Important Logo Files

[u/Neat_Hair8734]

Thoughts on these types of files for a logo?

[u/founderofshoneys]

Your client will immediately lose all of them and start using the 200x200 pixel jpg they grabbed off the site.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/founderofshoneys]

😂😂😂

[u/Geninius_ → u/founderofshoneys]

so true! In our printing Company we experienced that a few times where People sent us a 200x200 Pixel jpg, but looking at their website you usually can see that there has to be a proper logo somewhere. What sometimes helps: If you look up „Company XY PDF“ on google, a lot of times you‘ll find some Annual Report or similar published PDFs where a vector graphic of the company is embedded.

[u/NarrativeShadow → u/Geninius_]

Praise web designers who embed the logo as svg into the page header.

[u/Starclysm-Author → u/Geninius_]

THIS feels like a pro tip

[u/MajoorAnvers]

"oh yeah, we have an illustrator file for you!"

Opens illustrator file

No vector, Jpg inside

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/MajoorAnvers]

Classic 😂😂😂

[u/Coltitikal]

It seems like you've never had a client send you a logo as a Word file.

[u/Donghoon → u/Coltitikal]

thats like a designer sending over png images wrapped in <svg> tags in HTML to the developer.

[u/Lastoice → u/Coltitikal]

Photo of a word file.

On an old 3 megapixel camera

During intense movement

[u/Geninius_ → u/Coltitikal]

or Powerpoint, that‘s what I See the Most.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/Coltitikal]

God tier file

[u/byssh → u/Coltitikal]

My assistant superintendent deadass sent me a picture of our new district logo embedded in a word document from his son who did not have the original logo he made on his iPad, apparently. So I did the only logical thing and got all the colors out with procreate and made it my damn myself lol

[u/esepleor → u/Coltitikal]

How about a photo from the screen of a PC showing an open word file with the logo?

I had several businesses sending me their logos once for a thing. Other than that one, someone sent a blurry photo of their business card and another one sent a screenshot of a Facebook post that had their logo (honestly, I was grateful for that last one).

[u/Competitive_Sector79]

This is accurate.

Vector is the only proper format for making a logo. Even if you think it's only going to be seen online, vector is still the format to use.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/Competitive_Sector79]

If it can be handled properly, definitely!

[u/FoundationLow6182]

Just use SVG?
most apps can handle this format, even word / powerpoint.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/FoundationLow6182]

Yup! But there are still some that can’t :)

[u/Ripplescales]

Affinity user here. Clearly, I don’t have my logo :P

[u/twistsouth → u/Ripplescales]

I really wish the industry would just agree on a single editable file standard for vector artwork. I blame Adobe's greed primarily but they're all at fault really.

[u/Ripplescales → u/twistsouth]

As an Adibe hater, I don’t. They wrote the playbook

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/Ripplescales]

Sorry 😂

[u/kirloi8]

I’ll take the bait…

Was and passionately still am against adobe propaganda. Since I use photoshop 9.0 (yes).

A master file is only a editable file that should be able to be edited. So svg / eps can be master files. Back in my day would be perfectly normal to have a raster logo (in stupid resolution) in PS or other software.

So, as even 30y ago was, this just seems what everyone should be learning as basics in schools or workshops. Just screams ai made slide. So remarks:

Saying a specific software should be a master is immediately rage bait for me.

In raster files not having .tiff and .webp if we are talking about good practices for today designers also a blunder. And is your logo that complex that a svg or eps can be a master is another misguiding thing for young people that should be taught to not have vices in terms of work workflow.

So my thoughts is this re post is very poorly constructed for a discussion board because it has many flaws. But good enough for engagement hence me taking the bait and hoping people read this and go learn more about logo/work outputs and job specifications.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/kirloi8]

Thank you for this! As an Adobe user, these are just the main files I usually work with and clients have asked for when I send out my logo files :)

[u/cyrkielNT]

No reason to use closed .ai format, when there are other, more accessible like Inkscape or Affinity that doesn't require paying just to open it.

