Being a great designer is not just about creating first class design work. It is also about providing an excellent overall service including the provision of correct file types for your artwork at the end of a project. Not only does this save you time and stress at the printers, it also builds trust in your client-designer relationship.
In this article, we talk about which formats are best suited to print and screen- based artworks, as well as master artwork files for future brand development.
Print-based CMYK formats (short for Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Key [Black])
When designing for print it is important that you use a CMYK colour mode in which all colours are described as a mixture of these four process colours. This will ensure your materials print with an accurate colour representation.
- EPS (Encapsulated PostScript file) is a vector format of your logo. Artwork is produced as stroke lines made up of basic geometric shapes such as points, lines and curves. Because of this, it can be re-sized without losing image quality. Due to its high quality, it is commonly used with print elements such as stationery suites or marketing materials.
- PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format developed by Adobe Systems that can be universally downloaded and viewed by any computer that has the Adobe Reader installed. This plug-in is free to download. Today, PDFs are widely favoured by designers; not only do they offer excellent quality, but also allow reader extendable forms to be created with additional features such as user fields and tick boxes which work well for internal data capture.
- TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is widely supported and works in almost any programme. It produces a higher quality image than a JPG or PNG, but is not a vector format like EPS. It is widely used among publishing industries and photographers. It is best used in everyday things like invoices, page layouts or letterheads.
Screen-based RGB formats (short for Red-Green-Blue)
When designing for any electronic or computer device, it is important to use an RGB colour mode that directly relates to the colours used in a computer monitor.
- JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a raster or dot-matrix data file best used for web-based designs because their compressed sizes load quickly. JPEG images lose some quality, but are great to use for emails, banner designs or anything web-based.
- PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a web-based file that does not lose quality when compressed. PNG files were created to improve on the quality of GIF files and are best used for the web.
Editable formats
It is important that graphic designers provide clients with working files in case they or another designer need to edit your designs in the future.
- PSD (Photoshop) and AI (Illustrator) are uncompressed, working files that are created when using Adobe programs. Photoshop is a raster-based program and is mainly used for web-based designs while Illustrator is a vector-based program that is mainly used for logos.
A professional graphic designer in Chelmsford, such as Dan Summers Design, would be able to advise you on the most appropriate file types for your master artwork files.
Contact Dan Summers Design today on 01245 465324 for more information on professional logo design and the benefits it can bring your business.
