I've designed most of my logos as B&W and two spot colour VECTOR files using Freehand 11.
I can export them as vector EPS files for use in two colour stationery print jobs. The background stays transparent and they can be placed on coloured backgrounds. Works great for my use.
When I convert them to TIFF files in Photoshop for use in 4 colour print jobs, they get rasterized to CMYK. I can give my customers the same TIFF files for their use in their PC MS Word documents. Of course, large TIFF logos can become large file sizes.
In the past I've also converted the vector logo to JPEG files for a customer's use on their website (I'm not a web designer). However, the logos then get white boxes around them when used on a coloured background. No problem on a white background.
How can I prepare a RGB logo for a customer to use on their website with a transparent background? No white box around the logo wanted!
You need to use a different file format that supports transparency. The commonest would be GIF, but you can also use the newer PNG format. With Photoshop, it's a breeze.
Incidentally, if the Web page background is a solid colour, you can get the same effect by making the background of the logo exactly the same colour.
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The customer only wants one logo to use on his website. Background colours may change, so a logo with a transparent background is the best option.
Are PNG files usable for Macs and Windows?
What file size at 72 dpi would be best to send him to have the logo viewed quickly but look sharp and clear?
For transparency, you'll need to output as either a .png or a .gif. I think the white box you are referring to is the matte around the image. It doesn't need to be white, you actually want to change it to match the colour of the background the image is going to be set against. If your logo has a lot of colour complexity, you can save it out as a png 24 format which offers a greater colour complexity (think transparent jpg) but there are browsers that don't support if natively, yet.
You have two options. You will need to know the background colour of the of where the logo wil sit, and save out the file with that colour matte. Or, you can provide the web developer with an .eps file and they can save it out in whatever colour they need for the site. That's what most would do as it gives the developer an option to resize and fit as well.
For transparency, you'll need to output as either a .png or a .gif. I think the white box you are referring to is the matte around the image. It doesn't need to be white, you actually want to change it to match the colour of the background the image is going to be set against. If your logo has a lot of colour complexity, you can save it out as a png 24 format which offers a greater colour complexity (think transparent jpg) but there are browsers that don't support if natively, yet.
You have two options. You will need to know the background colour of the of where the logo wil sit, and save out the file with that colour matte. Or, you can provide the web developer with an .eps file and they can save it out in whatever colour they need for the site. That's what most would do as it gives the developer an option to resize and fit as well.
last is the best option. The web guy will deal with it.
I'm still a bit confused about your suggestions...
The customer is a Ski Club. This web guy is a PC user and amateur web manager. He asked for a 300 dpi jpg, which I know is too high res for web use. He's using the logo over a colour photo plus on other web pages. Does he have to change the background each time he uses the logo?
If this was print production, a Freehand vector eps would allow for total transparency around the two colour logo on ANY coloured background. I thought you couldn't use eps files for web? That it had to be jpeg or gif. How would they look on top of a photo?
You can't use an .eps file for the web. What you're doing is giving him the .eps file so that he can save out the file in whatever format he likes. If the transparency needs to be preserved, he is going to have to save out the file as a .png or .gif with a similar colour matte to the background he's putting it on. Better he does this than you.
Now all that being said, that logo isn't going to look great against a number of backgrounds anyway, so you may just want to scrap the transparent idea altogether. You could just put it against a white background and send him the .gif or .png.
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