What Files to Send an Illustration Client (And What Never to Hand Over)

The job is approved, the client is happy, and now you have to send them something. This is the moment where a lot of illustrators quietly give away more than they meant to, usually by attaching whatever is in the project folder. Sandra Staub, who teaches the Minimalist Art Bundle on Twotap, treats delivery as a step with its own rules rather than an afterthought, and the rules are short enough to memorize.

The default pair: PDF and PNG

When a client has not specified formats, Staub does not ask them to decide and she does not send everything. She sends two files.

"If the client doesn't provide me with any specifications for which file formats they want the artwork, I prepare them as a PDF, commonly used for print, and a PNG, just in case."
Sandra Staub, in the lesson Prepping for Print from the Minimalist Art Bundle

The logic is simple. PDF is what a printer expects and what survives being placed into someone else's layout. PNG is the universal fallback for everything else, the file a marketing person can drop into a slide or a web page without asking you for another version. Between them they cover the overwhelming majority of what a client will actually do with an illustration.

Turn the background off

For merch work specifically, Staub removes the background before export. On a tote bag or a t-shirt the fabric is the background, so a white rectangle behind the artwork is not neutral, it is an extra thing to print.

Note that this is an export-time decision, not a working decision. During the design process she keeps a background color visible, because it helps both her and the client picture the finished product. It comes off at the end, by toggling the layer's visibility, which takes a second and is easy to forget.

Never hand over the source file by default

This is the rule worth writing on a sticky note.

"Don't deliver original file formats such as PSD, AI, or EPS if not specifically agreed upon previously. This way you ensure your designs will not be edited without your permission."
Sandra Staub, in the lesson Prepping for Print

A flattened PDF or PNG is a finished artwork. A layered source file is the ability to remake the artwork, indefinitely, without you. Those are different products, and only one of them is what a standard illustration fee buys.

Staub is direct about what follows from that: you own the rights to your designs, so if a client wants to edit your artwork it requires your approval, and a different fee is due for the editable files. That is not an aggressive position. It is the same reason a photographer sends finished images rather than the raw catalogue.

The trap is social rather than legal. Nobody sends a PSD because they decided to. They send it because the client asked casually at the end of a friendly project and it felt petty to say no. Decide the answer before you are in that conversation.

Settle formats in the brief, not at the end

Every one of these decisions gets easier if deliverables are named at the start. Staub's whole workflow runs from a written client brief, which she asks for on every project and keeps at hand throughout, and file formats belong in it alongside the use case for the illustration.

If the brief says the artwork is going on tote bags and t-shirts, print-ready files with no background are obviously right and nobody has to negotiate at handover. If the client later wants the source, you are amending an agreement rather than defending a boundary.

A delivery checklist

• Check the brief for specified formats first, and follow it if there are any
• With no spec, export a PDF for print and a PNG as backup
• Toggle off the background layer for anything printing onto fabric or product
• Confirm the export is at the right size and resolution for the stated use
• Do not attach PSD, AI, or EPS unless it was agreed in writing
• If the source is requested afterwards, quote it as separate work

Delivery is the last impression a client has of working with you, and it is also the moment your rights are most casually signed away. Sandra Staub runs the full commission workflow, from brief to final export, inside the Minimalist Art Bundle on Twotap.