ARTWORK REQUIREMENTS

We sincerely appreciate our partnership with our clients and will do everything to offer you a great experience when working with KDI! Due to a recent influx of “Free Art Requests,” effective immediately, the following processes are now in place:

Please provide proper vector art files at the beginning of the project (logo in vector format, verbiage w/ desired font, PMS colors and/or anything else we may need). PLEASE NOTE WE CAN NOT USE .JPG OR .PNG FILES
KDI Group provides one complimentary hour of art placement/ ideas / designs per project based on the art files you provide.
Any edits/additional design work performed by KDI after the initial hour will be billed out @ $50.00 per hour with a Minimum one hour charge and then billed in 15 minute increments after the first hour (ie.1 hour and 15 minutes = $62.50). Any additional Artwork that does not result in an order may be billed out at KDI’s discretion.

Renderings/Mockups are provided free of charge with print-ready (vector and/or camera-ready) art supplied by the client and include one minor revision (Changing color, size or placement of logo on an item) free of charge. If additional revisions are required, an art charge of $50/hour will apply with a 1 hour minimum. (Example: you provided a logo with words in all caps, but decide after seeing the mockup you want to change it to lower case letters.)

Acceptable artwork files include: Vector PDF, EPS or AI files with all fonts outlined. If fonts are not outlined, you must provide the fonts to us with your art files.

Additional artwork services are available for $50/hour with a 1 hour minimum for editing and retouching images you provide to make files into usable vector art. An estimate will be provided before we begin.

Logo or Design Creation- we will refer you to our partner design agency to work directly with them.

*Please see below for additional art explanations & required guidelines.

Left side shows difference between .jpg or .png files and vector art on the right side.

ART FILE EXPLANATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

PDF- Portable Document Format
Vector - Transparency- NOT ALWAYS DESIGNED FOR PRINTING
While EPS and AI files require specialized preview software, PDFs were intended to be viewable regardless of software, hardware, or operating system. If it’s the only format you have of your logo, sometimes it can be used for print and digital applications if it has the layers and was not flattened. The original goal of a PDF was to preserve and protect the content and layout of a document - no matter what platform or computer program it is viewed on. This is why PDFs are hard to edit and sometimes even extracting information from them is a challenge. While some PDF’s may be able to be used for Hi-Res printing, it is not always the case. You can’t determine if the PDF can be edited until opened in Adobe Illustrator or similar graphic software.

EPS- Encapsulated PostScript
Vector - Transparency- BEST FILE FOR PRINTING
EPS files are transparent, scalable, and editable if you have the right software. It also has unlimited color capacity. It keeps the logo file from dictating the layout of the print piece due to its size and background. The vector images contain bitmaps that tell each pixel in the image what size and color they should be so that you can make an image into nearly any size without restriction or possible pixelation. EPS files have the ability to be resized without loss of quality, and will also be able to be easily edited and manipulated, making them perfect for not only editing but printing. Colors and layers can be easily separated so its the best format for screen printing. Note- some people may open a PDF or flattened file in Adobe Illustrator and save it as an EPS File. EPS files only work if the original file was created in Adobe Illustrator.

AI- Adobe Illustrator Artwork
Vector- Transparent- BEST FILE FOR PRINTING
As opposed to the open standard formats above, AI is a proprietary file format by Adobe. Unless the file is saved with PDF compatibility, you can only view an AI with the appropriate Adobe software. That said, apparel printers particularly like receiving artwork in this format. AI is editable, scalable, and transparent. An EPS file can do anything an AI can do, but, as Adobe expands ease of transfer within its software programs, AIs are becoming more viable as the preferred logo format.

CANVA Art
NOT ALWAYS DESIGNED FOR PRINTING
If you use Canva please save your design as an .SVG file, but please note Canva files typically don't convert fully to a vector file. SVG files are vector, and can sometimes be used to make final print ready art, but if the design incorporates a .jpg or .png image placed in it to make part of the logo, that part of the file will not be editable or convert to a vector format.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN .JPG AND .PNG FILES AND WHY THEY WONT WORK FOR PRINTING, SCREENPRINT OR EMBROIDERY PROJECTS

JPG- Joint Photographic Experts Group
Raster - No transparency Best for web/digital
The jpg, or jpeg, is arguably the most commonly used image file format. It was designed by photographers for use with photographs and photo-like images, so it works best for images with smooth transitions between colors. As a glossy compression format it’s a poor choice for graphics with sharp contrast between pixels. You shouldn’t try to edit a JPG because you’ll lose quality every time you decompress and recompress the file. JPGs are useful when a small file size is crucial, like in your email signature. Because JPEGs compress image data, its file sizes tend to be relatively small. This means that it’s a convenient way to share digital images over the web and email. But JPEGs use lossy compression, which means that each time you save your file, you lose a little bit of image data, which can affect quality. JPEGs can’t be separated into components because they compress all content into a single layer, so they cant be used for separating images for printing files.

PNG- Portable Network Graphics
Raster - Transparency- Best for web/digital
PNG was developed to avoid a lawsuit regarding the licensing of GIF technology back in 1994. While it typically has a larger file size than a JPG, it can compress further when storing images containing text, line art, and areas of solid color. The transparency is infinitely useful in web applications and the lossless data compression results in cleaner, sharper images. That said, PNGs are raster les so you’ll see pixels if you try to increase the image size. PNG also doesn’t support color spaces for print as they were designed with the web in mind. Because of this, they don’t support CMYK color modes, so they do not scale up or work for printing.