Hi everyone. I'm not a graphics artist, and so I'm thinking of hiring someone to create a logo for me, but I'd like to use that logo everywhere: on my web page, on my business cards and letterhead, in my instant messenger logo, favicon, etc. Any suggestions on what format/settings/tools/techniques to use so that I get clean, crisp images without a lot of pixellation or compression artifacts? Do people generally just make a single photoshop/gimp image and just resize? Or should I expect touch-ups as necessary whenever I need a different sized logo? Or do people just re-create the image from scratch every time a different size is needed? Thanks in advance for any help!
The best way to create a scalable logo is in Illustrator or Freehand. Any type should be converted to outlines. Photoshop is not suitable for logos.
You should ask to have your logo created in vector format. Any designer you work with will hopefully know what you are asking for. If not, move on This will allow the most flexibility down the road. Because it is vector, re-sizing from postage stamp size to billboard size without a loss in quality can be achieved. A good vector file format to ask them to deliver it in would be .eps .eps can be read by all the major design software out there, so future updates/ revision/etc. will be easier if you change designers. To make it easier on yourself, especially if you don't own graphics software, don't hesitate to ask your designer for various sizes and file formats of the logo upon completion of the project.
As mentioned its best to request vector formats such as eps or ai, (illustrator source file) however sometimes a high resolution raster will suffice. You will more than likely require your logo to have a transparent background, in this case be sure to request a transparent png. Photoshop can actually create vector paths also, which work great in the source file. If a designer does happen to do your logo in Photoshop be sure to request that all graphics be done in vector paths. And also be sure to request the source file. As long as the Photoshop file was created with paths, it can be resized to just about any size without quality loss.
Hello, You can resize the logo by (Illustrator), because the illustrator saves the images as vector, but photoshop saves the images as pixel.