Image file formats
Working with graphic designers you often get buried with designer slang and this can be quite confusing. I assure you we don’t do it on purpose. We’ve just been working in this world for so long we assume everyone knows these terms.
** Trumpets ** Luckily I am here to reveal the Designer Slang secrets! Today’s topic: File Formats.
The file formats
JPEG
This might be the one you’re most familiar with. All those images you took with your digital camera or your phone? They get saved as JPG/JPEG. This is the most popular file format! JPEG stands for “Joint Photographic Experts Group”, and is often a file with a white background. They’re great for printing logos as they are often high resolution, and even though they’re pretty compressed, they do retain the most colors.
PNG
Now how annoying is it that every JPEG image has a white background? Sometimes you just want vibrant colors and a transparent background. Fear no more though, as this is where PNG comes into play. PNG files allow for transparency. This plus the fact that PNGS have lossless compression which makes the files a lot smaller, makes PNG the ideal file format for usages on the web
EPS
EPS files these are designer favorites as they are easy to transfer between different design softwares. Not only that, EPS files are vector based and not pixel based. Say what? Ever noticed that when you zoom into a picture reaaaaal hard, your image just exists out of little tiny colored blocks? Those are your pixels and all these pixels together make your image. However if you were to enlarge pixel based images you would lose the quality and sharpness of your image and that is no bueno for your design files.This is where vectors come in. Vectors use a mathematical formula (which I don’t know anything about) to ensure that the image or illustration you creates appears flawless regardless of size. So you want to print your logo on a bus and and a business card? Use your EPS file and see the magic happen without any quality-loss.
PSD/AI/INDD
What do these 3 file types have in common? They are all files made in Adobe software.
PSD — Stands for Photoshop Document, which are created in you guessed it, Photoshop.
AI — Stands for Adobe Illustrator and are files made in Illustrator. Ai files are mostly vector based and can be scaled and have a transparent background.
INDD — Stands for Indesign Document. These files can only be used in Adobe indesign, which is used for creating anything print based, such as books, business cards and magazines.
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