At Alexander’s we’ve found that when our clients have a solid understanding of file extensions and document types, submitting their projects is easier and more efficient. Depending on what you’re having printed or implemented into an email or digital campaign, we will need you to send us content in a certain file formats.
So what is a file extension, also referred to as a filename extension? File extensions are simply the last characters after the period in the name of a file. You may recognize filename extensions like .png, .jpeg, .exe, or .pdf. These extensions imply certain information that is stored within that file. Below, we have listed 9 common graphic file extensions to help customers as they submit files.
.ai
Adobe illustrator vector drawings are files that are specific to the Adobe Illustrator program.
.bmp
Raster image format used to store and display images. These files support 24- bit color, which is suitable for photo printing.
.eps
This stands for encapsulated PostScrip. An eps file is a platform, or program independent format used for vector information. These types of files are nice to work with because they are fully scalable.
.gif
GIF stands for graphics interchange Format. GIFs are typically used on the internet, and for decreasing file size for large images.
.jpeg or .jpg
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. These files are compressed images, typically used on the Internet. This filename extension is also used to decrease file size for larger images.
A commonly used file extension, PDF stands for portable document format. PDFs enable tiles to be viewed across a variety of platforms without the original programming that created them. Acrobat Reader is required to view a PDF file.
.pict or .pet
These files are Raster format and mainly used for Mac applications. They are essentially the counterpart of Windows Metafile Format (WMF).
.psd
A PSD file is an Adobe Photoshop file. This is Adobe Photoshop’s native raster image format and can only be opened through the Photoshop program.
.tiff or .tif
Tiff, a platform independent raster image format, stands for Tag Image File Format. Tiff files are supported in almost all software.
We hope this explanation of file types and formats is useful. And if you’ve got a print or marketing project on the horizon, we’d love to hear from you.
