What logo file types do I need?

One vector master and three exports covers almost everything. The master is an SVG, or an EPS or AI if your designer works that way. The exports are a PNG with a transparent background, a JPG for anywhere that will not accept transparency, and a WebP for your website. Everything else can be made from the master in seconds, which is exactly why the master is the file that matters.

What is the best file format for a logo?

SVG, for any use that accepts it. A logo is flat shapes and text, which is precisely what SVG is designed for, and one file then works at every size from a favicon to the side of a van. PNG is the answer wherever SVG is refused, which still includes most email signatures, many upload forms and some social profile pictures.

EPS stands for Encapsulated PostScript. It is an older vector format, which means it stores shapes rather than pixels, and it is what printers have asked for by habit for about thirty years. It does the same job as an SVG and most printers now accept a PDF or an SVG just as happily. If one insists on EPS, your designer can export it from the master in seconds.

What is an AI file and can I open one?

An AI file is Adobe Illustrator's own working file. It is the editable original rather than a delivery format, so it holds layers, live text and editing history that an export throws away. You almost certainly cannot open one without Illustrator, and that is fine: you should still be given it, because it is the file that lets any future designer change the logo rather than rebuild it.

Can I convert a PNG logo to an SVG?

Not in any way that gives you a real vector. Converting a vector to a PNG is simple, because the shapes are drawn once and the pixels recorded. Going back means guessing which shapes would produce those pixels, which is called tracing. On a flat two-color logo it can get close enough to use. On anything with soft edges, gradients or fine text it produces a mess of tiny paths that looks wrong and is unpleasant to edit.

Why does my logo look blurry when I make it bigger?

Because you are enlarging a PNG or a JPG, which contain a fixed number of pixels. Made larger than that, the software has to invent the pixels that were never recorded, and you see the invention as softness and jagged edges. A vector master has no fixed size to run out of, which is the whole reason to insist on one.

Do I need a transparent version of my logo?

Yes, and it should be one of the first things you check. A logo saved with a white background is fine on white and shows an obvious white box everywhere else. PNG and WebP both support transparency; JPG does not, at all, so a JPG logo always arrives with a background baked in.

Which logo file types do you actually need?

A logo needs one vector master you can re-export from forever, plus exports for the places that will not accept it. Almost every other file in that folder is something you could regenerate in a minute.

By Free Image Lab · August 10, 2026

The short list

If someone asks what logo files you need, or you are checking what a designer has sent, this is the whole answer:

A vector master — SVG, and the AI or EPS it came from: The one file that genuinely matters. Everything below can be made from it in seconds, and nothing can be made backwards into it.
A transparent PNG: For everywhere that refuses SVG, which is still a lot of places. Transparent, so it does not arrive in a white box.
A JPG: For the systems that accept nothing else. It cannot hold transparency, so it will have a background whether you choose one or not.
A WebP, if it is going on a website: Same picture, meaningfully smaller file. Every current browser reads it.

Four files, not twenty. A folder with a dozen sizes of PNG in it is not a more thorough handover; it is the same logo exported a dozen times because nobody was sure which one you would need.

There are only two kinds of file here

Every format on that list is one of two things, and once you can tell them apart the rest of this stops being a memory test.

Vector files store instructions: a shape of this outline, filled this color, with this text in this typeface at this position. Nothing is a picture until something draws it, and it is drawn again at whatever size it is needed. SVG, EPS, AI and most PDFs are vector.

Raster files store a grid of colored pixels, and that grid is all there is. PNG, JPG and WebP are raster. A 500-pixel-wide PNG contains five hundred columns of information and not one more.

This is the whole reason the master matters

Vector to raster is a one-way trip that takes a second. Raster back to vector is guesswork that never quite works. So the master is the asset and the exports are disposable, which is a useful thing to know when you are deciding which file to be careful about.

See SVG vs PNG if you want that difference in more detail.

What each one is actually for

SVG — the master you can actually use: Sharp at any size, usually a few kilobytes, and readable by every current browser. Use it on your website and keep it as the file you re-export everything else from. Text inside it stays real text, so it can be searched and read aloud.
AI — the editable original: Adobe Illustrator’s working file, with layers and live text intact. You probably cannot open it. Ask for it anyway: it is the difference between the next designer editing your logo and rebuilding it from a picture of it.
EPS — the one printers ask for out of habit: An older vector format that does the same job as SVG. Most printers now take a PDF or an SVG quite happily, but some order forms still say EPS, and it costs nothing to have one.
PDF — vector, and the one everyone can open: A logo saved as a PDF usually keeps its vector shapes, which makes it a good thing to email to a printer who has not specified. It is also the only format on this list that opens on any computer without extra software.
PNG — the export you will use most: Lossless, supports transparency, accepted everywhere. This is the one you attach to emails, put in slide decks and upload to forms that reject SVG.
JPG — only when nothing else is accepted: No transparency at all, and its compression puts faint smudges around hard edges, which is exactly what a logo is made of. Fine for a photo, second best for artwork.
WebP — the website version: Keeps transparency like a PNG and is typically a good deal smaller. Worth having specifically for the web, not as a general handover file.

