Did You Get My File?
January, 2006
So far in the "Working with a Designer" series, we have discussed finding a designer, and then some things you should be aware of to get your project up and running smoothly. We talked about deadlines, a first meeting, what files/information you should have, and brand strategy.
So now you have a list of files you need to provide for the project.
What format are those files in? And are those formats the most appropriate for the work ahead, or will there need to be conversions or possibly even recreations? This issue is going to get a little more technical so you can be familiar with the various digital formats and what makes them different.
Let's start with basic document formats. Arguably the most used format is a Microsoft Word document, with Excel spreadsheets taking a big chunk out of the rest. Most people have probably seen a pdf file or two as well. There are some other formats, depending on which software you use, but because of sheer numbers, the Microsoft formats have become somewhat of a standard. So what are the pros and cons of these formats?
The first item to consider is compatibility. For the most part, it is pretty easy to open a Word document. Most people have Word, or some application that supports the format. Problems arise not so much from the format, but from the fonts. The recipient of any Word file you pass along must have all the fonts you used installed on their machine, or substitution will occur. At best, the document will just look slightly different. At worst, the entire flow of the document may be disrupted, making the document unattractive or even unreadable. For passing along text information, this probably isn't a problem. But if you are trying to design a flyer or brochure, you could have disastrous results.
This brings us to the second issue with Word documents. Word was not designed to be a professional layout application. It is not capable of printing separations, which is what a commercial printer needs to print color documents. Many printers will accept your files, but work will need to be done to produce prints, possibly adding to the cost of your printing. Both of these issues apply to Excel as well.
Finally there is Adobe's Portable Document Format, or pdf. As its name implies, this is a document to be shared. This format embeds font information into the file at creation, so the recipient need not have the fonts installed to see your document as you intended it to be seen. The other benefit is that pdf is a format that is capable of providing all the information a commercial printer needs to run a high quality print job. The only downside of the pdf format is that in order to take advantage of all the format has to offer, some specialized knowledge is required. The creation of a proper pdf file for high end printing is something best left to your designer, or you should contact your commercial printer for help. Sending pdf files by email to colleagues, customers, or prospects is the best way to ensure your message is received as intended.
Graphic formats are both simpler and more complex. In essence, there are only two graphic formats, raster images, and vector images. A raster image is essentially a grid of squares, with each square assigned a color. A typical image found on the web might be 400 x 400 pixels in size. That means there are 160,000 squares, each assigned a color. Vector images, on the other hand, are calculated shapes. If you have an image of a circle, the computer stores the formula for creating that circle, and creates it at the time of display. This may give you a hint to the differences and uses of these two formats.
Raster images are used for photographic type art, while vector images are used for things like logos and flat shapes. This is where it gets a little complicated, because the delivery in many cases determines the format. Images on the web are raster, not vector, even if your logo is a vector format in origin (as it should be). There are exceptions, but that is beyond this basic discussion.
The reason a logo should always be a vector file can be demonstrated with the following images. As I said, vector images are just a formula, so they can be scaled without quality loss. A logo is used at all different sizes, and it is the last thing you want to lose quality. This first image shows two circles. They look the same at their current size. But if we scale the images to a larger size, a raster image will lose quality, while the vector image will just be recalculated for the new size, maintaining high quality.
Image 1
Image 2
We have discussed some technical concepts in this issue, but they aren't something you need to be a master of, just familiar with. One of the reasons you hire a designer is to take care of these things for you, but if you are at least familiar with the terms, you will understand why these things are important, and your project will proceed more smoothly.