There are some simple guidelines you should follow when it comes to preparing your graphic design for printing. If you use professional services you can save yourself considerable time by using these easy-to-follow tips that will not only help you but also your printer turn your job around more quickly.
Use the Right File Size
When a graphic design of any type is sent to a printer the files must be 300 dots per inch (dpi). Anything lower than this will need to be stretched; which will affect the quality of your design. ” As a side note, files from the internet are often only 72 dpi and therefore is discouraged for use in your print projects. This is a common problem print companies encounter. They cannot improve an image that has very small dimensions enough to make it look correct in the final print.
Trimming & Bleed
You will need to add a bleed if your design goes to the edge of the. A bleed will ensure that no unprinted edges show up in the final printed product. A bleed goes beyond the actual size of the graphic design file. This will help the printer produce an end product that is printed to the edges. The recommended bleed size is 1/8 of an inch. If you plan to utilize a bleed in your printed materials always make sure that your graphics and text will allow for this trim.
Print Size
Design your graphic design files to the correct size that you want printed. A printing company will only resize your project if they are asked to. For instance, if you have a design with the dimensions of 4.25”x5.5” and you ask for it to be printed as a 4×6” then you will get a print job of 4”x6. Otherwise you will get a 4.25”x5.5” finished product.
Print Colors
The graphic design and printing industries use two types of color modes. RGB mode (red, green and blue) are the colors used by your monitor to display images and text. The printing process though uses CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). The RGB spectrum has a wider range of colors that cannot be replicated in print. If your artwork has RGB elements in it, they can be converted in programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. For the best results, design your graphic design projects in CMYK mode.
Fonts
Convert your fonts to paths when you are submitting a print job to your printer. When you do this you will not have to send the fonts files you used with the files for your project. This is only needed in some types of graphic design programs like Illustrator or InDesign. Some, such as Photoshop do not need the fonts as they can be rasterized. However, you must remember that once they have been rasterized the text can no longer be edited.
By learning more about the graphic design and print process you can save yourself time and money by doing these simple things. Also, you can be sure that the design you have chosen will come out exactly as you had imagined.