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file formats
I would like to put together a list of what we require for customers supplying artwork, we seem to get alot of kiddies drawings that are supplied the size of a postage stamp and of very low quality and was wondering what you chaps ask for. Is an eps file better than a ai file is a tiff better than a jpeg, what sort of resolution. We print using a gerber edge 2 and would really like to get customers to supply artwork in the best possible format to give the best output. I normally ask for eps but really know nothing about file compressions of different formats.
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9 Replies
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hi, it also depends on your skill set to manipulate eps,ps,pdf,tiff,ai etc. and your familarity with the programs you own.
to be honest, my experience with the sign industry is to re-draw everything but in the other industries i work for (mainly printing) it is down to how well they supply artwork.
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For solid spot colours a vectored eps or ai will be the best (this means that everything is outlines or paths) For 4 colour printing a tiff will usually be a higher resolution file ( therefore bigger ) but a Jpeg will often give you better colours ( I used to use a gerber Maxx and often found colours brighter when using a Jpeg ) Alot will depend on your settings for your Edge 2. Remember that Jpeg are often lower quality.
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In my experience, clients have little knowlage of different file formats and rarely are able to supply a vector image.
So we find- like Dave said-that we have to redraw everything for vinyl cutting.
The worst thing we find is people converting files from a Mac fortat to PC and them sending it over by e-mail.
Also if you are fortunate enough to recieve the file in a vector format you sill have to spend time cleaning it up and welding etc
Am I bothered, do I look bothered, is this a face that looks bothered, I’m not bothered.
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I too find that i have to redraw most things, and can create wonders out of almost nothing. Just wanted to make sure I wasnt making it hard on myself by asking for things in the wrong format, most of the time there is no choice and asking for an eps file would just gain a quisical look – “whats an eps file”.
So eps, tiff & jpeg it is then.
Thanks guys and gals.
Mart. -
when dealing with people who don’t know… just ask for whatever and then re-design their logo
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“whats an eps file”.
I may be off a little, but my understanding of an EPS – (encapsulated postscript) – is; it’s a generic Vector file format, not specific to a program, ….like a jpeg being a generic picture file.
Most clip art you buy will be eps format, and for the most part they work, but as others have stated, you sometimes need to clean up, weld or delete additional lines. Still faster thatn redrawing.
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Another problem that arrises when you ask for a specific type of file is they take their crummy .jpeg and just open it up in Photoshop (or similar program) and do a “save as” .eps.
-Marek -
well being techincal, an EPS is short for encapsulated postscript which is basically a container of Postscript instructions, this instruction set has things like start-line, end-line, thickness, colour, page size, fonts, linked data, etc. This instruction set was taken up and licenced by Adobe, and is mainly embedded imagesetters, graphic art laser printers, etc.
EPS was commonly used with Quark to allow a user to open a simple document up and the “link” to external EPS files, the Quark user would see a “preview” of the file and therefore they didn’t have to worry about processing the heavy EPS file.
Illustrator came along and became a simple illustration package, this was using a simplified version of Postscript, this is known as the “.AI” or Illustrator EPS format. This format became common in other programs that were allowed to use the format (like Corel, Freehand, Gerber, etc.)
Later on, Illustrator advanced with better features and many improvements over the original AI (Illustrator EPS) format appeared, so we have about 10 different variations of illustrator format, however the basic postscript outline data has always been good since the early versions.
About 5 years ago… PDF format started to appear on the scene and it has become a portable document format, it removed a lot of limits in designing portable data, so we had a PDF for Web, PDF for Print and PDF for Press, this format has now changed 3 times in recent years but works extremly well. Printers have developed the format further by adding extra bits and created a PDF/X1/3 revisions. PDF is a varation on postscript data, Adobe refined the best bits of the postscript format and created this format which has become the easiest way of transfering desiyns between printers.
Adobe Illustrator CS has adopted the PDF format and scrapped the original AI postscript data, however CS is still fully compatable with prevous version but when you store a .AI file, it is now a .PDF
In the future we will see PDF being the dominate format between all programs, in Litho, the adoption of a new extension to PDF called JDF, this basically is Job Description Format, it allow Litho machines to automatically set themselves up for that print run. So, I suspect WELL into the future JDF will effect sign cutting and routers at some point, however this is something I don’t know about yet.
So, thats the story of EPS,PDF,AI,Postscript.. Sorry to sound geeky.
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Depends who is sending the artwork, design agencies can always convert a mac file to a pc file and save as an ai, ask them to save paths or outlines and there shouldnt be a problem. With the usual Joe Bloggs off the street most will have a go at designing something on Microsoft word and a Jpeg is probably the best you can get, so you have to redraw or trace the image
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