A logo manual is the instruction sheet for your logo
A logo manual (also called logo guidelines) is a short document with the rules for your logo. It says how much empty space the logo needs around it, how small it can go, which colours it comes in and what must never be done to it.
When there isn't one, the same things keep happening. The printer pulls a low resolution logo off your website, someone stretches it to fill a banner, and on the flyer it ends up on a photo where it blends into the background. Nobody does this on purpose. They just have nowhere to check how it should be done.
A good logo manual is a few pages long and most of it is pictures. Someone who has never opened a design program should be able to follow it.
What a logo manual is and when a business needs one
A logo manual covers the logo only: its versions, clear space, minimum size, colours, misuse and the files delivered. If you also need rules for fonts, photos, business cards and the website, you are looking for a broader document, a design manual.
It starts to matter the first time you send your logo to someone else, like a printer, the company doing your vehicle wrap, or an event organiser listing you as a sponsor. For a business with one logo and one website it is often all you need.
Logo clear space and minimum size
Clear space is the empty area around the logo that no text, page edge or other graphic may enter. Without it, your logo gets lost on a poster with five other sponsor logos.
Measure it with a part of the logo itself, such as the height of a letter or the width of the symbol. Call that unit "x" and the rule becomes something like "leave at least x around the logo". It works at any size, on a business card or a billboard, and nobody has to calculate anything.
Minimum size is the smallest size at which the logo can still be read. Give it in millimetres for print and in pixels for screens, because different people deal with each. A logo with fine details or a long name needs a larger minimum. If you also have a standalone symbol without text, give it its own, smaller minimum.
You can't really set the minimum from your desk. Print the logo at a few sizes and look at it from a normal distance, and on screen try it as a browser icon and as a profile picture. Once the letters start to blur together you are below the limit, or you need a simplified version.
Minimum size
Logo colour versions
Sometimes your logo goes on white paper, other times on a dark photo, a stamp or a one-colour T-shirt print. One version won't cover all of that, so the manual defines several and says when each one is used.
The rule can be very simple: full colour on white and light backgrounds, inverse on dark ones, black where the print has no colour. Write down exact codes for every logo colour. Without them a supplier guesses the shade, and every supplier guesses a little differently.
Full-colour version
The main version in your brand colours. Use it whenever you can, usually on a light background.
Black and white version
For stamps, newspapers and cheap printing. It is also a good test: a logo that holds its shape in black usually holds up everywhere else.
Inverse version (on dark backgrounds)
A light logo for dark surfaces or photos. The full-colour logo would disappear on a dark background.
Monochrome version
The logo in a single brand colour, for example for embroidery, engraving or one-colour screen printing.
Example of writing down logo colours
Orange
Primary logo colour
- HEX
- #F26B01
- RGB
- 242 / 107 / 1
- CMYK
- 0 / 56 / 100 / 5
- Pantone
- 1505 C
Dark purple
Logo text and dark backgrounds
- HEX
- #1A042E
- RGB
- 26 / 4 / 46
- CMYK
- 43 / 91 / 0 / 82
- Pantone
- 5255 C
HEX for the web, RGB for screens, CMYK for print and Pantone for an exact shade, for example on textiles. CMYK and Pantone values are approximate, always check them with your printer and a swatch book.
Logo misuse: what not to do
People remember this page best because it is made of pictures. Everyone skims past "do not distort the logo". Nobody skims past a stretched logo with a red cross through it.
A logo manual should include at least these don'ts:
The list doesn't have to be final. If you keep seeing the logo misused in the same way, for example on a photo without enough contrast, add it.
Logo file formats: SVG, PDF, PNG
A logo manual also lists the files delivered and what each one is for. The most common problem is a small PNG from the website that someone sends to print.
Logos belong in vector. SVG and PDF stay sharp at any size, while PNG is made of pixels and blurs when enlarged. We go into more detail in our article on vector graphics: pros and cons.
| Format | For | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| SVG | Web, apps, vinyl cutting | For the web, and whenever the logo is cut out of vinyl, like a shop window sticker or a vehicle wrap. It is vector, so it stays sharp at any size. |
| PDF / EPS | Print, large formats | For printers, agencies and sign makers. Vector with CMYK colours. |
| PNG | Office, social media, e-mail | When a program doesn't support vector. Always with a transparent background and enough resolution. |
| JPG | Previews only | Not suitable for a logo, it has no transparent background and loses quality when saved. |
Free logo manual template in PDF
A logo manual template downloaded from the internet won't tell you much, because it describes someone else's logo. You get more out of a foundation of your own that you can build on.
In our free tool you pick your field and get two colours and a pair of fonts that go together. You see them right away on a sample page and can change them until you like the result. We send it to you as a PDF. You don't need to sign up, just give us an e-mail address. A logo manual or a full design manual then builds on this foundation, and a designer can start working with it straight away.
What the PDF contains:
- Colours
- two colours suited to your field, in HEX with a WCAG contrast check.
- Fonts
- a heading and a body font from Google Fonts that pair well and are free to use.
- Type scale
- exact sizes for H1, H2, H3 and body text.
- Usage rules
- where each colour and font is used, so the website and print look like they come from one company.
Put together the base of your manual for free
Colours, fonts and rules for your website in one PDF. You don't need to sign up, just an e-mail address.
Open the free tool
How much a logo manual costs
A logo without usage rules usually stays in good shape only until the first print order. That is why a basic manual is part of our Logo package: logo design with a basic manual and colour palette costs €120.
If you need rules for your whole visual identity, including fonts, imagery, a business card and usage examples, that is a full design manual. With us it costs €350.
What is enough for you:
- Logo manual
- you have one logo, a website and a few profiles and need to hand the logo safely to a printer or supplier.
- Design manual
- several people work with your brand, you print in many places or brief agencies, and you want the result to look like it comes from one company.
Logo and manual from one designer
Logo design with a basic manual for €120, a full design manual for €350. You know the price up front.
Logo design: price and process