What to ask a designer for

Ask for the master and the reason, not a list of extensions. Something like: please send the editable vector original, plus an SVG, a transparent PNG and a JPG. That sentence gets you everything on the short list and makes clear you know the difference.

Three things worth checking when it arrives:

Is the vector actually vector?: An SVG can contain nothing but an embedded photograph of the logo, which looks identical until you enlarge it. Open it in a browser and zoom right in. Real shapes stay perfectly sharp. If it goes soft, it is a raster in a vector wrapper.
Is the background genuinely transparent?: Drop the PNG onto something dark. A white rectangle will announce itself immediately.
Is there a version that works on dark backgrounds?: Most logos need at least two: the normal one and a reversed or single-color one for dark and awkward backgrounds. This is the thing most often missing from a handover.

Ask about fonts while you are there

If the logo contains live text, it will only display correctly on a machine with that font installed. A designer normally converts the text to shapes before delivery precisely to avoid this. It is worth asking, because the failure shows up months later on someone else’s computer with the typeface silently replaced.

If all you have is a PNG

This is a common position and it is not fatal. You cannot recover a vector from it, but you can produce every raster format you need from the largest version you have, and you can do it here without uploading anything.

The multi-format converter takes one image and makes PNG, JPG and WebP in a single pass, zipped, which is the usual answer to “can you send me all the file types”. If the logo arrived on a white background, the white background remover will get you the transparent version first. For the site icon, the favicon generator makes the .ico and every size a browser asks for.

Start from the biggest file you have. Every export is limited by the pixels in the original, so a 2000-pixel PNG gives you room to work and a 200-pixel one gives you nothing but small copies of a small logo.

If you do end up commissioning a redraw, that is what you are paying for: someone rebuilding the shapes properly, so you finally own the master.

Where this usually goes wrong

Only ever receiving a JPG: No transparency, no master, and compression artefacts baked into the edges. If this is all you were given, ask again before the project closes and the designer stops answering email.
Treating a huge PNG as the master: A 4000-pixel PNG feels like a safe original and is not one. It still has a fixed size, and it is still the wrong thing to send a sign maker.
Enlarging an export instead of re-exporting: Scaling a small PNG up is how logos end up soft on a banner. Go back to the vector and export at the size you need.
One file for everything: The version that works on a white letterhead often disappears on a dark website header. Two or three variants is normal, not extravagant.
Losing the master: The single most expensive mistake here, because the fix is paying someone to redraw a logo you already own. Keep the vector somewhere you will still be able to find it in five years.

Frequently asked questions

What logo file types do I need?: One vector master and three exports covers almost everything. The master is an SVG, or an EPS or AI if your designer works that way. The exports are a PNG with a transparent background, a JPG for anywhere that will not accept transparency, and a WebP for your website. Everything else can be made from the master in seconds, which is exactly why the master is the file that matters.
What is the best file format for a logo?: SVG, for any use that accepts it. A logo is flat shapes and text, which is precisely what SVG is designed for, and one file then works at every size from a favicon to the side of a van. PNG is the answer wherever SVG is refused, which still includes most email signatures, many upload forms and some social profile pictures.
What is an EPS file?: EPS stands for Encapsulated PostScript. It is an older vector format, which means it stores shapes rather than pixels, and it is what printers have asked for by habit for about thirty years. It does the same job as an SVG and most printers now accept a PDF or an SVG just as happily. If one insists on EPS, your designer can export it from the master in seconds.
What is an AI file and can I open one?: An AI file is Adobe Illustrator's own working file. It is the editable original rather than a delivery format, so it holds layers, live text and editing history that an export throws away. You almost certainly cannot open one without Illustrator, and that is fine: you should still be given it, because it is the file that lets any future designer change the logo rather than rebuild it.
Can I convert a PNG logo to an SVG?: Not in any way that gives you a real vector. Converting a vector to a PNG is simple, because the shapes are drawn once and the pixels recorded. Going back means guessing which shapes would produce those pixels, which is called tracing. On a flat two-color logo it can get close enough to use. On anything with soft edges, gradients or fine text it produces a mess of tiny paths that looks wrong and is unpleasant to edit.
Why does my logo look blurry when I make it bigger?: Because you are enlarging a PNG or a JPG, which contain a fixed number of pixels. Made larger than that, the software has to invent the pixels that were never recorded, and you see the invention as softness and jagged edges. A vector master has no fixed size to run out of, which is the whole reason to insist on one.
Do I need a transparent version of my logo?: Yes, and it should be one of the first things you check. A logo saved with a white background is fine on white and shows an obvious white box everywhere else. PNG and WebP both support transparency; JPG does not, at all, so a JPG logo always arrives with a background baked in.

Tools for this

Free, and everything runs in your browser.

← All guides