Newer versions of Office can import EPS files, which would be preferable to the WMF format, which is also a vector format, but a very clumsy one.

On the other hand, if the logos are all single-color, you could create a font…

If it matters, we use Office 2003. I find the Microsoft suite extremely difficult to use, it’s not a quick learn for me. As far as the logos I create, they’re usually 4 color process. We don’t have the software to create fonts available, but I have seen the technique used and it does seem very user-friendly.

I’m sure the way I create my logos for use aren’t wrong, but I’m also sure there’s a way to do it where I save time by creating one user-friendly file that’s universally accepted by all programs.

What is that unversally accepted standard to create that file?

Illustrator CS has the capacity to export WMF files. I’m not sure what other versions of Illy are able to do this. Whenever my mom wants custom artwork, I draw it out in Illy, export a WMF, place it in a file for her (a Word Document ususally) and then send her that file to use as a template. She should be able to cut/paste into other Office documents, &c.

Asvetic, I see a few choices based on specifics in the design. If you have one color, consider saving as a high res (600ppi) bitmap TIFF. As a bitmap (black and white) and not grayscale, the file will print razor sharp and, since its only 2 bit, will be very small file size wise (use lzw compression). Any user could specify a spot color for the image if needed. If you have more colors or gradients, consider PNG-24. It’s lossless, supports high resolution, has an 8 bit alpha channel, and most applications these days are loving it. Even PowerPoint and Word. Be careful using a “Save for Web” option to create it though- tyically the res gets changed to 72-96ppi- which, if placed in Word” would look huge.

Can you retain transparent backgrounds (drop out that white box) with a PNG-24 file?

Yes. The benefit to PNG-24 (over PNG-8) is that it not only supports the complete transparency of eliminated backgrounds, but also supports the semi transparency of antialiased edges and drop shadows.

it’s clear I haven’t used PNG-24 before. As far as vector presevation how does it hold up, or do I still need to save a larger size version?

What does PNG-24 stand for by the way?

I do9 a lot of this kind of work and think you are probably already going the best way about it. We have a vast library of logos, and in each case save down large RGB GIFs with transparent backgrounds and JPEGs for MS Office alongside the CMYK EPS for Quark use. Making your GIFs very large minimises the appearance of the rough edge caused by GIF’s on/off transparency.

Note though that print dimensions in inches are irrelevant in both JPG and GIF.

You could use quite a few other formats on the MSO side but they all have pitfalls.

As Nick says, WMF, which is the internal PC metaformat, can hold vector data but I find it unreliable at preserving anything more than simple line art, gradients and dashed lines for example can cause problems. This is the format usually used for vector clip art however.

You can import and print EPS files into MSO apps, but I don’t think you can see a preview of their content on screen, at least not on PC?

24 bit PNG has proper transparency support, but not in MSO apps.

You can import and print EPS files into MSO apps, but I don’t think you can see a preview of their content on screen, at least not on PC?

I found that out early on and that’s why I don’t save as EPS. I got too many complaints from the peanut gallery about no preview.

Even more foolproof is to keep your logo library in Powerpoint so users can just copy and paste; a lot of people don’t know how to insert an image into a document let alone resize it without stretching it…

I recall now that the specific issue we had with PNGs was when producing PDFs from Powerpoint, PNGs with transparency were split into hundreds of objects making on screen display very very slow.

Well, I guess I’m back to the 2 files… but I think I’m switching from Jpeg to Png for the High Res and Gif for Powerpoint and web applications.

That’s a good idea about the Power Point logo library, but I can see that file getting deleted real easy.

Thanks for the comments, I love this forum! I know this is a type oriented community, but there’s enough design brains that when topics that are less type driven come up, there’s always an answer. It’s like the most powerful organized design braintrust around!