File conversion for designers
Image, vector, and font format conversions for visual designers — from print-prep to web-ready exports.
Designers ship work in more formats than most professions: PNG and JPG for screen, SVG for icons, PDF for client review and print, AI/PSD as masters, WebP/AVIF for modern web optimization, ICO for favicons, custom font formats for typography. Each context has its own conventions, and the wrong format choice can mean printing problems, blurry exports, or broken icons.
This page collects the conversions and guides designers actually need: format choice for different output media, color-space handling, vectorization gotchas, and font deployment for web.
Recommended converters for designers
The conversions that come up most in designers' workflows, with a quick note on when to use each.
PSD → PNG
Flatten Photoshop masters into PNG for web or screen delivery, preserving transparency.
SVG → PNG
Rasterize a vector for tools that don't render SVG (some email clients, certain CMSes).
PNG → SVG
Trace pixel art or simple logos into vector paths for infinite scaling.
PNG → ICO
Generate Windows favicons from a transparent PNG with multiple resolutions packed in.
PNG → WEBP
Optimize PNG graphics for the web at 25-50% smaller files.
TIFF → PNG
Convert print-prep TIFFs to web-friendly PNG for portfolio and client review.
TTF → WOFF2
Compress desktop fonts for web deployment at 30-50% smaller file sizes.
AI → SVG
Open Adobe Illustrator artwork in tools that prefer SVG (Figma, Sketch, web).
What format decisions matter most for designers
Designers ship more file formats than any other discipline because the same artwork lives in completely different contexts: PSD or AI as the editable master, PNG or WEBP for screen, TIFF for print, SVG for web vector, ICO for favicons, custom font formats for typography. Each context has its own conventions and the wrong format choice means printing problems, blurry exports, or broken icons.
The single biggest format decision is master vs. derivative. Your PSD/AI/Figma file is your master — never throw it away. Every PNG, JPG, SVG, ICO, or WEBP is a derivative exported for a specific purpose. When delivery requirements change, regenerate from the master, not from a previous derivative. Editing a JPG of a logo is 10× more work than editing the AI source.
Color space is the other landmine. Web works in sRGB. Print works in CMYK or various ICC-managed RGB profiles. Social media re-encodes whatever you upload to its own preferred profile. Author in the right color space from the start — converting an sRGB JPG to CMYK at the print stage shifts colors visibly, especially in saturated reds and blues.
Designers workflow recommendations
The format and conversion choices that consistently produce the best results for designers.
Keep masters in editable, lossless formats
PSD for raster work, AI for vector, TIFF for print-resolution masters. These are your editable originals — never throw them away.
Export distribution copies for each medium
PNG (or WebP/AVIF) for screen, JPG for photographs at quality 85-92, SVG for vector content on the web, PDF for print delivery and client review.
Watch the color space
Web works in sRGB. Print works in CMYK. Converting between them shifts colors visibly. Author in the right space from the start, or at least before exporting final assets.
Outline fonts before sharing vector files
If sharing AI/SVG/PDF with someone who may not have your fonts installed, convert text to outlines (curves) before exporting. The text becomes vector paths that always render identically.
Common mistakes designers make with file formats
The pitfalls that come up repeatedly for designers — most of them invisible until they cause an audible, visible, or workflow problem downstream.
Saving line art as JPG
JPG's compression algorithm assumes natural images with smooth gradients. Hard-edged line art and text get ringing artifacts around the edges that get worse on every save. Use PNG, WEBP-lossless, or SVG for graphics with sharp edges.
Forgetting to outline fonts
If you share an AI, SVG, or PDF with someone who doesn't have your custom fonts installed, their machine substitutes. Outlines (curves) bake the typography into the file as vector paths so it always renders identically. Convert text to outlines before sharing externally.
Exporting at 1× when retina screens exist
A 200×200 PNG looks fine at 1× pixel density and looks soft on a 2× or 3× retina screen. Export at 2× or 3× and let CSS scale down. Doubling the export resolution roughly quadruples file size — use WEBP or AVIF to keep the size manageable.
Trusting generic 'optimize for web' presets
Photoshop's 'Save for Web' is opinionated about JPG quality 60 — fine for thumbnails, often visibly degraded for hero images. Quality 85-92 is the sweet spot for delivery photographs. Test your actual output, don't trust the preset.
Frequently asked questions
What's the right format for a logo I'll use on a website?
SVG. Vector scales to any size without quality loss, the file is usually under 5KB, and modern browsers render it perfectly. Have a PNG fallback for old contexts (some email clients still don't render SVG).
Is AVIF ready to use in production?
For most use cases, yes. Browser support is 95%+ in 2026 (Safari was last to ship). AVIF compresses ~20% better than WEBP and ~50% better than JPG at equivalent visual quality. Have a JPG fallback in your <picture> element for the long tail.
Why do my print PDFs sometimes have washed-out colors?
Almost always a color space mismatch. Author the file in the same color space your printer requires (usually CMYK for offset, sRGB for digital print) and embed the ICC profile at export. Convert at export, not after delivery.
Can I convert a low-res PNG into a vector SVG?
Auto-tracing tools (Illustrator's Image Trace, vectorizer.io, etc.) work for simple silhouettes and high-contrast line art. For photographs or complex artwork, the result looks plasticky and loses detail — better to redraw or commission a vector original.
What about WOFF2 — do I really need both WOFF and WOFF2?
WOFF2 has 95%+ browser support, so you can usually ship just WOFF2. Add a WOFF fallback only if your analytics show meaningful traffic from older browsers. WOFF2 is roughly half the size of WOFF, so the bandwidth savings compound on every page load.
Recommended reading
In-depth guides relevant to designers' format decisions.
WebP vs AVIF vs JPEG: choosing image formats for the modern web
JPEG is universal but old. WebP is everywhere and good. AVIF is best in class but newer. A practical comparison of the three modern web image formats — when to pick each, what they cost in compatibility, and how to ship safely with fallbacks.
PNG to ICO: making favicons that actually look good at 16×16
A favicon is your brand on a 16-pixel canvas. Most converted favicons fail because the source design doesn't survive the scaling. A guide to designing and converting PNG to ICO so the result is legible everywhere it appears.
Lossless vs lossy compression: what the words actually mean and why it matters
Lossless compression preserves every bit of the original; lossy compression throws bits away to save space. A foundational guide to the difference, the formats in each camp, and the practical rules of thumb for when to use which.
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