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What’s the difference between gif, tif, png, jpeg, ai and eps and why does it matter?

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There is a seemingly ever growing number of image formats available and this can be confusing, but it doesn’t need to be. These imagery formats all serve similar functions but some work better than others at particular jobs and it is one of the jobs of your agency or designer to advise you on what format will work best for you and your campaign.

Broadly speaking, photography will be either jpeg, tif or RAW, these are some of the files most commonly used by designers, who will be able to advise you on the quality of the image and whether it is suitable for online or print use.

It is worth noting at this stage that images of print quality are higher resolution than those used on web and can be easily scaled down for online use. However, low res web imagery cannot be scaled up and improved for print use.

Other common image types are ai and eps. These are what are known as vector based image formats and usually used for images like logos, illustrations and infographics. The benefit of vector based imagery is that it can be scaled up infinitely without any loss of quality. However, vector based imagery does not support photography.

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Infographic describing different image file formats and their use
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If you need any help understanding file types for your brand’s next campaign, please contact us at hello@designit.ie or call +353-1-230 3757.

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