What type of file do I need to submit for printing?

There are a lot of different file types for imagery and design. Remembering all the abbreviations is bordering impossible. The difficulty in answering the above question is, there’s no one single answer, It largely depends on the content. 

Content for design files essentially comes in two forms. Vectors or Raster Images. Raster Images are photos or files that act like photos. Photos are, by their nature, finite. They have a certain resolution that can’t be exceeded. You can ‘add’ resolution to these images when you drag them into photoshop and increase the resolution, but you’re not actually affecting the information that is there. Essentially you’re telling your computer to create more pixels, based on the pixels around it. Vectors are, for design purposes, artworks or drawings created with lines and anchor points to make shapes, letters and images. They’re generally created in Illustrator (there are other programs but for simplicity I’ll go with the most common) and they can be scaled up without losing quality. A common problem that occurs is clients supplying artwork that has been created as a vector, but has been ‘Rasterized’ for ease of use. Most logos you see on a webpage will be a rasterised version of a vector drawn logo. Because they are generally small on a screen, they don’t need to be a large file, and its quicker for a web page to load if the file size is smaller. 

As a general rule of thumb, PDF’s cover most bases for a printable file. I say PDF’s because, if you have a file created by a designer with raster images and vectors layered in, then a print ready PDF will handle all of that. They also come with the added bonus that, depending on how they’ve been saved, they are editable. If bleed needs to be added, or there’s a small error in the file then having an editable file is a huge advantage to save time. PDFs handle Vectors and Images equally well and have good compression without sacrificing quality so can be emailed or file transferred more easily. 

Having said all of that, it doesn’t mean that you need to convert whatever file type you have into a PDF for submission. There are many other files types that are fine to submit. For raster images, high resolution JPEGs, PNGs or bitmaps are ok. EPS or AI files are good for vector images as well, and this is by no means a complete list. 

If you don’t have the ‘correct’ file type to send for print, send it anyway! There are usually a few options for getting around this issue, like adding grain to an image so pixelation isn’t as visible, or getting a jpeg logo re-drawn as a vector. 

There are a lot of different file types for imagery and design. Remembering all the abbreviations is bordering impossible. The difficulty in answering the above question is, there’s no one single answer, It largely depends on the content. 

Content for design files essentially comes in two forms. Vectors or Raster Images. Raster Images are photos or files that act like photos. Photos are, by their nature, finite. They have a certain resolution that can’t be exceeded. You can ‘add’ resolution to these images when you drag them into photoshop and increase the resolution, but you’re not actually affecting the information that is there. Essentially you’re telling your computer to create more pixels, based on the pixels around it. Vectors are, for design purposes, artworks or drawings created with lines and anchor points to make shapes, letters and images. They’re generally created in Illustrator (there are other programs but for simplicity I’ll go with the most common) and they can be scaled up without losing quality. A common problem that occurs is clients supplying artwork that has been created as a vector, but has been ‘Rasterized’ for ease of use. Most logos you see on a webpage will be a rasterised version of a vector drawn logo. Because they are generally small on a screen, they don’t need to be a large file, and its quicker for a web page to load if the file size is smaller. 

As a general rule of thumb, PDF’s cover most bases for a printable file. I say PDF’s because, if you have a file created by a designer with raster images and vectors layered in, then a print ready PDF will handle all of that. They also come with the added bonus that, depending on how they’ve been saved, they are editable. If bleed needs to be added, or there’s a small error in the file then having an editable file is a huge advantage to save time. PDFs handle Vectors and Images equally well and have good compression without sacrificing quality so can be emailed or file transferred more easily. 

Having said all of that, it doesn’t mean that you need to convert whatever file type you have into a PDF for submission. There are many other files types that are fine to submit. For raster images, high resolution JPEGs, PNGs or bitmaps are ok. EPS or AI files are good for vector images as well, and this is by no means a complete list. 

If you don’t have the ‘correct’ file type to send for print, send it anyway! There are usually a few options for getting around this issue, like adding grain to an image so pixelation isn’t as visible, or getting a jpeg logo re-drawn as a vector.