Resources & Support >Art Requirements

Signs & Graphics, Inc. will be happy to help you better understand our art work requirements for custom signs.  In fact, we can help you design or redesign your signs.

Our artwork requirements are here to help you be certain that you are representing your business in the best possible light.  If your artwork or logo is "fuzzy", your sign won't be the best that it can be. Signs & Graphics, Inc. have used our expert knowledge and 25 years combined experience to provide these guidelines in an effort to help our clients be certain they have the right sign, every time.

 

Contact us with any questions or concerns about signage.  We can provide all your sign solutions.

Download a PDF of our art requirements by clicking here, or read on:

If you are designing in:	We need:
Adobe PhotoShop	Native PhotoShop PSD file (or TIF)
Adobe Illustrator	Acrobat PDF (or EPS for cutting)
Adobe InDesign	Acrobat PDF (with all fonts embedded)
Adobe PageMaker	Acrobat PDF (with all fonts embedded)
CorelDraw	Native CDR (with text converted)
Corel Photo PAINT	Native CPT (or TIF)

Important Note regarding EPS files
Importing EPS files into sign and design applications:

 

Procedures for file preparation in a variety of commonly used application programs.

 Adobe Illustrator version CS5

1. Any Text Objects (referred to as ‘type’ in Illustrator need to be first ‘Converted to Curves’. This function is called ‘Create Outlines’ in CS2.
1. Select the type objects
2. Pull down the Type Menu
3. Click ‘Create Outlines’
    
2. Save the file as an Illustrator EPS file:
1. File > Save As
2. Choose Illustrator EPS from the list box, then click OK
3. In the EPS Format Options dialog box, click Compatibility to version 7 or 8, and Postscript level 2. Click OK to save the file.

 

Adobe PhotoShop CS5

PhotoShop is clearly the industry standard photo editing application in the graphic arts community. Therefore, most raster-oriented programs have the ability to open/ import the native PhotoShop PSD file. To save a PSD file in PhotoShop, simply pull down the File Menu click Save, and provide a file name.

 

Alternatively, you may choose to save as a TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) data file. These are another good choice, as TIF is a lossless data format. To save a PhotoShop file in the TIF format, simply click the File Menu, and Save As. In the resulting dialog box, in the Format list box, click TIFF, and provide a file name.

 

CorelDRAW X5   

You need to save your file as a native CorelDRAW CDR file. Note that font issues are still a potential problem; there are two approaches to eliminating the problem with fonts needing to be substituted.

1. One option is to convert the fonts to curves. From the Arrange Menu, with the text items selected, click ‘Convert to Curves’. This is done for any and all text objects.
    
2. Include the fonts as separate files. Fonts are packaged as TrueType TTF, or Adobe Type 1 PFM/PFB. Note that Adobe fonts require two files (one for screen display and one for printer to output. TrueType uses one file for both. Also note that the fonts need to be installed at the Windows level (through Control Panel > Fonts > File > Install New Font), with no programs running at the time of the install.