The Art of Knowing Your Graf XFiles

Knowing how to tell if our Graf XFiles are safe before you download them is important to both of us but how do you tell?

First it is important to know that we will never share a file on our site that has not been opened and tested by us first.  The types of files you have to be concerned with are files that are executable like a .exe file.  First know that we do not deal with any kind of executable files at this time.

What files do we use?  Mostly JPG, PNG, ZIP, AI, EPS, PSD type files. These are files used for grafx.

What do we use on our Freebie page? We use the majority of JPG files and occasionally PNG files. So what are they and why are they safe?  Both JPG and PNG files are image files that have been compressed.  They are not an executable files that would require you to run anything on your computer nor install a program, they are image files.  Every file you download off our freebie page is safe.  We have scanned the images ourselves and or opened and reworked them and they have gone through many virus scans before getting to you and once again JPG and PNG file extensions are safe. HOWEVER...

This does not mean that in the process of downloading files they could not have passed through some third party trying to do you malicious harm.  Never get a file of ours through another site such as Pinterest.  It is safest to get it from us directly.  So how can you tell if the  file you downloaded is safe?  If you are SURE it is a JPEG/PNG image (after checking the REAL extension of the file) then it poses no threat.

To be able to view files' true extensions you must click "Tools" in the upper left part of any explorer window then click "Folder Options". In there you must go to the "View" tab and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".  Always make sure that someone has not renamed the .JPG or .PNG to .jpg.exe  or .png.exe  You can also check the files from where you downloaded them to to ensure no file extensions have been added to them.  The likelihood of this is extremely slim.  Still not sure? Your virus program can also run a scan on the file.

Our Zip files; which you will come in contact with through ours stores is a way for us to package many files together so you only download one file package instead of several.  Our Zip files contain a text file, and any of the following; PNG/JPG files, AI files, EPS.  AI files are for Adobe Illustrator and EPS files can be opened in Corel, Photoshop and AI. AI and EPS files are vector files that are also image files just like a JPG or PNG but instead these files can be resized in the programs mentioned without losing pixel clarity. AI and EPS files are mostly what are called Vector files.  Zip files from us are safe because of all the above mentioned and contain no executable files.

Good luck with everything and remember to ponder provenience, size and name of any executable you download before you run it.

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