File Formats for Printing
Selecting file format for printing can be tricky. Normally, JPEG, PNG and PDF will be used. Should there be a file format that can achieve the best printing results? Let’s have a brief review and understand why certain file formats does better than the others.
What is a right format for printer?
The right file formats dependent on whether supporting vector or raster images. Simply put, the more vector oriented your format is, the better it is to be used for printing.
File Format Recommendation: PDF
PDF is the “universal language” for printing since most design softwares are compatible with PDF. PSD is highly recommended as it is safe and easy to use by anyone without affecting or corrupting the structure of your file. PDFs are also vector-friendly which means your file can be printed in high-quality. For more information about PDFs, you can check out our other article.
Other File Formats
PDF is the “universal language” for printing since most design softwares are compatible with PDF. PDF is highly recommended since it is safe and easy to use by anyone. PDFs are also vector-friendly which means your file can be printed in high-quality.
Ai format is widely used by printers. They are vector friendly and easy to edit. However, opening the file itself may affect the structure of your file, which explains why PDF files are more recommended. Indd functions similarly with Ai, but is more suitable for books, magazines, and files with many pages. This format is vector friendly as well.
File Formats NOT for Printing
PSD is commonly used everywhere. But Photoshop files are not vector friendly and not recommended for printing if the printing file includes texts. Photoshop tends to pixelate all kinds of vector / text alike, this may affect the printing quality. That being said, as long as your file is around 300 dpi resolution, the printing result can be pretty good.
TIFF is designed to handle raster or bitmapped images, and are usually used for professional photography. They basically don’t support editing and are considered as raster files instead of vectors. As long as their resolution is around 300 dpi resolution, the printing result can be pretty good.
JPEG is a file format used mostly by photos. They basically don’t support editing and are considered as “raster” files instead of vectors. As long as their resolution is around 300 dpi resolution, the printing result can be pretty good.
PNG is a file format used mainly on the web. They function similarly to JPEG. PNG, however, is in purely RGB color mode, which means colors will be affected because printers use CMYK color mode to print. So PNG is less compared with JPEG or TIFF.
Conclusion
Hopefully this brief introduction can make your printing experience better. Please do not hesitate to contact our customer support for assistance.