Photoshop Ninja
Expert Photoshop tips and tricks for designers and photographers since 2005
Getting vector versions of logos
Bitmap versions of logo’s simply won’t do – and redrawing them can take so long… save yourself some time with this little trick!
To ensure you get the highest quality output possible you should always ensure you get vector versions of logos – not bitmap images – here’s a few tricks old and new to help you out!
Many of us have spent a-lot of time painstakingly recreating logos in vector artwork (usually in Illustrator), often due to the client not having access to proper logo artwork (but they have this great 10k JPEG that got off the website – that’s ok for you right?!). Sorry client – I hate to tell you this but that 150 pixel wide, highly compressed image is NOT going to look too pretty when printed, especially on that 20ft banner you just briefed me on!
Firstly, there are some great vector logo resources on the Internet – but they can be a little hit and miss and generally seem to contain larger global brands – but they are a good place to start to try and find vector logo artwork:
No luck here – not to worry… I’ve got a couple more tricks up my sleeve yet to save that 2 hour logo redraw!
The next step is an obvious one, but maybe not so obvious to some! Open up Google and start searching for things like ‘<your brand> vector logo’ or ‘<your brand> EPS’ – sometimes companies will provide hidden away areas of their sites that hold logo resources. If you can’t get access, try using the Google cached version – you may get in the back door that way!
Still no luck – ok we need to get a bit more clever then! This is a little trick I discovered years ago when Illustrator started getting friendly with the PDF file format.Open up Google and start searching for things like ‘<your brand> PDF’, ‘<your brand> Company Report’, ‘<your brand>’ job application, ‘<your brand> press release’ – you can start to get the idea right? Often, design agencies are engadged to produce things like company reports and they will almost always use the vector version of the logo. Download the PDF, flick through the pages and see if you can locate the logo you want in the document. This can take a-little time, but it’s worth it in the long-run, especially with complex logos.
Once you have located a PDF with your logo in, zoom right in – 500% or more… does the logo still have clean lines or is it going pixelated? If it’s going pixelated that means it’s a bitmap version of the logo and is no good… onto the next PDF! Once you have located a PDF with a VECTOR version of you logo in, remember the page it is on in the PDF and then simply open the PDF in Adobe Illustrator. You will be given a choice of which page you wish to open – put in the page with the logo on.
Then simply seperate out the vector artwork for the logo from the rest of the document (outlines view is VERY usefull for this!) – I find it best to copy it into a new document to ensure you are not carring any strange spot colours and layers into future artwork. Check over the colours and save it down as an EPS or Illustrator document – there wasn’t that easier than redrawing it!!
If you can only find your logo in a Flash movie – don’t panic! Locate the Flash movie in the source code of the web page (view source) and directly copy the link and paste it into your browser. Now save this file and open it in Flash – it is probably vector, which means you can copy and paste it straight into Illustrator! If you are getting stuck with the Flash thing, one other technique is to print the Flash movie as a PDF and then open that in Illustrator… where there is a will, there is a way!
This is not really stealing – if you are producing a legitimate piece of design work that features a company logo I’m sure they would want to ensure that it is produced at the very highest quality. This technique SHOULD NOT be used to produce any sort of counterfit goods or to steal logo’s you don’t have the rights to use.
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
Loading ...
Written by Jonny Allbut - freelance graphic designer
Last modified: 27 March, 2009 (12:31) | First published: 26 March, 2009
Filed under Photoshop Top Tips, Techniques - Other 2 Comments »
If you like this, you might also find this related Photoshop content useful too!
No related posts.
Comment by Gnifty
May 19, 2010 @ 8:00 am
Hi hi, thanks for this – I know it’s an old post. I’ve been designing many pieces of media for the last er… 10 years… I came across this little trick a few years back and I still get mouths wide open and “ooo-ing” when I pass this onto other designer.
One other little thing to add – with google you have the option of searching the clients site. Which can help narrow it down a bit.
I always type: “site:www.*clientaddress*.com filetype:pdf” (without quotes) – You’re left with a long list of the pdf’s found on your clients site. I just open them up in multiple tabs and pray!
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
May 19, 2010 @ 9:37 am
Gnifty – yea, it’s an oldy but a goldie… and I still use this technique every now and again! Good tip on refining the search to a site!