As a designer, I work with a lot of different file types, but did you know each file type has its own unique purpose! Have you ever received a file from your designer and were unable to open it? There is a good chance that the file type required a special software program in order to open it. I am going to breakdown a few common file types that you might come across while working with a designer and what they stand for and how to use them.

AI - Adobe Illustrator

AI files are vector files. Adobe Illustrator is used to generate vector files that can be saved in a variety of formats and sizes. A vector graphic program like Adobe Illustrator uses mathematical formulas to construct the screen image, building the best quality image possible. These formulas can produce an image scalable to any size and detail. An AI file is one of the most preferred formats by printers, promotional product companies, and other creatives. Adobe Illustrator is great for designing logos, icons, illustrations, charts, infographics, packaging, apparel design, and more!

Reasons to have your logo/design in Vector format:

1. We can manipulate it better, which leads to more creative options (Ex. We can separate a logo from the background and pull apart specific elements)

2. We can edit colors

3. The colors can be set up to be printed consistently from any commercial printer

4. A vector file can be scaled! This means we can scale a logo to fit a billboard and it won’t

   lose its original quality

PSD - Adobe Photoshop

Like an AI file is for Adobe Illustrator, a PSD file is for Adobe Photoshop. A PSD file contains graphics and photos created in Adobe Photoshop image editing software. PSD files can only be opened using Photoshop. A graphic designer would probably use Photoshop for photo manipulation. Think less retouching and more creative. We like to use photoshop to combine images, apply effects, add text, or simply edit images

INDD - Adobe InDesign

INDD stands for another Adobe product: Adobe InDesign. It’s the tool of choice for designing any type of multi-page document - examples are brochures, magazines, books, and posters. Like other Adobe products, an InDesign document can have multiple pages, styles, and patterns in one place, and can be broken down into those individual components.

EPS - Encapsulated Postscript

EPS files are most commonly used by designers to transfer an image or artwork, generally a vector file into another application. Vector-based EPS files are scalable to any size. EPS files can be opened using Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop.

JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group

A JPEG file is a compressed image file that does not support a transparent background. They are one of the best known image formats, but when compressed repeatedly the overall quality of the JPEG image is reduced. To better explain, when you save a JPEG, it partially discards some of the image data to compress the image. This reduces the size and makes it easier to distribute and store.

PDF - Portable Document Format

A PDF is a universal file format that preserves/embeds the fonts, images, layout, and graphics of any source document. PDF files can be shared, viewed and printed by anyone with the free Adobe Reader software. PDFs are great for sending proofs to clients, instead of sending large files. PDFs are also great for sending to commercial printers because it allows you to add printing and crop marks. PDF files can be used for commercial, digital, and/or desktop printing.

PNG - Portable Network Graphics

The PNG file format is most commonly used online and on websites. PNG files are a lossless format, which means you won’t lose any data when you compress your image. One differentiating feature of the PNG file is its ability to have a transparent background.

TIFF - Tagged Image File Format

The TIFF file format is most commonly used in professional environments and commercial printing. It is the standard format for high-quality images. TIFFs are often preferred over JPEGS because they can be saved and re-saved without losing image quality. TIFFs support multiple layers within the file and because of this, their file sizes are very large. They are not suitable for online use but are great for print projects.