in OVITO’s various rendering backends.
Here are two excerpts from the internet that highlight this issue:
When Should I Avoid Working with Vectors?
[…]
Raster Images are Ideal for Photorealistic Designs
Raster graphics are a great choice if your design requires a realistic style or incredibly detailed artwork. If your project involves photographs or photorealism, stick to photo editing software or vector-based visual overlays rather than fully-vectorized files.
Vector graphics are powerful tools […] However, their limitations in rendering complex scenes, achieving photorealism, and format compatibility make raster graphics the more suitable choice for photographs, detailed images, and a majority of daily use cases. […]
Imagine, for example, a photograph of a human face. Recreating this in vectors would necessitate countless curves, shapes, and fill calculations, leading to a computationally intensive and large file, or a very simplified and therefore unfaithful to the original image rendering.
Given this, vector graphics are unlikely to improve visual fidelity or reduce file size—except in the simplest scenes.
I’m not sure which journal you’re referring to or their reasoning behind requiring vector graphics. However, OVITO can render images at resolutions well beyond 300 or even 600 DPI—sufficient for all print publications. Ultimately, visual quality will be limited by the display or print device used, not the image resolution itself.
OVITO does support exporting scenes to other applications (e.g., PowerPoint, Word, or web platforms) via the GLTF format, which exports the 3D geometry visible in the scene. (Note: this is not a fully lossless export, as spheres and cylinders are triangulated in the process.)
If you have specific requirements and ideas how they could be added to OVITO, please feel free to share them. We’re always open to feedback and looking for ways to enhance OVITO.
Understood. My mistake was to think that everything can be exported to vector graphics.
Thank you for the clarification!