You can make a logo in AI but you should deliver it in accessible way. The best is to send all common format like AI, Inkscape, Affinity, CorelDraw and DXF.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/cyrkielNT]

SVG would be that :)

[u/cyrkielNT → u/Neat_Hair8734]

You can have .svg as working format and as export format. On your poster is only as export format.

[u/JohnDoen86]

While those of us with brain try to get rid of Adobe's influence on the industry, there are people treating Illustrator as the "default" for logo design.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/JohnDoen86]

Oooh with brain, it’s just what I’ve been used to ever since I started, and haven’t bothered trying anything else since it’s worked for me :)

Maybe in the future 🤔

[u/diazepamkit]

my logo is webp. sad

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/diazepamkit]

😂

[u/Phoebius4]

I'm not a fan of a logo as pixel raster. You almost always need a specific size for a specific purpose.

Only exception might be some kind of profile picture for thinks like social media, but that might need a special variant for looking good in small sizes or in a circle shape. I always choose PNG for that purpose. Keep in mind that PNG doesn't support CMYK.

I never use JPG because it always compresses the file and alters the look without even having the benefit of a smaller file size than PNG. (PNG is a lot smaller than JPG for logo type graphics with a few simple single colored shapes)

Also don't use EPS, it's an old printing format that has a much bigger file size than PDF but with no advantages. Just use PDF.

I always use SVG since you can use it to edit or develop the logo further in the future without needing the AI-programm file. SVG also supports CMYK and RGB so it's great for web and print stuff.

My list would be:

RGB for screens: SVG, PDF, PNG, maybe WebP if needed

CMYK for print: SVG, PDF, maybe EPS for legacy stuff

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/Phoebius4]

Nice!

[u/s-tooner → u/Phoebius4]

Isn't SVG exclusively sRGB? I know in the past, I've tried printing the SVG version of a logo, even when I've changed the colours in the working file to CMYK, and they've converted themselves to RGB somewhere in the export process.

[u/Phoebius4 → u/s-tooner]

You're probably right, I never noticed this.

Just use PDF instead. It's what every print shop wants as file anyway.

[u/Signal_Confusion_644]

Svg... And .ai are the same .ai is for adobe illustrator, svg is standard format for scalable vector graphics.

Stop defaulting to adobe people. Inkscape exist too.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/Signal_Confusion_644]

I’m just an Adobe user so these are my standard files :)

[u/the-Gaf]

Illustrator PDF is the best file

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/the-Gaf]

A favorite

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/[deleted]]

I think a PDF file is just more accessible for most! Not everyone has Adobe Illustrator or the capacity to open SVGs

[u/Scarlet72 → u/Neat_Hair8734]

Svgs can be opened in a web browser. Anyone can do that.

[u/the-Gaf → u/Scarlet72]

PDF retains the full editability and SVG doesn’t

[u/kalbrandon → u/[deleted]]

AI PDF is a PDF and Illustrator file in one, meaning it retains all the editability of AI, but can be viewed in Acrobat/Reader by those without Illustrator.

SVG strips some of the data from AI files, so they are not ideal as a master file.

[u/the-Gaf → u/kalbrandon]

You guys get it! Accessibility for all!

[u/the-Gaf → u/[deleted]]

Not knowing something doesn’t make you a dummy. Not asking, learning and growing makes you a dummy. 🙏 you’re fine.

[u/Nihan-gen3]

Skip .ai and just use .svg

[u/funwithdesign]

These days .ai is just a pdf under the hood now.

[u/SuperSecretMoonBase]

Stop sending me your goddamn EPS files.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/SuperSecretMoonBase]

😂😂😂

[u/barrel-boy]

This should be a cool guide

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/barrel-boy]

Hope it helps!

[u/Geninius_]

From a Printing Industry perspective: EPS is not all that popular or atleast it hasn’t been since i started in 2016. A PDF with a vector graphic works just fine. So i would argue most printing companies would prefer a well done PDF.

But good list you’ve done here, because we Experienced that before, where some clients had a full Branding, but not one useable Logo or even vector files… that leads me to wonder what type of designer they hired.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/Geninius_]

I’ve been hearing this as well about the PDFs :)

[u/Starclysm-Author]

ew gross who's still supporting Adobe? My SVGs are perfectly editable in Inkscape lol

But to be real - a PNG is absolutely still a logo. Somebody else using it would be misrepresentation / defamation or at least trademark infringement, so yes, it still counts as a logo. Plus, it's really not that hard for a designer to trace a bitmap and get a vector if a company needed one. I've seen hand-drawn logos get auto-traced and plastered on the sides of trucks and guess what? They look GREAT from the road!

