Creating a large banner using a vector image

[PaulDS]

Hi everyone,

This is probably going to seem like a really silly question to most experienced InDesign users but unfortuantely I'm completely new to the program and am finding it quite confusing!

I'm making a very large banner to go on a shop front, and it will need to contain the company's logo. I am told by the printers that it must be sent across as a 'vector' file which i am aware is where the pixels can be stretched and won't lose quality. 

I have the logo but only as a JPEG file, i have managed to contact the peson who designed the logo who has sent it across as a PDF (Adoe Acrobat Document), is this okay or do i need it in another format? 

I don't have Illustrator as well, so not sure if that's an issue? When creating the banner itself, am i literally creating this very large document and placing this vector file logo within the banner? 

Any help would be much appreciated!!

[John Mensinger]

Vector graphics are defined by mathematical code, and are resolution-independent until output. This is what makes them "infinitely scalable" (prior to output). When you enlarge a vector graphic, the math is simply rewritten to the new scale.

"I have the logo but only as a JPEG file, i have managed to contact the peson who designed the logo who has sent it across as a PDF (Adoe Acrobat Document), is this okay or do i need it in another format?"

So you've done the right thing, seeking out the original vector graphic of that logo. Presumably, in good faith and competence the designer has provided it in vectors within that PDF file, but it's worth mentioning that the PDF could be a raster image of the logo, as the PDF file format is capable of containing raster or vector, or a mix of both.

"When creating the banner itself, am i literally creating this very large document and placing this vector file logo within the banner?"

Yes. If the physical size proves unwieldy, you have the option of working "in scale." That is, you could make your page size 1/2 the size of the banner and instruct the printer to print it at 200%, for instance.

[PaulDS]

Hi John, thank you for your response. I have tried placing this PDF file the designer has sent across, but it appears really tiny (i am working on the banner to full scale) and then i try and enlarge it and it is incredibly pixelated. Does this mean the PDF file he has sent across contains a raster image? And just to clarify, say he has sent me the correct vector file type, and i place it onto my banner, i'm assuming that i should be able to enlarge this vector file with no change in the resolution whatsoever?

[John Mensinger]

Paul,

The on-screen rendering you see in the InDesign editing environment is not the actual graphic, but rather a dedicated proxy image that InDesign writes as a representation. And, what you see on-screen in InDesign is subject to your Display Performance settings. If the graphic supplied by the designer is indeed vector, you can scale it to any size, and technically "resolution" doesn't apply. As I explained in my previous post, vector graphics are not subject to resolution prior to output.

With the logo placed on your banner and scaled-up, export to PDF and see how it looks.

[Bill Silbert]

In the InDesign file imported art will always look fuzzy unless you are viewing the InDesign file in High Quality Display. To do so go through View>Display Performance>High Quality Display. Be aware though that when you do this it will slow down working on the file so just do it to see if the art will look good at full size and then go back to Typical Display.

[BobLevine]

Make sure your display setting is high quality. If it's still pixelated the only thing done was turning the JPG into a PDF. Ask the designer what software was used to create it and get the native file.

[Bill Silbert]

As John said, a pdf can contain both raster and vector content. For best results a logo is usually created as vector in Illustrator and saved as an .ai file or a pdf. But since the Illustrator file can, itself, contain raster art and since you don't have Illustrator to simply open it up and view it in the outline mode, I think your best course is to contact the creator of the logo and get their assurance that the logo is completely vector. Communication is most times the best tool for creating successful projects.

[Test Screen Name]

Or... this sort of thing happens to pro designers constantly. If the material isn't up to scratch they re-make it - for example they recreate a logo in Illustrator looking just like the unusable one the client sent. Hopefully they can charge for all the extra work.