The problem is, most people don't really understand what versions they need of their logo to preserve it.

Many people think that as long as they have a JPG they can stick into Word or an email, all is fine. Or if their logo is on their website, they can store it there for the future. Unfortunately, these are raster images, and can not be enlarged, and often not printed correctly.

We all know that good logos are not cheap, so to protect your investment make sure your designer provides you with an Illustrator EPS (vector) file. And hold on to it safely!  You will probably not be able to open it, but thats OK. These EPS files enable your logo to be enlarged infinately, and printed professionally.

Two more things to know about your logo. Make sure you know what fonts were used to create the logo. The designer might not be able to provide you (legally) with the font, but he or she should be able to direct you as to where to get it.

Know your color palette. The logo designer should design using the Pantone (PMS) colors. So, for example, your logo colors could be PMS 295 and PMS 185. Also, if you can, hire your logo designer to create a "brand book" to dictate how to use the logo, so you can pass on the guidelines to future designers.

So now I ask, my dear (few?) readers. Do you know where your logo is?

After a 2ish hour drive, we arrived at the mill:

TCC's owner Michael told us all a good reason to never use Imitation Vanilla. Apparently, when he was last at the paper mill (about 20 years ago) there was an imitation vanilla plant right next door, feeding off the waste of the paper making process. Gross! Glad I buy real vanilla :)

Moving on... We walked around and saw the outside of the mill and their fuel pile (aka Hog Fuel), which was made up of sawdust and woodchips leftover from the logging process. But it was cold and rainy, so no photos!

Once we returned to the warmth of the inside of the mill, we first stopped in the control room:

Looks complicated! From there, we went to get our first glance at the giant paper machines. One was from the 1920s and the other was from the 1960s:

From there, we were allowed to climb up onto the machine and even touch some of the pulp:

From this stage, the paper dries and runs through a whole lot of rollers:

And finally, at the end of the machine the paper all makes it onto one huge roll:

Before ending up as either sheets or a roll, the paper goes through the calendaring process to stregnthen the sheet and make it smoother:

From there, it goes on to its final form, either a less-giant roll, or into sheets:

Once paper is sheeted and measured into reams, it eventually gets put into cartons. Then the cartons go down various conveyer belts to get automatically arranged on palettes. I thought they kindof looked like little soldiers marching one by one:

And thats pretty much where my photos end. It was definitely an interesting trip! I learned all about the paper making process while in school, but it was nice to finally see it all first hand. Thanks TCC and xpedx!

GIF
A GIF is an image with a maximum of 256 colors. It is best used for solid color graphics such as logos or text. A photo should never ever be a GIF. Also, GIFs allow for transparency and nice sharp edges on solid colors. GIFs can also be animated to create an easy web banner without flash knowledge (but animation should be used very cautiously!)

JPG
A JPG is what we most commonly know as a photo format. If a JPG is used for something with solid colors (like a logo), you often get some degradation in the solid colors because the JPG tries to add in extra colors when they are not needed. Also, JPGs do not allow for any transparency or animation.

PNG
PNGs are relatively new to the web scene, but in my opinion they are somewhat "the best of both worlds". They allow for nice sharp solid colors, and great photo quality. And a bonus, they allow for transparency.

Now its time for some comparison images to really show you what I'm talking about.

Logos

From left to right, we have a GIF, JPG and PNG. The GIF and PNG are both nice and crisp, with a transparent background. The JPG is fuzzy with a white background. The right choice here: GIF or PNG.

Gradients

 Again, from left to right, we have a GIF, JPG and PNG. This time, the JPG and PNG look nice and smooth, and the GIF is full of dots and lines. Also, the PNG allows for the gradient to be transparent (but can also have a white background if needed). The right choice here: JPG or PNG.

Photos

Again, from left to right, we have a GIF, JPG and PNG. Just like in the gradient example, the GIF is full of dots. The JPG and PNG look great here though. If for some reason the cow was on a white background, he could also be floating in the PNG version. The right choice here: JPG or PNG.

