August 15, 2026 5 min read 8

Preparing a Logo for Print — CMYK, Pantone and the Files Printers Need

The logo looked great on screen — then arrived muddy‑brown on the business cards, blurred on the T‑shirt, and the print shop bounced the file with "we need vector and CMYK". Print lives by different laws than screens, and most surprises happen exactly at that border. Here's what to know and which files to prepare so your logo prints predictably.

TL;DR

Screens make color with light (RGB), print makes it with ink (CMYK), and not every screen color is reproducible in ink: vivid limes, teals and neons go dull. For exact brand colors there are Pantone spot inks. The print shop needs vector (PDF/EPS/SVG) with text outlined; raster only at 300 dpi at physical size. Always keep a monochrome version of the mark.

RGB vs CMYK: why colors drift

A screen builds color from glowing red, green and blue dots (RGB). A press builds it from four inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). The CMYK range is narrower: some vivid screen colors are physically impossible in ink — they get swapped for nearest matches and the logo "fades". Bright oranges, limes, teals and neons suffer most.

What to do: convert the artwork to CMYK yourself before handoff (in Illustrator or Photoshop: Edit → Convert to Profile) and see what shifted. Better to catch the drift on screen than in a 5,000-copy run. HEX codes are screen notation; their CMYK equivalents belong in the brand book.

Pantone: when four inks aren't enough

CMYK mixes color from four inks via halftone dots — and the same file can come out slightly different at two print shops. When the brand color is critical (for brands of Sber's scale it always is), Pantone spot inks are used — pre‑mixed inks from a worldwide catalog: the ink number guarantees the same color at any printer on the planet.

You don't always need Pantone: CMYK is fine for business cards and flyers. It pays off for the brand color on large runs, packaging and merch — and is mandatory when color is the brand's main asset — we cover why color matters so much separately. Note: Pantone is an extra ink and extra cost per run.

Vector is non‑negotiable

The print shop will ask for vector, and here's why: presses work at resolutions where any raster logo grabbed from a site header turns to mush. Vector scales to a 3×6-meter banner losslessly — we explain how that works separately.

What to send:

PDF — the de facto print standard: vector plus color management in one file.
EPS — the "old world standard", still requested by veteran shops.
SVG — the web's native format; for print it's usually re‑saved as PDF/EPS — we cover all vector formats compared separately.
Text outlined: if the logo contains type, convert it to curves before sending, or the shop's computer will substitute a system font — why that happens is covered in our piece on logo fonts.

No vector? Vectorize the logo first — a one‑time job that closes the question forever. Raster is acceptable only for photos: 300 dpi at physical print size, CMYK, no JPG compression.

Monochrome and inverse: the forgotten versions

Print is regularly single‑color: engraving on a pen, embossing on a notebook, one‑pass screen printing, stamps. That requires a monochrome version — not a desaturated primary logo but a purpose‑built one: gradients replaced with solid fills, small details enlarged, halftones removed. Plus an inverse version for dark surfaces. The full version kit is described in types of logos.

Gradients are print's worst enemy

Gradient marks (like Instagram's or Wildberries') are fundamentally unreproducible in single‑color print — they need a dedicated flat version. If your logo is gradient, the monochrome version isn't optional; it's a required part of the kit.

Minimum size and clear space

A printed logo has a physical readability limit: lines thinner than ~0.1 mm vanish on press, and tiny descriptor text turns to mud. The rules:

Define the mark's minimum size in millimeters (usually 8-15 mm wide) and verify it with a test print on an office printer.
Respect the clear space — a protected zone around the mark (typically one letter or element of the logo) free of text and graphics.
For very small print (tags, pens) use a simplified mark — the same logic as favicons.

The print handoff checklist

Vector file: PDF or EPS, text outlined, colors in CMYK (or with Pantone numbers).
Raster elements (if any): 300 dpi at physical size, CMYK.
Monochrome and inverse versions as separate files.
Minimum size stated and a preview JPG of "how it should look" attached.
For critical jobs, a press proof requested before the run.

Building a logo kit from scratch? Start with what format a logo should be in and how to commission a logo: print requirements are easier to bake into the brief than to retrofit. And to see what clean vector sources look like, browse our logo catalog — every file there is SVG, ready for conversion to print formats.