New to Illustrator and working with a text logo

[landy08]

Hi,

I designed a very basic company logo (all text) in PhotoShop and then later in Indesign. I don't know illustrator very well and I was wondering if I am just working with text for company logos, do I need to use illustrator? or is illustrator primarily for drawing vector art?

My goal is to create the logo as vector art.

Thanks,
Jen

 

[apepp]

hi jen,

...i just posted this response in the other post you replied to, so have copied here below:



illustrator is a vector package and is predominantly used in the graphics world for logos, t shirt designs, large format graphics, anything that is needing scalable graphics without loss of quality.

photoshop is bitmap based program, meaning you need to specify a resolution suitable for the end purpose, not really recommended to be designing logos in photoshop, but having said that, photoshop has it's place for sprucing up vector artwork in some instances. You just have to aware of the resolution your dealing with...

...photoshop does have vector drawing features, but to maintain that vector (like fonts, without faux styles) you have to save to Photoshop PDF, but the downside is the PDF files from photoshop can be bloated in my experience. I've found it better to print from photoshop through the Adobe PDF Printer to get smaller PDF files that maintain vector shapes and embedded fonts...

...if scaling up bitmap graphics in page layout programs you lose resolution...

...1bit black and white images (known as bitmap mode) need to be 600 to 1400dpi at actual size...

...continuous tone RGB, CMYK and greyscale (like magazine printing) need to be 300dpi at actual size, but can be lower if dealing with large format printing (in many cases you can use 100dpi at actual size or less)...

...but for logos on large (or small) format printing you really need to use a vector format logo for optimum quality...

...illustrator is also a bitmap program to a degree in that you can use transparency effects, similar to photoshop. With illustrator you also have to be aware of resolution when using bitmap effects (like drop shadows, feathers etc) or importing images. This is controlled under the effect menu (effect > document raster effects settings) and also by the transparency flattening on output to postscript or PDF version 1.3...

...there is much you can do in illustrator that you can't do in photoshop and vice versa, indesign is a bit like illustrator with some features, so all threes programs kind of cross over to a point...

...all in all though, logos really need to be created in a vector program, all the best logos in the world are vector based drawing, simply because vector allows greater flexibility in the creation process, without the worry of resolution problems. As indesign is also vector based people do create logos with that program too because it has some of the features illustrator does...

andrew

 

[apepp]

...you mention not being allowed to save to EPS, does it come up with an error message or something?

...saving to eps is done via file > save as > then changing the format drop down menu to the EPS version...

...you don't need to be flattening or expanding anything before saving to EPS...

...if this is for indesign, you can use the native .ai format (with PDF compatibility turned on in the save as dialog), or save as a PDF and import into indesign...

andrew

 

[landy08]

I was making it more difficult that it actually is... I was trying to> export it when all I had to do was > save as.

One more quick question... Is there any difference in the file if I had created it in Indesign and saved it as an eps vs creating it in Illustrator and saving as an eps?

Thanks for all your tips.
Jen

 

[apepp]

...yes, as it happens, it used to be under export many versions ago, but they decided to change it around, little things like that used to annoy me sometimes when i was trying to learn the program, slows you down and you have to retrain the brain again, under indesign it is found under export, so why they can't keep it the same way i've no idea really...

...anyway...

...with regards to quality, saving from indesign to eps is the same as illustrator (assuming you are exporting good resolution bitmap images and/or vector artwork)...

...the main difference between the two is that indesign will export the WHOLE page (including bleed if set in the options) and only objects on a page (not on the areas around a page, the pasteboard)...

...illustrator only exports the layers you see and the bounding area of the object or objects you are exporting (including clipping masks that extending around an object), it ignores the document size completely, so objects off the artboard will also get exported if they are visible to you...

andrew

 

[apepp]

...these days when using the creative suite you are better off using the native .ai format or PDF if importing into indesign, but with these formats you have to ensure your artwork is on the illustrator artboard otherwise it won't show when imported to indesign...

...when saving to PDF from illustrator you have to make a decision on whether to flatten the PDF (Acrobat 4 - 1.3), the transparency flattener becomes active in PDF 1.3, any version higher (Acrobat 5 to 9) then flattening isn't needed as those PDF versions support transparency...

...you can import any PDF version into indesign, and indesign can handle the flattening of transparent PDF files upon export to PDF 1.3 instead, which i've heard does a better job than illustrator, but i'm yet to know what or how...

...anyway, flattening is only an issue if your print provider doesn't have a RIP that supports live transparency in PDF files or if you yourself are saving to EPS or PDF 1.3 format, when doing so always ensure you select the "High" setting in the flattener drop down menu (save as dialog)...

...but these days most reputable print providers do support live transparent PDF and in the future flattening won't ever need to be discussed...

andrew

 

[apepp]

...one other thing to note about importing eps into indesign is that you sometimes see it import with a white background, turning on view > overprint preview in indesign will show you how it really looks, if it is still white when overprint preview is on, then you really do have white in the EPS...

...this minor annoying thing about eps in indesign has always been around, part of the reason most people just use the .ai format or PDF...

andrew