PSD vs. AI format – Help

"Jack" wrote in message

Hi,
We hired a freelance designer to design a logo for us. At the end we were given a logo in photoshop format. My question is when it comes to incorporating this logo in things like banners, business cards, letter heads etc. are we going to have a problem? For instance will the quality decrease?

I also know that you can open photoshop files in Illustrator. Are we still going to have all the options that we would normally have if the file was originally created in illustrator?

The format of the logo is normally specified at the time of the contract. If you ordered it for a particular size and resolution, you may have only received a raster file – not great but within parameters if you expect to hire the same designer again for the next job.

Normally, though, the logo would be delivered as vector art, and it can be resized without any loss of quality, either in Photoshop or Illustrator. —
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

Hi There!

Speaking about logo design contract, the main two factors in this contract are: number of design concepts and number of modifications in each concept. In case of the restriction that the logo will be used for Internet only, then JPG, GIF (masked if necessary), and PNG (masked of necessary) may be enough.

In other than Internet usage, the successful logo has the following specifications:

1- It should contain three or four colors at most. Two colors are even better. This will reflect on the printing costs in the future. Keyword: simplicity!

2- The logo should not lose its details upon reducing its size.

3- Avoid soft edges, gradients and soft shadows.

4- The first important format is Illustrator AI format, to account for future use of cutting plotter.

5- The designer should provide the logo in different other formats such as:

a- Enhanced Metafile (.emf)
b- Graphics Interchange Format (.gif)
c- Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg)
d- Portable Network Graphics (.png)
e- Microsoft Windows Bitmap (.bmp)
f- Windows Metafile Graphics (.wmf)
g- Tagged Image File Format (.TIFF)
h- Macintosh (.PICT)

6- The designer should provide the logo in EPS Illustrator format with suitable cropping box.

7- The designer should provide an accurate guide in which the proportionality of the logo is mentioned. The values in CMYK of the colors used, and/or the values of spot colors used (such as Pantone color name).

8- The designer should provide the monochrome versions of the logo.

9- The designer would provide some bonus files in which the use of logo in a sample print is shown, and what to avoid of possible irrelevant background colors.

10- In case of adjacent different colors, the designer should provide the trapping specifications, though logos with necessary trapping should be avoided or minimized as the trapped edges may be ugly sometimes.

Mohamed Al-Dabbagh
Senior Graphic Designer

Jack wrote:

Hi,
We hired a freelance designer to design a logo for us. At the end we were given a logo in photoshop format. My question is when it comes to incorporating this logo in things like banners, business cards, letter heads etc. are we going to have a problem? For instance will the quality decrease?

I also know that you can open photoshop files in Illustrator. Are we still going to have all the options that we would normally have if the file was originally created in illustrator?

Thanks

J

Good information!

Martin

Mohamed Al-Dabbagh wrote:

Hi There!

Speaking about logo design contract, the main two factors in this contract are: number of design concepts and number of modifications in each concept. In case of the restriction that the logo will be used for Internet only, then JPG, GIF (masked if necessary), and PNG (masked of necessary) may be enough.

In other than Internet usage, the successful logo has the following specifications:

1- It should contain three or four colors at most. Two colors are even better. This will reflect on the printing costs in the future. Keyword: simplicity!

2- The logo should not lose its details upon reducing its size.
3- Avoid soft edges, gradients and soft shadows.

4- The first important format is Illustrator AI format, to account for future use of cutting plotter.

5- The designer should provide the logo in different other formats such as:

a- Enhanced Metafile (.emf)
b- Graphics Interchange Format (.gif)
c- Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg)
d- Portable Network Graphics (.png)
e- Microsoft Windows Bitmap (.bmp)
f- Windows Metafile Graphics (.wmf)
g- Tagged Image File Format (.TIFF)
h- Macintosh (.PICT)

6- The designer should provide the logo in EPS Illustrator format with suitable cropping box.

7- The designer should provide an accurate guide in which the proportionality of the logo is mentioned. The values in CMYK of the colors used, and/or the values of spot colors used (such as Pantone color name).

8- The designer should provide the monochrome versions of the logo.
9- The designer would provide some bonus files in which the use of logo in a sample print is shown, and what to avoid of possible irrelevant background colors.

10- In case of adjacent different colors, the designer should provide the trapping specifications, though logos with necessary trapping should be avoided or minimized as the trapped edges may be ugly sometimes.

Mohamed Al-Dabbagh
Senior Graphic Designer

Jack wrote:

Hi,
We hired a freelance designer to design a logo for us. At the end we were given a logo in photoshop format. My question is when it comes to incorporating this logo in things like banners, business cards, letter heads etc. are we going to have a problem? For instance will the quality decrease?

I also know that you can open photoshop files in Illustrator. Are we still going to have all the options that we would normally have if the file was originally created in illustrator?

Thanks

J