Working with Digital Files

 WORKING WITH DIGITAL FILES

When preparing files it is important to consider the purpose of the files and the method of distribution. This allows you to select the correct file formats, the correct document set up (for example resolution, colour type CMYK vs RGB, image size) and the correct file size.  

There are many various options for file storage these days - for example cloud based (Google Drive, dropbox etc) or physical (USB, Hard drive etc) all of which have differing applications and advantages and disadvantages. Other things to consider when choosing the appropriate storage medium include such things as portability, size, need for password protection or other encoding.

It is also important to consider the implication of File naming conventions making sure that your files are easy to find and check which version you are working on. These names should avoid any special characters and be as minimal as needed. One good method is the use of 'camel case' - ProjectAuthorVersionDate format. 

 

Since the advent of computers and especially the web there have been a large number of different file types for the same applications. Many fall by the wayside while a few become industry standard. Some examples of the industry standards for graphic and image web content include JPEG ( support for full colour range but has the disadvantage of being a 'lossy' format ie each iteration of the file loses some quality) PNG and GIF - to most intents interchangeable formats (though GIF unlike PNG supports animation while PNG unlike GIF supports Transparency). These formats are Lossless unlike JPEGs however the downside is they support a reduced colour range. One final format worth mentioning is PDF files which are good for documents, embedding Images and text in a file which can be made read only.