Make Sure its Scalable!

Hi all,

Yes, its been a while, but hey I've been quite busy lately, but I do have a tidbit for all DIY'ers out there when it comes to your wedding stationery and any other favors you have in mind. Make sure your monograms or logos are scalable before printing because saving your logos as a JPEG or GIF image can make your lovely logo into a bunch of small square dots called pixels if you try to enlarge or decrease the size the logo for other stationery. A logo may look very nicely done when it is small, but if it is enlarged for, let's say, a sky light on the dance floor; then if that logo is not a vector-based image (an image created with mathematical lines) then the logo would look pixelated. You might be saying, "Okay Lauren, I have no idea what you are talking about especially with all these computer talk." Here is an example of what I am talking about:



As you can see in the example above, the smaller version of this beautifully done logo is great and the details in the typography (fonts) and the dots in the monogram are crisp and clean. A very nicely done image. However, when enlarging the monogram to a bigger image for any other stationery being done, the picture becomes fuzzy and the graphics look like small square blocks. This is because this particular logo was saved as a GIF image and not as a vector based image such as Adobe Illustrator or a SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) file. I'm sure the creators of this logo already have this logo as a vector image for purchase, but for webpage purposes have used a GIF file.

So what is the lesson to learn: If you are doing your own wedding stationery with graphics and monograms, be sure to transfer the image to a SVG file or AI (Adobe Illustrator) file so that you can use it for a variety of your wedding print and web goodies. What sense does it make to go through all the trouble of creating beautiful stationery for your wedding when Grandma can't make out the fuzzy words? Take time to find a friend that may have Photoshop or Illustrator vector it for you or hire a low-cost graphic designer who specializes in wedding stationery to help you out. Your stationery will end up as a keepsake for yourself and for your friends and family, so make sure you put some effort into keeping your special day memorable.

P.S. If you really like doing your own vector based monogram, then check out Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.com). This is a SVG program that is free to download on your computer that will allow you to create your monogram in a vectored image; dare I say again that it is FREE! Music to a DIY bride's ears :)