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Resources · Logos

One good logo file
solves a hundred jobs.

The single most common delay is not a design problem. It is that the only copy of the logo anyone can find is too small to use. Here is what to send, and what to do if you do not have it.

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The versions worth owning

Four files cover almost every situation you will meet. Gather them once and every job afterwards gets easier.

Vector master
AI, EPS, PDF, or SVG. Shapes stored as maths, so the same file works on a business card and a storefront sign.
One-colour black and white
No gradients, no effects. Embroidery, single-colour applications, and dark garments all need it, and reconstructing it later is guesswork about your own brand.
Transparent background
PNG with real transparency, not white pixels. Otherwise a white box appears the moment the logo lands on any colour.
Horizontal and stacked
Wide spaces and square spaces need different arrangements. Deciding once stops each job inventing its own.
Watch out for

A logo copied from a website is capped at screen resolution. It cannot be enlarged, and no amount of software recovers detail that was never captured. This is the most frequent reason a job pauses before it starts.

Vector vs raster
Outlined vs live text

What each format is good for

AI / EPS
Fully editable vector. The ideal starting point, and what a designer will ask for.
PDF
Excellent when exported with vectors and fonts preserved rather than flattened to an image. A PDF can contain either — the extension does not tell you which.
SVG
Vector, and common from web tools. Opens in every design application.
PNG
Raster. Usable at high resolution with transparency, but it has a ceiling and cannot be scaled past it.
JPG
Raster, and compressed. Fine for photographs, poor for logos — it adds artefacts around hard edges.
A screenshot
Capped at screen resolution by definition. Send it if it is all you have, but expect it to be rebuilt.

If you do not have a vector file

This is normal and it is fixable. It is worth knowing what the fix involves.

We can rebuild it
Redrawing a logo as clean vector is ordinary work. You end up owning a file you can use everywhere afterwards, not just with us.
An auto-trace is not a rebuild
Automatic tracing produces wobbling edges and hundreds of stray points. It looks converted without being usable.
Send the largest version you have
Even a big raster gives more to work from. The original artwork file, if it exists anywhere, is better still.
Check with whoever designed it
The vector file usually exists somewhere — a previous designer, a printer, an old laptop. It is worth one email before it gets rebuilt.

Rather than guess

Ask us when…

  • You are not sure whether the file you have is vector or raster.
  • The logo needs to work on a dark background and you only have a dark version.
  • You want the logo embroidered and it contains fine detail or small text.
  • You have several versions and do not know which is current.

None of these are a problem. They are the points where two minutes now saves a reprint later.

Start here

Not sure what you have?

Send whatever you can find. We will tell you what it is, what it can be used for, and whether it is worth rebuilding.

  1. 1 Start your project
  2. 2 Tell us what you're creating
  3. 3 Receive your estimate
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