The best file type for the job

As mentioned last week, SIZE and RESOLUTION are a HUGE factor when it comes to how pretty your prints will turn out when we are done with them.  However, I think we also need to talk about FILE TYPES.

Honestly, file types don’t matter as much as SIZE and RESOLUTION do.  But file types can play a role as to how nicely they will print when it is all said and done.  This blog,  I’m going to touch on a few different file types, and tell you which file types I like to see:

FILE TYPES:

JPEG ( Joint Photographic Experts Group, ):  This is NOT the ideal file to hand us.  The reason being, this file format is very, very lossy.  Every time you open, save, and close this type of file, the file gets a little bit more ‘contaminated’ (and yes I use that loosely.)  If you open a JPEG that has had a lot of modifications to it in Photoshop, zoom in really close to what should be a strait line, you will probably notice trash in the form of random pixels in the the close of view.  Like mentioned above, JPEG’s are notorious for this lossiness, and thus, I don’t recommend this file type.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format): TIFF file type is a very ideal file type for reproducing them to print.  For one thing, TIFF files are typically not compressed.  This means that the image isn’t going to be manipulated and squeezed when you close the file.  However, this action DOES make the file very large, especially if the file SIZE and RESOLUTION are large.  This can be bad.  But all in all, I would rather see a very large file in TIFF format, and know that it isn’t going to be jepordized when it is printed.  If the size of the print is huge, for instance 10′ x 10’….if you save the resolution as 300, your file will be over 4 Gigabytes in size.  That is too big, and you’ll probably have to reduce the resolution to lower the physical file size.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics): PNG files are OK in some areas.  They are lossy saving, but PNG files have the ability to save transparent files.  Ultimately,  there are some files that have areas in the graphic that are transparent, and to the best of my knowledge, PNG is the only file type that will support this feature.  As far as printing PNG, I have had no trouble with them, so I don’t have any beefs with this format.

Vector: This is the only file type that is not raster based.  All the files mentioned above are raster based.  Raster based files are based on physical pixels that exist in the file, and each individual pixel, thus, creates the image.  VECTOR is totally different.  Vector files do not contain ‘pixels.’  Instead, vector files are constructed from a series of ‘point’ that interconnect to form the different shapes and detail in a graphic.  Typically, vector is THE WAY to go when it comes to printing.  Vector images can be sized up and down, and it typically will not affect the graphic, it simply gets bigger and smaller.   And the lines in the graphic will be clean, and there is not risk of pixelizing since that type of file is not pixel based.  VECTOR IMAGES ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as a preferred file type for my line of work.

Am I covering all the file types out there?  Nope.  Just the ones I see in a typical day.  There are plenty of other file platforms that may also be worth mentioning, but I don’t want to bore the world to death.  These are the main file types I see day in day out.

Here is some more info about each file I talked a little about:

JPEG: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG
TIFF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIFF
PNG: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics
Vector: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics