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Hi Everyone,

My contest is over and a winner has been chosen, and now I must approve the file. When I click on approve, a window comes up that says "Please approve final file if you did check final file, especially EPS file." I have several questions:

1. What is an EPS file?

2. My download was a zip file that consisted of three different sizes of the same file: small, medium and large. What would the uses for three different sized files be?

3. The above files are jpegs; I remember reading that these files were going to be "vector" files(?) that would only be readable using special software.

Just need a little clarification before final approval.

Thanks so much,
Paris

Hi Paris. The eps file is the vector based version that can only be read/edited/used with specific software - this file is predominantly used by any designer (web or print based) to create marketing, promotional or web items for you. The reason for supplying you the vector based eps is that these files can be printed at any size and they remain clear and sharp quality.

THe Jpeg can be used by you on most PC packages like word, excel, powerpoint etc or for online uses on your website or promoting your company on another site. The Jpeg has limitations in it's use as far as quality goes, because it's what's known as a pixel based graphic - this means that if you were to increase the size, you would reduce the quality - so for example - if you took a jpeg set at 300dpi (good quality) and you wanted to increase it by 200% in size, it would essentially half the quality of the image to 150dpi. This is why you are supplied 3 different sizes, small medium and large - to cover the different uses you might have.

Without going into to loads of technical detail, to keep it simple, the EPS vector file is your master artwork file which can be used to create promotional materials for you by a designer. THe Jpeg files can be used by you to create any documents, presentations etc that you would want your logo on. The jpegs can also be used online on your website, as an email signature logo or on something,like facebook etc where you might want to promote your business online.

Hope this helps.

BMF

Thank you BMF, for the speedy reply!

So, once final approval is given, then the EPS file is made available to the CH?

Thanks,
Paris

Paris,

you should be able to open the EPS file before approval.

If you don´t have a specific software to open and edit EPS files (Like Adobe Illustrator) you can use an online simulator that lets you view the content of that EPS file, but you won´t be able to edit it. The jpgs you received are raster files from the editable EPS file.

You can see the EPS file online here: http://promote.3m.com/eps_viewer/index.jsp

Nat

Thank you Nat.

When I look at the artwork using the link you provided, the edges look ragged and the tagline text looks spotty, or broken.

Some of the online viewers look like that. I'm sure it's probably fine. PM one of us if you'd like to have us verify it for you.

Paris,
What you're seeing on-line with the 3M on-line viewer is just a preview. However, it confirms that the eps file is functional and indicates what it represents (ie., the artwork from your contest). Those jaggies you see are just artifacts of the on-line viewer and not the artwork itself.

By the way, if you have Acrobat by adobe, you can preview the eps file with that.

Thank you Steve.

By the way, the EPS file wouldn't open in Inkscape, and when I tried opening it in Adobe Reader, it said it is either not a supported file type or the file has been damaged, i.e. sent as an email attachment that wasn't correctly decoded.

I'm just curious because the file icon for the jpegs is what all my other jpeg icons look like, but the file icon for the EPS looks like file icons I've seen in the past for files that wouldn't open.

I hope I'm not being a pain about this, just wnat to make sure that I have a EPS file here that I can use.

Thanks,
Paris

Inkscape won't open EPS... but you could ask the designer to send you a SVG file that will open fine. In fact... with the SVG and inkscape, that's all you'll need.

I love Inkscape.

the file extension does end in .eps right?
so its like filename.eps when you look at the file?

http://promote.3m.com/eps_viewer/index.jsp

Yes, illumina, the file does end in .eps.

Thank you Ivan for the link; that is the one I referenced, though, in the August 25th post of 12:39pm.

Well, I'd really like to wrap this up. In the unlikely event there is a problem down the line with the EPS file, I can certainly come back here to have it resolved, yes?

Thanks,
Paris

Absolutely!