Small Business Logos: What File Types Do I Need?

Mindspring Design Blog: Web and Graphics Tips for Small Businesses

So you’ve got a logo. Now what? Now you need to plaster it everywhere — on letterhead, on ballpoint pens, on the sides of tall buildings. So what file types should you request from your graphic designer to give you the most flexibility?

Pixel vs. Vector

First, understand the difference between a pixel-based and vector logo.

A vector graphic is based on lines, curves, layers of information. This is scalable, meaning it can be stretched proportionately without losing quality. A well-designed vector graphic will look good on a postage stamp or the back of a mac truck. Choose a vector logo for printed materials like business cards, t-shirts, banners, etc.

The MD logo is a .gif file

A pixel-based logo (raster or bitmap) is made up of individual pixels. As it is stretched larger, the quality will go down. This type of graphic is fine for website images.

File Types

When your graphic designer has completed a logo design to your liking, you should request both a vector and a bitmap/raster file. Generally, follow these rules of thumb:

For print, ask for files with .eps or .ai extensions.
For web, ask for files with .jpg or .gif extensions.

Logo Changes

Think ahead to potential changes in your business identity or goals. If you ever need to edit the colors or type in your logo, you will be able to do this easily with an .eps or .ai file. Then you can convert the file to a .jpg or .gif for your web uses.

Tags: file extensions, Logo design, logo file types

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Logo design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Small Business Logos: What File Types Do I Need?”

E.W. Faircloth says:

January 15, 2009 at 12:09 am

I have a photograph on my business card. Is it possible to convert this to a vector type image?
Jamila says:

January 15, 2009 at 4:30 pm

Yes, there is software that converts photos to vector images, such as Adobe Illustrator, or VectorMagic.

In Illustrator, use the Live Trace feature and play with the settings to get it how you want it. VectorMagic works in a similar way and is free. You can also try this in Flash using the Trace Bitmap function.

Some photos are not conducive to this manufactured treatment of pixels and will need to be redrawn manually. Use the pen tool in Photoshop to redraw your images on a separate layer. (I suggest reducing the colors using posterize or another filter of your choice to simplify the large shapes.)

Layers Magazine has an example here: http://www.layersmagazine.com/illustrator-vector-photo.html

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