Working with Digital Files

There are as many different file types as there are purposes. So it's important to learn to work with them, otherwise whatever you end up making is not only going to be a pain for you to work with, but may not even work at all. Don't worry, take a moment to breathe. I'm going to help break this stuff down so you can take back control!

First of all, here's a list of important considerations to make:

• Size: You probably don't want to use your beautiful raw camera files on your photography blog, because nobody's going to see them because they'll take an age to download due to them being extremely large files.
• Purpose: What kind of project are you working on? Print or web? Mobile? Film/video? Different types of project are going to have different requirements, such as an image being used for the web being exported in RGB, while a print image would need to be in CMYK.
• Resolution: When making a file for the web, you're going to want a resolution of around 72-100dpi, as this provides the best balance of speed and quality. That said, for print, you'll need at least 300dpi, due to image quality being essential.
• Raster or Vector: You want a detailed, glossy photo? You'll want a raster (also known as bitmap) file. Raster files use a grid of coloured pixels to create an image. They can be very efficient for the amount of detail they can display, but they drop in quality when zoomed in. Now if you want a sharp, clean, corporate logo? Vector is your friend, as you'll want your image to be infinitely scalable without loss of quality. Vector files use a series of coordinates with other information (curve, colour, etc.), which makes them appear clear and clean at any scale. That said, vector files need to be precisely created by hand, and can become extremely large files if the image is very complex.
  
• Native Software: When working on with different file types, you need to make sure you use file types that your software can support. Say you're working on a magazine spread layout file, if you're working in InDesign, you won't be able to use an .afpub file from Affinity Publisher.

Next, I'm going to go into some focused detail on a few really important considerations.

File Storage

Different types of file take up different amounts of space, so the first important factor for file storage is the amount of capacity you're working with. For most purposes, a storage device measured in gigabytes (GB) is going to be fine. That said, if you're working with really large files; such as camera raw files, 4K video or high resolution textures, you're definitely going to need a device that can hold thousands of GB of data, or terabytes (TB).

Secondly, there's a whole bunch of different types of storage device out there, but they can mainly be categorised into three classes: internal (physical components inside your computer) external (portable storage devices) and cloud (storing files on an external computer via the internet). 

• Internal devices consist of hard disk (HDD) and solid state (SSD) drives. Storing files in your internal devices is useful if you have a lot you want to store, as these devices usually have very large capacities. On top of that, it's usually sensible to store your main working files in the internal storage of your main workstation.
• External devices consist of memory cards (such as SD), USB flash drives and external hard drives. They're great for their sheer portability, allowing you to take your files with you where ever you go. That said, their capacities tend to be smaller, and they can pick up destructive malware, and potentially infect any machine they come into contact with.
• Cloud storage is rapidly becoming the standard for maintaining a file system over an organisation. The main advantage is that they can be accessed by anyone, anywhere as long as they have access to the internet, allowing people to collaborate extremely easily. However, if you lose internet access for any reason, suddenly you can't access your files. On top of that, if someone external manages to somehow log into your cloud storage, you potentially have a massive problem on your hands.
• Overall, it's best to use a combination of different types of storage device, making sure you utilise all of their strengths and minimise all of their weakness, while keeping your organisation consistent across all of them.

Last but certainly not least, organisation. Keeping your files organised is so important, it should 100% be covered at school - a lot. A disorganised file structure is a pain to use, and will slow down your workflow considerably. Keeping stuff organised helps you to find and use stuff faster, and also helps others do the same if they're working with the same stuff you are.

 

The file folder structure I used for projects while working on a design course a few months back. Note the usage of different folders for different file types and projects.

File Naming

Naming your files is extremely important, not just for organisation but for functionality too - an improperly named file may simply not function. First and foremost, I'm going to talk about how file names interact with operating systems themselves.

These days, this point is less relevant, due to how smart modern OSes are with naming files, but you never know when this sort of thing could be useful again. Some OSes have very particular ways they need files named, and won't recognise them properly otherwise.

Bouncing off of this, I need to talk about special characters. Don't use them, please. Trust me on this. Special characters can really mess with the way that both OSes and software work, and sometimes they won't even let you use them anyway. Special characters can include stuff like these: .,/?!$£&.

Sometimes, you can't even use blank spaces, but there's a few ways to deal with this. First off, there's most likely to work special character of them all, the underscore ( _ ). Underscores are kind of the exception to the rule of NO SPECIAL CHARACTERS. You can use them in place of spaces like this: dps_layout_draft.indd . Similarly you can put words in CamelCase, like this: DpsLayoutDraft.indd . 

Version control is a useful strategy if you're iterating on the same file over time, as it allows you to keep older versions from "before you screwed the thing up", or simply to record progress over time. You can just add a number at the end of the file name, such as DpsLayoutDraft2.indd , but I personally recommend using a six digit number to represent the date at the end. This keeps things nice and tidy, and makes sorting a breeze. You'd do that like this: DpsLayoutDraft210514.indd , laid out in the order of YYMMDD, because systems will then sort it by year first, followed by month and then day.

Just keep in mind what you're working with, follow the conventions that work, and then make sure to keep things consistent, and all will be good.

File Formats

There's a whole bunch of different file formats for different purposes, and making sure you're working with the right type for the purpose is essential. I'm going to talk about a few different types of file, and highlight the differences and uses for each.

First of all, image files. For photos, the most likely formats you'll come across in design are going to be JPEGs (Joint Photo Experts Group), PNG (Portable Net Graphics) and TIFF (Tag Image File Format). JPEGs are lossy raster files, which means they degrade in quality every time they're edited. They're useful for digital design due to their small file sizes, specifically for photos. PNGs are a lossless raster file format, which means they don't degrade with each edit. They are also able to handle transparency, which makes them them go-to for when transparency is needed. TIFF files are lossless raster files, which leads to them have large file sizes, making them unsuitable for digital design, but excellent for print.

Other useful image file formats include GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). GIF files are the predecessor to PNG files, so also feature transparency. However, they've more or less been replaced by PNG as GIF isn't capable of storing as much colour information. That said, GIF is capable of animation, so it's still used in this capacity. SVGs are the standard for vector files. They are used in digital design when the image needs to be resized without a loss in quality, but also in print.

For document files, I'm only going to cover a couple: Microsoft Word files (.docx) and Abode PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Word files are produced by Word and are; by standard, editable by anyone. This makes them great for questionnaires and forms. PDF files however, cannot be edited once created, but will always look the same regardless of the device they're displayed in. This is because they're able to contain font data so that text will always look as intended. They're great for letters and as digital versions of print works like catalogues and brochures. They can contain interactive elements too, like changes of appearance and hyperlinks.

Some considerations that should be made when choosing a file format should be it's size, purpose, editability and usability.

• Size: Do I need the file to launch fast? Or do I need the maximum quality?
• Purpose: Is this image for web or print? Do I need transparency and/or animation?
• Editability: Do I need the recipient to be able to alter it? Or does it need to be read only?
• Usability: Will the recipient be able to use the file?

In Conclusion

File formats can be an absolute minefield to the unaware, so I hope I've helped you to become more comfortable with working with a variety of different types of file. Just keep in mind what I've talked about here and you'll be golden.