Fake Illustrator Logo?

[toksf82516484]

Hello,

I had someone make a logo for me, and I asked them to do it in illustrator. While he sent me a file that is saved as a .ai file, I can't really tell if he made it in Illustrator versus Photoshop. I've been told that this could be an issue when I want to blow up the logo for advertising; that Photoshop logos can often look blurry and poorly defined, which is why Illustrator is preferred.  Is this the case? Is there any way to tell if he really made it in Illustrator? TIA.

[Monika Gause]

Did you ask for a vector graphic or just for an AI file?

An AI file might also contain pixels, while a vector graphic is the generic term for an artowkr drawn using paths.

Do you have Illustrator to open the file with it? In that case check View > Outline view if there are paths.

Or can you open the file in Acrobat (Reader)? In that case zoom way in and see if it gets pixelated.

[jdanek · Accepted solution]

Yes.  A Photoshop file is least desirable for logo artwork.  There are a few ways to check if it is an Illustrator file ( .ai ) or a Photoshop file ( .psd, .tiff, etc. ).  Typically an ".ai" file was created in Illustrator.  You could select the file and do a command/control i ( info ).  Ideally, you'd open the file in Illustrator and, like Monika suggests, View > Outline ( or command/control Y ).  If you see a box for the artwork, it is not vector, therefore probably was not created using Illustrator.  You could also check the "Links" palette and see if there are any image files that have been Placed in the document.  If you do not have access to Illustrator, bring the file to a local print shop and have it analyzed by someone in prepress.

[Kris Hunt]

Or just zoom in real close and see if you see pixelation.