There are many things to know about logos as you begin to design your own or have one created for your company. As you go about your journey of creating your brand for your company, you will run into many of these things that are good to know.
Most of the important parts of a logo are easy to notice. Colors, fonts, stylization, and more should take up your main focus when crafting your own logo or hiring someone to make your logo.
One important element that you might not know enough about is transparent logos. Keep reading to learn more about transparent logos and why they are important.
What are Transparent Logos and How Do you Identify Them?
Perhaps during your time looking at logo examples online, you noticed that some of them have a white box around their designs, while others don’t. This is the main way that you tell if a logo is transparent or not.
Transparent logos allow only the design to be seen in just their file or when they are combined with something else because their background is transparent. A nontransparent logo doesn’t have a transparent background and therefore has the white box behind the design.
The other way to tell if a logo is transparent or not is that a transparent logo will often be in a PNG file. When looking at the design, it will look like a grey checkered background behind the design. This means that in the actual file, the background is transparent and won’t show up.
Why Transparent Logos are Helpful
Transparent logos are not required but they are super helpful. You can get away with using a nontransparent logo, but it will often be hard to display your logo in a way that the background doesn’t poorly affect the design.
If you are placing your logo on something that already has a white background, then nontransparent logos should work out just fine. As long as they are the exact same colors of white, you won’t be able to notice the box.
However, in every other case where your background is not the same exact color of white, the box around your logo will stand out like a sore thumb.
Having a transparent background around your logo just helps your company look that much more professional. You will be able to add your logo to anything and not have to worry about the background negativity affecting things.
Uses for Your Transparent Logos
Your transparent logo can be used anywhere that you can place your logo. This includes locations that are printed offline and online.
Your business cards, websites, email signatures, merchandise, billboards, social medial cover pictures and profile pictures, presentations, videos, images, posters, pamphlets, and anything else can use a transparent logo.
How to Create Your Transparent Logo
The best way to end up with a transparent logo is to start with one. If your first step in creating your logo is making sure that the background is transparent, then that will be your finished product. It is easy to forget about your background and accidentally end up with the awkward white box around your beautiful design.
If you are creating your own logo, make sure to set your background to be transparent. After that, you can start designing and creating your very own logo to use for your company.
Each program will have different settings and different ways of making the background transparent. You can always check out their help pages in order to see what steps you should take to get a transparent background.
If you are hiring an artist, they should automatically give you a file with a transparent background when they give you the final piece. It doesn’t hurt to specially ask for one though, as they might forget.
Professional artists should provide your logo to you in many different file formats and sizes based on your needs and where you plan on using your logo. The majority of these files should have transparent backgrounds.
The last way that you can create your transparent logo is through a logo maker. These programs are great for individuals who don’t have much experience or skill in the more complicated programs but still want to create their logo themselves.
Due to most logo makers being very template-based, these logos don’t take much time to make and are often very cheap.
The logo maker that you choose will determine what files you will receive. Some programs give you your logo for free, while others have you pay a small fee. It is common for the programs to give you the ability to pay for a wide range of files that are in different formats and sizes to help cater to your needs.
If you already have a logo made but it is not transparent, it is possible to edit out the background. You will either need to use a specialized program or hire someone to do it for you.
File Formats for Transparent and Nontransparent Logos
Your logo has a few different file formatting options. Some are better than others for different tasks and only some work well with transparent logos.
PNG
PNGs are the best for digital formatting and branding of transparent logos. They can hold a lot of information without taking up much room. Choose this type of format for a transparent logo when you are making a social media page, adding a signature to an email, or creating a video.
JPG
This format is great for images that you what to transfer online or have printed. However, because it is based on images, it cannot have a transparent background as there will always be some form of flat color.
GIF
GIFs are great for animated files. While they are less commonly used compared to the PNG file, GIFs are able to have transparent backgrounds.
SVG
This format is great for graphics and web elements. They can have transparent backgrounds and are great for files with vectors.
Overall, you have a few different file options based on your needs but almost all of them allow your logo to have a transparent background.
Your Turn
You can get started on your logo today. Using a logo creator can be a simple and easy way to create your own logo with the personal touches that you prefer.
Our LogoCreator is free, easy to use, and a fast way to get a logo for your business. Check us out today.
Angela Irwin is a branding and design enthusiast with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Meadowbrook College. As a writer at Logocreator.io, she shares her expertise on logo design, graphic trends, and effective branding strategies, helping businesses create impactful visual identities.