Suggestions Print Ready Art Files

[DPkleonard]

How long do you keep your Print Ready Art Files? Do you say anywhere on your quote about the length of time?

Thanks in advance for your response

 

[Pauly]

Edit: now i understand LOL.

Depends on the job.
I keep my clients logos and if i had made a sign ect for them i keep those too.

With our printed glass (splashbacks ect), i don't keep the print ready file (cropped to size...) But i do keep the original and if i have made some adjustments to the original i.e contrast or B&W i keep those too.

There are clients that request the files to be deleted after the job is completed.

 

[fresh]

? like our production files? we have all of our files since we started doing business 11 years ago. we don't delete anything.

 

[shoresigns]

We don't write anything on our quote about it, but we have all of our customer artwork from the day we opened 11 years ago. Not just the print-ready files, but all the source files.

 

[Solventinkjet]

When I was doing graphic design for a living I would keep absolutely everything. You never know when you are going to need something. That being said, I did archive once per year usually so my working files didn't get too cluttered. Usually that just meant sending the years worth of files to a backup drive and deleting them off my working computer. Then if someone comes in from 10 years ago I can just look though my archive file to find the file I need.

 

[AKwrapguy]

How long do you keep your Print Ready Art Files? Do you say anywhere on your quote about the length of time?

Thanks in advance for your response

We never delete files. We still have stuff from over 20 years ago, often because we have clients from 20 years ago.

Why delete anything? Memory is cheap, and you never know when the client will come back to get another.

 

[papabud]

every print shop i have ever worked for saves all files forever.
you have your working storage. long term storage and archival storage.
my last shop had to keep a special computer on hand with all the media reading devices like zip and syquest drives. and things like that attached to it.

 

[Bobby H]

We'll only get rid of customer provided files if they're basically junk files used to create something better. For example, a client provides a crude JPEG image of his logo. We spend time re-creating it in vector format. Once the new version is finalized the old junk file can be discarded. We create a lot of temporary work files, such as nesting a bunch of print jobs together in one run or nesting a lot of parts in a routing job to rout out of aluminum. Those things can be discarded as well unless something special had to be done to them that couldn't be re-created easily.

It can be a pain to pull up art files from over 20 years ago though. CorelDRAW hasn't exactly been the greatest at supporting features from old versions. Open something made in CorelDRAW 6 with a bunch of text on path effects with copy that's still editable and do so in a recent version, such as X6 or X8 and you're liable to see a lot of things get broken. Even if you have exactly the same font files used in the original 1990's layout loaded the file still may not open correctly. I got into the habit of "finalizing" designs long ago (converting fonts to outlines/curves, converting any live effects like text on path stuff to curves, etc). Corel has made the issue more tricky since they've started dropping support for earlier versions. You can't open CDR files made in version 5 or earlier in CorelDRAW X8 or 2018. That forces one to go back, re-open all those old files on an old computer running something like CorelDRAW 9, and save the files forward. That's a big knock against Corel in the whole ongoing Illustrator versus CorelDRAW debate.

 

[Modern Ink Signs]

We keep everything as well.

Maintaine well organized system.

I have redundant backup of all files on site and off site. 30 years of files = just a “few” TB of data!

 

[ATD Signs]

I guess I am the only one that does delete customer files after 8 to 10 yrs
After all if your customer only comes back to you after 10 yrs then he really
wasn't much of a customer to begin with. And if he does he probably will want
something different anyway.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

One thing I learned long ago, always have a file that isn't dependent on a particular software. Any software, particularly along the lines of Ai and DRAW, can take anything out and make compatibility a bear. And it doesn't matter if we like it or not, that's an ability that they have. Or if you no longer use said software (they went under or just don't use them any more whatever the case may be). Especially if we are talking about decades of files. I started doing what I do back in June of '94, I still have those files that I first did. While the production files are still good to go, the master files are not, even though I still use the same software that I did way back then.

I'm not saying to not have a master working file, but don't have that as your only source of a vector backup (if dealing with vectors). That may mean having a second file that details what was used if there needs to be any changes made etc.

Although, I will see as I've gotten older, the less I like vendor lock in.

That forces one to go back, re-open all those old files on an old computer running something like CorelDRAW 9, and save the files forward.

That actually depends. Not always needing to be the case, but it does depend on the situation. I personally don't like keeping old computers around, so I'll use software solutions to keep legacy software going or, I'll use a different software period that's current. Typically those older files will open up nicely on newer 3rd party software. It's when trying to open recent versions of the same file format in those 3rd party programs that can be a booger.

 

[ikarasu]

We just had someone ask for a reprint of a sign we did a "few years ago". A bit of searching and we found the original file from 2002.

We keep everything in yearly / monthly folders for print ready files. (Outlined font, etc)

We also keep a seperate folder for artwork, client supplied files, proofs, etc. That's a folder with the year, inside has the clients names and everything goes into their own folder.

That way we can find files by date... Or by client name easily.


Storage is cheap... $10 a month and google gives you unlimited cloud drive storage (supposed.to be unlimited with 5+ users .. but they don't enforce it). I know someone with 2 petabyte and google doesn't say anything. So why not keep everything?

10tb external hard.drive for backups stored offsite, google drive/Amazon cloud with encrypted files stored in the cloud... And a local version of everything since opening 25+ years ago.

We don't often go back and grab old files .. but when we do, it's worth it. We have many long term clients who appreciate they can ask for a re-do on a sign we did 15 years ago thats getting pretty worn out and have it look exactly the same as day one.

 

[ams]

I keep everything. I've had customers come back years later.