The Who's Who of Creative File Types
It’s bamboozling trying to understand the variety of file types on offer! If you’re struggling to understand who’s who, and what’s what, and why it needs to be that way, have a read of this handy blog!
We’ll run through everything you need to know about creative file types, in a friendly and simple way.
Let’s start by explaining the overarching file types that you need to understand.
Introducing... the Vector family and the Raster family! We promise that they’ll become your friends (once you get to know them).
The Vector Family
Vectors are ‘source files’ which means that we use them to create many of your designs. These tend to be used for logos, charts, icons or anything else you’d like to keep crisp.
Often, these files need to be handled using specialist programmes such as Adobe Illustrator. Therefore, you may need to engage with a printer or creative professional to produce and manipulate these types of designs.
The Raster Family
Raster (or bitmap) images are formed of pixels. They are often used for most web-based graphic design as internet browsers are able to support these file types with ease.
When displaying web-based graphics, the resolution is usually set to 72 DPI. DPI is the acronym for “dots per inch” and, as the name suggests, it indicates how many dots can be placed in a line across one inch. 72 DPI means the image is a good quality, without being too slow to load online.
However, if you’re looking to print, you’ll need something more heavyweight! The higher the DPI, the higher the resolution. So, when sending your artwork to print, always aim for 300 DPI.
Now you understand the difference between a vector and raster file, let’s introduce you to each of the family members. You’ll most likely recognise some of the file types like ‘pdf’, ‘jpg’, ‘gif’, but what are they and why are they different?
The Vectors
.ai: These files are created in Adobe Illustrator, they can only be opened and edited if you have specialist software. We use this to create logos and illustrations, as these file types will always retain their quality, no matter how much they are scaled up or edited.
.pdf: PDFs can be accessed by anyone who has the free Adobe Reader programme or macOS’ Preview. Some might call this a ‘universal’ file type, as it can save and preserve the logos, fonts, and graphics from the source file. This is why most of our preview files are in PDF format, it means you can easily open them and still see the design!
.svg: This is a great format to use no matter what the size, as they’re high quality. This is a fairly new file type, however all modern internet browsers are able to support these.
.eps: You can open an EPS file if you have Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, or Adobe Photoshop. It is a more flexible version of an AI file because it can be opened in more programmes.
The Rasters
.jpg: Commonly used for images and pictures. However, as they cannot have transparent backgrounds, they’re not always suitable for logos, typography or die cut graphics..
.png: The PNG file type supports transparency, so use these on the web for logos, typography and die cut graphics.
.gif: Developed to save vectors in a small file size, compatible for web. Due to their limited use of colours, they’re not ideal for images. Plus, you may already know from your group WhatsApps that gifs can be animated!
.tiff: TIFF files are commonly used within the publishing industry who print high-resolution photography. They don’t compress like JPG files, because they are meant to preserve their absolute quality. Use this for images you intend to edit or print.
So, there you go! We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know the Rasters and the Vectors?
You may not feel like inviting them over for tea any time soon, but we hope that you may feel a little less unsure of them the next time you bump into each other!
Do you have any common frustrations when dealing with file types? We’re here to help, so please do get in touch to find out more.