So I hope this gives a clear idea as to when to use what format. When in doubt, try it out and save your graphic in all three formats to compare and choose the best.

I took this photo on a chilly morning in our old rental house. It was an older house with the original single pane windows. I had left the blinds down overnight, so the condensation froze on the windows! While I was upset that this happened in the first place, it made an amazing photo while the sun was rising and the frost was melting.

I also had this one up for a while:

I took this photo when I was in Brazil visiting my Fiancé's family. His family has a small farm that I went to visit with his aunt. These beautiful flowers were all over the place. Also, I like how the 2 flowers in the middle kindof look like butterflies kissing :) This made a great summer background.

Then yesterday, when I realized it was time to remove the aforementioned frozen windows from my background, I switched it to this photo:

I purchased this photo on iStockphoto a while ago when working on a holiday card for my former employer. Still love the photo, but its way too bright for a background!

Finally, yesterday I settled on this one:

This photo is from a second trip to Brazil. One night we ate at a fabulous restaurant: Tantra. The restaurant is beautifully decorated, so I took my camera around! The food was good too :)

So we'll see how long this one lasts! In the meantime, I keep looking for great backgrounds on my travels.

What is on your desktop background?

Check it out!

Most of their stuff is good, and you can find all sorts of variety. But sometimes, well, you get a curveball. Today, I was searching for "business group black background" and found this gem:

I'm not really sure what to say. When would this ever be useful?? According to iStock, it has been downloaded more than 10 times. Boy, would I love to see how it was used.

Oddly enough though, this is not the strangest thing I've found on iStock. I once accidentally found a collection of dead people. No, not real dead people. Photos of models playing dead. I'm not going to post those here!

Overall though, iStock is a fabulous resource and I'm not going to stop using it :) It just gives me some "What the heck?!" moments...

With the advent of computers, fonts became much easier to create. Thus, today we have millions at our disposal, most of which we can find for free, or they come for free with our computers. You may only use 2 or 3 of them on a regular basis, but many people have a favorite. As a designer, I have over 4,000 on my computer. Do I use them all? No! But I like having options.

Unfortunately, when it comes to web design, there are not a lot of options. We are pretty much limited to 5 fonts for any text:

San Serifs: Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet
Serifs: Times New Roman, Georgia

To make sure we're on the same page, "Serif" fonts have feet, or embellishments on the characters. "San Serif" fonts do not, hence the "Sans".

But yes, we're really limited to just those 5. Let me explain why. We start with 2 major computer types: Mac and PC. Both have a different set of fonts they come with. From there, we have several different web browsers: Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and a few others. Internet Explorer is no longer available on the Mac, and Safari is new to the PC. This is where we start having problems.

Since each browser is created by different companies, and on different platforms, they interpret websites differently. So you might see a website look one way in Internet Explorer on your PC at work, but look completely different in Safari on your Mac at home. Its because of this problem, that these 5 fonts are commonly considered "safe" to reproduce most similarly on all computers and in all browsers.

In reality, there are a few more fonts you can get away with, but I always stick to these 5. Also, there are some methods to getting around this problem, using things like Flash and other fancy methods. But still, not really recommended.

So what do you do? First look at your logo. Does it use a serif or a san serif font? If it uses a serif font, you can use either Times New Roman or Georgia to match as best as possible. Same with Arial, Verdana or Trebuchet for a san serif logo.

Does your logo use both serif and san serif? Then I would suggest using a san serif font (usually Arial) for the site. Does it use a completely different font, or something out of the ordinary? Then you'd probably be OK using any of the 5 options, but again I'd usually lean towards Arial to minimize any clashing.

Another thing to consider, is what feel you want the site to have. I like to use Trebuchet for a more modern look. Georgia for something a either more old-style, or classy. San serif fonts tend to feel a little more casual, while serif fonts feel more professional.

As you can see, the font game is not an easy one. But I hope that this gives you a little more insight as to why we are so limited on websites, and how you can decide what your best option is.