Taylor Graphic Guidelines for Promotional Products

GRAPHIC GUIDELINES File formatting for printable artwork

UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Vector Files A vector image is a set of geometrically defined shapes. Vector images can be scaled infinitely, both larger and smaller, with no loss of clarity. A vector file is the most flexible to use. This makes vector files the PREFERRED files to use.

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Vector Line Lines in vector files are made up of vector points creating a smoother curve.

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Vector Files Examples of vector file extensions: • ai

Adobe Illustrator

• pdf

Adobe Illustrator

• eps

Adobe Illustrator

• cdr

CorelDRAW

• fhx

Macromedia Freehand

• svg

Adobe Illustrator or

CorelDRAW

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Raster files are not vector files.

Rather an item is vector or raster depends on the way the file is created.

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Raster Files In a raster file, sometimes referred to as a bitmap file, each pixel is defined individually. This makes the file essentially a very fine grid of squares containing information about the color of each square.

Digital photographs, for example, are made up of pixels and are therefore by nature raster files.

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Raster Files If a raster file needs to be enlarged, the computer will have to guess to create new pixels between the old ones. This results in a raster file becoming blurry when its size is increased.

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Raster Line A line in a raster file is made up of individual pixels creating a jagged curve.

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Raster Files Raster files can be reduced in sized, however if they are enlarged from their original size, they become blurry or pixelated.

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e Original siz

Enlarged size

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Raster Files Most suppliers will NOT accept raster files. Exceptions would be when a specific printing process is being used that accepts raster art like four color process printing or digital photographic printing.

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

Raster Files Examples of raster file extensions: • jpg

Adobe Photoshop

• bmp Adobe Photoshop • tif

Adobe Photoshop

• psd

Adobe Photoshop

• gif

Adobe Photoshop

• eps

Adobe Photoshop*

• ppt

PowerPoint

*This is unique as sometimes this can be a vector file. For explanation go to page 21 “When a File Seems Like a Vector But Isn’t and Why”

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UNDERSTANDING FILE FORMATS

When a File Seems Like a Vector but Isn’t and Why Fonts in Vector File When a vector file contains fonts, they MUST be converted to curves (or outlines) to reproduce properly.

If this is not done, then a copy of the actual font file MUST be submitted along with the vector file so the printer can reproduce the font.

Raster Images Not Converted to Vector but Inserted and Saved in Design Software If a raster file is inserted into a design software like Adobe Illustrator, it will remain a raster until it is converted into lines.

A file could have a vector extension but not be vector if it was saved in this manor. This happens often in .eps and .pdf files

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COLOR

Spot Color Spot color is a solid flat fields of color.

Used in silk screening, a printer can lay down several solid areas of color to produce multi-colored artwork.

Spot color can sometimes be used as an add on to another printing process and is sometimes referred to as touch plate.

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COLOR

PMS Color Matching PMS colors are Pantone, Inc.’s standard trademarks for color reproduction. Specifying these colors assures consistency.

PMS identifies over 500 colors.

Four-color process printing can only approximate many of these colors.

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COLOR

Four-Color Process Four-color process, also know as 4CP or CMYK, is a printing process where by using a combination of dots in four colors, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black, millions of colors can be reproduced.

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Enlarged to show dot pattern

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COLOR

Four-Color Process Sample

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YELLOW

YELLOW, MAGENTA & CYAN

YELLOW & MAGENTA

YELLOW, MAGENTA, CYAN & BLACK

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