The Graphic Edge Designer can accept both vector art and bitmap images.  Please read the following before uploading your own artwork to the designer.

Uploading Rules

You are only allowed to upload artwork that you have created yourself or that you can prove you have the right to use.  We cannot and will not print any copyrighted or trademarked designs, or designs that would in any way require permission of a third party to print, or would require payment of royalties or other fees.  Schools requiring royalties and royalty approval of designs should contact our Customer Service team to discuss orders before placing them. 

Bitmap Images

Bitmap images are can either be drawings or photographs saved in JPG, GIF, or PNG file formats.  The Design Studio supports GIF's and PNG's with transparent backgrounds.  If your software won't create a transparent background, then use a white background and the designer's built-in Remove White feature, which will be available after uploading your file.  

Your file needs to be at the highest resolution possible, preferably 200 to 300 dpi (dots per inch), while staying within the 1 MB (1,000 KB) file size limit.  However, if you are starting with a smaller image, don't try to enlarge it yourself, because that may actually reduce the quality.  When saving your artwork, if the file is larger than 1 MB, increase the compression in your graphics program to get the file under the size limit, rather than making the image smaller.

Vector Artwork

Vector art is artwork created in more advanced drawing programs, like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.  Vector art is supported by the designer in SVG format.  SVG is a format that most programs, including those mentioned here, can export their files in.  

The designer supports a very limited set of the features of the SVG file format, so some specific steps must be taken in order to correctly prepare your vector are for uploading to the designer.  Those steps are detailed below.  Keep in mind that most of the steps in these instructions were created based on Corel Draw.  However, the issues are very similar when using Illustrator.

  1. Make sure that your page size is set up in "pixels" rather than "inches".  If you're working on an 8" x 11" page, and your art is small (compared to the size of the page), then some of the exported vectors may include VERY small numbers, like .000000085.  At least with Corel Draw, when exported, a number this small is converted to scientific notation.  The designer does not support SVG vectors in scientific notation.
  2. Make your vector image is as large as will fit on your page size.  This again helps with the same issue mentioned in #1 above.
  3. Your file can contain only vector art - no text or bitmap data can be included.  Delete any bitmaps from the image.  Convert any text to curves or outlines.  When there's a problem, it can usually be solved by converting everything to curves or outlines.
  4. If you have problems with any "strokes" appearing incorrectly in the designer, especially when scaling, convert the strokes to curves or outlines.  
  5. If you use any "power curves" or "clipping regions" in your file, these will not display correctly when uploaded to the designer.  They must be flattened into simple vector paths in order for your file to look right.
  6. Use only solid-color.  The designer does not support color gradients at this time.
  7. To export your file to SVG from Corel Draw, select File, then Save As, and select SVG as the file type.  When the SVG Export window is displayed, select "Unicode - UTF-8" as the Encoding Method and "Presentation Attributes" as the Styling Options.
  8. To export your file to SVG from Adobe Illustrator, select File, then Save As, and select SVG as the file type.  In the SVG Options window, select "SVG Tiny 1.2" as the SVG Profile.
  9. If you still have problems, feel free to email your vector art to our Customer Service department in either AI or CDR format and ask them to convert it so it can be used in the designer.  We'll be glad to help in every way we can.