Creating a logo for print

[Binky]

For my site I created a very simple logo, just text, enhanced in xara3d, in several sizes for different pages. (I intend to hire a designer to come up with a better one - just haven't gotten around to it, yet.)
http://vancouverjazz.com/img/nav/logo2.gif
Now I need to supply a file of this logo for print purposes and I have no idea how to do this. A plain tiff file won't work because it may need to be resized. Any suggestions as to how to go about this will be greatly appreciated.

[Randall]

Xara is offering a free download of their Webster 2 (http://www.xara.com/products/xara3d/webster.asp) vector drawing program for registered users of Xara3D 5. It's not clear to me whether you can import vector data from Xara, but if so you can then export the logo as an EPS file for print work.

Edit: On second thought, the features list for Webster seems to imply that it does not export vector formats other than Xara's own, which would be a real waste. But it's free, so you've got nothing to lose by trying it out.

They might accept a TIFF file if you can output at a high enough resolution -- probably something between 1200 and 2400 dpi. Resizing isn't a problem as long as they resize downward, so ask them what their requirements are.

Randall

[MichaelC]

You have two options, as Randall alluded to:

1. Create the logo in a "vector" drawing program, such as Illustrator, FreeHand, or CorelDraw. Make sure to convert any type to outlines so you don't have to have the font installed to print the logo. Save the logo as an EPS file, which is a scalable graphic format.

Advantage: You just place the graphic in whatever layout program you use, and scale it there to the size you want, from 1/2-inch long to a 10-foot banner.

Disadvantage: cruddy cheap printers may print the EPS screen preview instead, which won't look pretty.

2. Create the logo as a TIFF at the largest size you could imagine needing, and then resize a copy in Photoshop, Paint Shop, etc., for whatever smaller sizes you need. (Of course, if you need it for a 10-foot banner, you're outta luck.)

Advantage: Cheap printers will print it correctly.

Disadvantages: A HUGE file on your HD, and you have to open it, resize it, and save a copy out of Photoshop for each different size you need. Also, you have to correlate the DPI (dots per inch) of the image with either the printer's PPI (pixels per inch) for a bitmap (b/w) image, or the printer's LPI (lines per inch) for a grayscale or color image.

As you can see, for a text logo a vector format is WAY preferable.

M "verbose" C

[Jeff]

Disadvantages: A HUGE file on your HD, and you have to open it, resize it, and save a copy out of Photoshop for each different size you need. Also, you have to correlate the DPI (dots per inch) of the image with either the printer's PPI (pixels per inch) for a bitmap (b/w) image, or the printer's LPI (lines per inch) for a grayscale or color image.
Do you really have to? I've sent a few files to a commercial printer as a 600 dpi CMYK TIFF and they printed great. Would they have been better if they were a lower dpi to correspond to the output devices lpi? I figured by now whatever RIP was used would do as good a job downsampling as photoshop would do...