With Design Pickle, you can receive finished products in the following formats listed below:

Here are some unsupported formats:

Brand Profiles: 100MB per file

GIF Animation: Not exceeding 1MB file size

Motion Graphics/Video: 5GB total in a single request

Here's more information about our commonly requested file formats:

JPG (named after the Joint Photographic Experts Group) uses a “lossy” compression method to downsize files. This is exactly what it sounds like—when you save an image file as a JPG, it becomes drastically smaller because it loses some graphic information.

For example, let’s say you need a 2000x2000 pixel design resized to 100x100 pixels for a web avatar. Once the JPG is saved to 100x100 pixels, it has essentially forgotten how to become two thousand pixels wide again. However, it still looks good to the human eye because you only need the image to be 100 pixels anyway.

JPG is the standard file format of most digital cameras. It’s a great file format for attractive, but not inordinately large, photo files.

For photographs and realistic images with many colors, a JPG is your best bet. Don’t be discouraged by losing some graphic information in the lossy image compression process—it isn’t always a bad thing. If you don’t need all that graphic information, why hold onto it? As long as you keep your source files available in case you need larger files in the future, this file type can be a winner.

The PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file type supports lossless data compression. This means that you don’t lose color information when resizing. PNG also supports transparent backgrounds.

PNGs are great for line drawings, icons or logos, images with transparent backgrounds, and files with limited color information. So your website logo, email signatures, icons, headshots, and web product images all work great as PNGS. Small PNG files on websites appear to be crisper and even text-like, unlike tiny JPGs which usually have a blurred look.

If file size is not an issue, you can also save complex photographic images as PNGs. Lossless compression means you don’t lose any of the original details; however, these files will be much larger than JPGs of the same dimensions.

The PDF (Portable Document Format) is a widely used, open format file type invented by Adobe. It’s an electronic image that works just like any document; it can feature text, images, and a wide variety of graphics. It’s different from your regular word and text documents because the format is very widely accepted. Everyone can view it and see the same great design.

By using a PDF, you don’t have to lose your text information for the sake of design. Readers can highlight and even copy the text when reading your document, just as if you were sending them an email.

PDFs work well for both print and digital documents that feature stylized text-heavy layouts, like newsletters, brochures, and multi-page publications.

PDFs can also be used to save vector information. This is especially useful for logo files and other vector-based graphics like merchandise designs.

Design Pickle’s designers use Adobe Creative Suite software to create your graphics. Specifically, we use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. You don’t need to know this part if you don't use the Adobe software mentioned, but since you’re getting the source files for each completed project, maybe you’ve wondered why designers use certain software for certain designs. So let’s look into it.

Adobe Photoshop is mainly used to create and manipulate raster images, meaning photographs and complex illustrations. That is to say, your designer is working with pixels on a pixel grid. If the image is resized to become larger than when it was created, it will lose quality.

Photo effects, filters, and brushwork are examples of techniques done in Photoshop.

Icons and similar graphics can be created as PSDs, just remember that Photoshop has limited vector artwork capabilities.

In a word, Adobe Illustrator is the best at creating vector graphics. Your designer is also working on a pixel grid-based canvas, but instead of creating and modifying pixels, s/he’s working with vector lines and shapes.

Say what? This means logos, icons, vector illustrations, and a lot more.

Photographs or raster images can be imported and used in Adobe Illustrator, but they cannot be edited. This means that nice flyers and minor printables like shirt designs are good candidates to be created in Illustrator.

Adobe Indesign is used to create multi-page layouts, like booklets, books, and magazines. INDD files support typography-heavy designs and can play host to a variety of graphics. With spread layouts and automatic pagination capabilities, InDesign is truly optimized for longer, larger layouts. It’s even able to include PSD and AI native files in the layout, which is a great way to keep the graphics editable.

Need further help? Email us through [email protected], or click the chat button on the lower right-hand side of this window to chat with us.