The Files Your Print Vendors Actually Need (and Why a PNG Is Not Enough)

The gap between a brand that looks right on screen and one that looks right on a shirt is a folder of correctly prepared files. Here is what vendors ask for and what each request means.

Vector is the master

Your logo's source of truth is vector art: mathematical shapes that scale from business card to billboard without quality loss. Everything else (web PNGs, social JPGs) is an export from it. If your campaign only possesses PNG files, you own pictures of a logo, not a logo. Any Ballot Page logo downloads as editable SVG precisely so this problem never exists.

The versions a complete kit contains

• Full color, horizontal and stacked orientations
• One-color in your dark, for single-ink printing
• Reversed (white) for dark backgrounds, shirts, and photos
• The mark alone, for avatars, favicons, and embroidery

Talking to vendors without getting burned

Send the vector file plus your brand guide page with exact color values; ask for a proof before any run; and confirm sizing at real scale (a chest logo is about 3.5 inches wide, a left-chest embroidery about 2.25). When a vendor asks for something unfamiliar (outlined fonts, specific color profiles, bleed) the answer lives in your brand guide or is one question back to whoever built your kit. Vendors respect campaigns that send correct files; rush fees find the ones that do not.