Can someone help me please with image formats for logos?

[MarionCole]

I have created a logo in photoshop. The image looks good in photoshop but when I convert it to a jpg or bmp or tiff file (to drop it into a Word document for example) it loses sharpness. It's a very big image which I then resize in photoshop before I convert.

I'm obviously doing it wrong.

I have sent the photoshop file to printers who have created business cards, letterhead etc from it. I have just had an advert created from it for a magazine - the magazine arrived this morning and the quality is appalling. The magazine publishers converted it, they asked for the photoshop file but I don't know what they did with it.

What do professionals use to create images like this? I need to have something that I can send anywhere and know that the quality that comes out will be good.

Thanks

Do you mean Photoshop or Photoshop Essentials? For professional printing the image must be created in the CMYK colour space which is not available in Essentials.

When you get a printer to produce letterhead, they will work with the image you provide to make it look good when printed, that is what you pay them for. A magazine expects artwork to be press ready, and if you don't provide exactly the format they require it will be converted using suboptimal settings.

For Word or a web page, you should be able to get a good result with Essentials. Ensure your image is at least 300px per inch and save it as a PNG (bmp or tiff will work but will be huge).

It's Photoshop Elements, which I assume isn't up to the task.

Is there any cheap software out there that is up to the task and will allow me to create print ready files?

DH has had stuff printed in magazines such as the TES
they were perfectly happy with PDF or JPEG
I resize and edit stuff using irfanview

Not really. Most publishers will accept adverts in png format now so it is just a matter of ensuring that your image is high enough resolution, is not compressed and you can live with the limitations of the conversion from RGB to the colour space used in the printing process.

Where you probably went wrong was using too low a resolution and/or compression.

Is it at least 300 dpi? I will need to be for printing in any format.

I need to check the dpi. Thanks for all your feedback.