Preparing crypto logos for print

A booth banner with the chains you support, stickers for a hackathon, a printed one-pager for investors: sooner or later, crypto logos leave the screen. Files that look perfect in a browser can print dull, muddy or broken, because print works with different color, different resolution limits and different file formats.

This guide covers what to send a printer, why colors change, how small is too small, and what to check before anything goes to press.

Vector in, PDF out

Logos for print should be vectors, so they stay sharp at any size, from a sticker to a three-meter banner. An SVG is a vector, but it isn't the format most print workflows ask for. Printers usually want PDF, often a PDF/X variant that locks down fonts, color and transparency handling. Some older workflows still ask for EPS.

Converting is straightforward in any vector editor. Open the SVG in Illustrator, Affinity Designer or the free Inkscape, check that it looks right, and save or export as PDF. Then reopen the PDF and compare it against the original SVG at a large zoom. Gradients, clip paths and transparency are the parts most likely to change in conversion.

Logo files from icon libraries, including those on Web3 Icons, are already made of outlined shapes, so there are no fonts to embed or convert. That avoids one of the most common print errors: a wordmark set in a font the printer doesn't have.

If a raster image is unavoidable, for example a logo that only exists as a PNG, it needs about 300 pixels per inch at its final printed size. A logo printed 5 cm (about 2 inches) wide needs roughly 600 px across. A 256 px PNG pulled from a website will look soft at that size.

Why screen colors shift in print

Screens mix red, green and blue light. Most print mixes cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink (CMYK) on paper. The range of colors ink can reproduce, its gamut, is smaller than what a screen can show, and the gap is widest for bright, saturated colors, which many crypto brands use: electric blues, vivid greens, saturated purples, neon oranges. Converted to CMYK, those colors come out duller.

The colors in an SVG are defined as screen colors, typically hex values in sRGB. To print them, they must be converted to CMYK, and the result depends on the conversion profile. A profile for coated paper and one for uncoated paper give different ink values for the same hex code, and uncoated paper generally makes colors look softer still.

That is why you shouldn't convert a brand's hex colors yourself if you can avoid it. Many projects publish print values in their brand guidelines: CMYK values, and sometimes Pantone spot colors, which are premixed inks that reproduce a specific color consistently. Use those values. The press kits and brand guidelines guide covers where to find them, and the color in crypto logos guide explains why some brand colors are harder to reproduce than others.

Black deserves its own mention. For large dark areas, printers often use "rich black", a mix of black with other inks, for a deeper tone. For small logos and thin lines, plain 100% black is safer, because four inks that don't line up perfectly leave colored fringes around fine details. Ask your printer which they prefer.

How small is too small

Brand guidelines often set a minimum size for each logo, either in millimeters for print or in pixels for screens. Where a project publishes one, follow it.

Beyond that, the production method sets practical limits:

At small sizes, and in any one-color process, a mono version of the logo usually works better than the full-color one. Gradients and subtle color shifts disappear, and fine internal details merge. A single-color mark drawn for small sizes keeps its shape. The mono versions guide explains how they are derived.

A quick sanity check before ordering: print the PDF at actual size on an office printer and look at it from normal viewing distance. If a sticker's chain logos are hard to tell apart on paper, they will be on vinyl too.

Dark logos and colored materials

On white paper, a full-color logo works as designed. On a black shirt, a dark booth wall or kraft paper, things change.

Dark marks disappear against dark materials, just as they do on dark screens. Your options are a light version of the logo (often the white mono version), a light tile or circle behind the logo, or a version where the mark sits on its own colored background. Check what the brand's guidelines allow; many show approved versions for dark backgrounds.

Ink on colored materials also behaves differently. Ink is partly transparent, so colors printed on a colored surface shift toward that surface's color. Light colors on dark materials usually need an underlayer of white ink. Your printer will know whether their process does this, but it is worth asking before you approve colors from a screen.

Check with the brand

Printing a third-party logo is different from showing it in an app. Banners, merchandise and sponsor walls can imply a partnership, and many projects' guidelines cover exactly these uses: which versions to use, clear space, minimum sizes, and sometimes whether you need approval for merchandise.

Logos are trademarks of their owners, whatever license covers a particular icon file. Read the brand's guidelines before printing, and ask the project if your use goes beyond simply naming a supported network or token. The trademarks guide covers the basics; it isn't legal advice, and neither is this.

Before the job goes to press

• Every logo is a vector in a PDF, or a raster at 300 ppi at final size.
• Colors use the brand's published CMYK or spot values where available.
• Small logos and one-color jobs use mono versions.
• Dark logos on dark materials have a light version, tile or white underlayer.
• A printed test at actual size is readable.
• For color-critical work, you have seen a physical proof, not just a PDF.