How to send us images
Although web images are seen at a lower resolution than print images, it’s still important that they are good quality. We need to have your images at the best possible resolution and then we will reduce for optimum web viewing, creating the best possible image at the smallest size. Our programmes have all sorts of options for this so if you supply us high res files rather than ones which are already reduced, we can create a better result. Ideally, the originals need to be 3 or 4 times larger than they’ll be on the finished website.
Logos
Logos and graphic images are best supplied as Illustrator .eps or .ai files – we will convert for you to
web format. .png files are also acceptable for graphic images – but .jpg is the least ideal as they tend
to be low res and lacking in detail, due to the JPEG compression system.
Colours can vary wildly between CMYK (print) and RGB (screen) images – if you are used to seeing your logo printed, please do show us an example! Images on screen will, in any case, vary between different monitors.
How to send us files
There are a variety of ways to send us your copy and images – the best method depends largely on size of originals. Here’s a quick guide:
Email:
Email is fine for Word docs and individual or groups of images under about 5Mb. If you have a lot of images, or we are designing a regular publication for you, it might be simpler
to set up an ftp site.
It’s unlikely that you’d be sending fonts but they don’t like being emailed!
FTP:
FTP (file transfer protocol) allows us to set you up a private area on our web server to upload your images. We will give you a password and username, and you will need ftp
software on your computer to access it. For PC you can select from a range of ftp software – we generally suggest considering the following progammes:
www.internet-soft.com/ftpcomm.htm (free)
www.globalscape.com (paid for)
www.ipswitch.com (paid for)
For Mac, try:
www.captainftp.com (paid for – we use this programme)
www.fetchsoftworks.com (paid for)
www.panic.com/transmit (paid for)
These programmes all allow you to upload files. If you only need to download files from us via ftp, we can set you up an ftp area which you can access via your browser using the address we give you. This is only really viable with Broadband – if you’re on dial-up it’s often quicker to wait for a CD in the post!
If you are sending a set of files, you can stuff or zip them to reduce the size and make them less prone to corruption. There isn’t generally much point in zipping images – the main way to reduce the size is to jpg them but beware! This will permanently reduce the quality along with the size so jpg with care. If images are for print and you have TIFF, RAW or eps files it’d be better to send them as they are, on a disc if need be.
CD/DVD:
We have sent some very large files via ftp – but we need to be realistic about speed and reliability! If you have more than 100Mb of images it’d probably be best to
send them on a CD or DVD – apart from the time it takes (can be several hours) there is the possibility of things going wrong and one or more files not transferring over.
This can lead to confusion as to exactly what has been transferred.
We can read most CDs and DVDs – it doesn’t matter if they’re made on a Mac or a PC.