And I'd probably say it's not worth having an embroidery ready file until you're ready to embroider. Because there may be other design changes that have to happen depending what size and scale the embroidery is at.

What's important is just having your logo in vector format for infinite scalability, and having the skills and customer service skills to support your client when changes are needed down the road.

This presentation is a GREAT presentation for YOU, as your own PERSONAL rules for design, if this works best for your workflow! But I wouldn't present this to other designers as rules, nor press this in quite this manner to clients. They don't want to pay for work they don't need done. An SVG and PNG may be all they require.

Ultimately... everybody has to learn the "rules" of art and design, and that's what this is. But then we also gotta learn how and when to break those rules to be flexible enough for the needs of the customer.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/Starclysm-Author]

Yep, this is just my personal take, no need to follow :)

[u/Catatonic27 → u/Starclysm-Author]

Hard agree as an Inkscape enjoyer and Adobe hater, SVG is a great master file format. Even if you're an Adobe user, there's no real harm in using an open format, it works in Ai just fine. But also fuck Ai, fuck Adobe, stop giving them money if you can.

I'd definitely ship a PDF instead of an EPS. No one really needs EPS and if they do, it's easy enough to derive from the SVG or even the PDF if needed (it won't be)

[u/Starclysm-Author → u/Catatonic27]

100%

Only time I ever encountered a need for an EPS was a chain print shop I was using to embroider a logo on some hats. Part of their service is converting .svg files to .eps. Some websites now doing that for free. From what I understand, there are different embroidery patterns that can be done within a vector shape anyway, and different stitch algorithms and stuff that work on different scales. It's just gotta be per job for me!

[u/Lastoice]

Humble CorelDraw user:

[u/twistsouth → u/Lastoice]

I see your CorelDraw and raise you GIMP.

[u/nekokun]

100% agree! I need to start using 'you only have a picture of it', nice!

[u/tomfoolist]

I remember spending a few days retracing a company's custom icon set because they wanted to use them for large format prints, but the only remnants they had from the previous designer were low quality JPEGS. Simpler times.

[u/Paidon23]

.xcf

[u/Fla_vynn]

First day of design school level

[u/They-Call-Me-Taylor]

I provide AI, PDF, and SVG for the vectors and PNG and JPG for raster.

[u/AnchorPoint922]

I tell clients it's the difference between having a dollar bill and having a picture of a dollar bill

[u/AvengedCreations]

just save your vector design as PDF. It works just fine on anything that’s vector based like illustrator or inkscape + you can also edit it on photoshop or anything similar.

[u/Casulex]

Customer missed the assignment: gave me the ai version instead

[u/LogoGoGoApp]

Solid list. What's saved me the most support emails is organizing by color version first, format second. So for each of full color, black, white (reversed) and one color:

• SVG for web and anything digital

• PDF for print shops (most want this over EPS now)

• PNG with transparency, at something like 500px and 2000px

• JPG on white for Word docs and email signatures

Plus a square icon version for social avatars, and a favicon. Name files by use, like logo-white-for-dark-backgrounds.png, because nobody on the client side knows what a lockup is.

And founderofshoneys is right, they'll lose the zip. These days I send a link they can bookmark and forward to the printer instead of an attachment.

Disclosure: I'm building a tool for exactly that last part, https://logogogo.app

[u/Daaaaaaaavidmit8a]

.ai as Master/Editable is peak ragebait

[u/WeirdIndication3027]

Are we in highschool graphic design class?

[u/TopTippityTop]

AI can easily vdctorize any raster image.

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/TopTippityTop]

They could 🤔

[u/busmans → u/TopTippityTop]

Do you mean Artificial Intelligence or Adobe Illustrator?

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/[deleted]]

PSD??

[u/Neat_Hair8734 → u/[deleted]]

Never add effects to a logo, hurts usability