Preparing Perfect Prints: What You Need To Know

If you are an interested in creating your own designs, but don’t know where to start, check out the following guide to help you avoid the common mistakes that we all have experienced at one time or another.

This simple guide will help you catch any mistakes before you send your printing material to the printer; which can make the difference between your print looking professional and well-designed or just another wasted effort that ends up in the bottom of your wastebasket.

1. Review Your Copy to Avoid Spelling and Grammar Mistakes

Once your design is complete, be sure to review your copy to make sure that it doesn’t contain any grammatical errors or typos before you send the finished product to print. If you are uncertain of your editing skills, let someone else proofread your prints. In this way, you will receive objective feedback that may make your prints even better.

2. Choosing the Wrong Fonts

The fonts/typography that you use in your print can make or break its overall design. To avoid these mistakes, you must take into account the color, size, background, and purpose of the end product that the font is being used for. If your font is too small or too difficult to read, then it is not fit of public consumption and this will reduce its effectiveness as a marketing tool.

To avoid making this mistake, the minimum font size you should be utilizing is 8 point, but this is only in regards to print. If you are doing something commercial, 16-18 point is the accepted font size because it is easily read by people across all the demographics.

In addition, you must make an effort to limit the number of fonts that you use in one print. Lastly, stay away from fonts that feature fine lines; these can blend into the background and hide your message.

3. RGB vs CMYK

If you are designing a brochure or other print material in color, it should be prepared in CMYK mode. CMYK, or cyan, magenta, yellow and black (key) color mode, uses inks to mix color schemes. Although its colors are not as vibrant as RGB, utilizing this color mode will provide more accurate printed color schemes than its counterpart.

RGB, or red, green, and blue color mode, looks good onscreen and can be utilized for web design and photography, but it shouldn’t be used to create professional prints. This color mode provides you with access to a broader color packet which creates a brighter result. Unfortunately, that’s where the benefits end; RGB colors are not properly reproduced in print and will come out dull or off-colored dependent on the type of printer that was utilized.

To take advantage of the benefits of both color modes, set your document in RGB color mode when designing in Photoshop but, when you are finished with your design, convert it to CMYK mode so that you get the best print performance.

4. Convert Your Document to Greyscale

If you have a black and white design that you think will look good in your print job, you have to make sure that your document is either converted or set up to a working gray space or profile so that everything is properly formatted. If it’s not, the print job will add yellow, magenta, and cyan colored inks to the image, by default, during the printing process. The penalty for allowing this to happen is twofold:

• It makes the print job significantly more expensive
• You will not get the quality that you were hoping for

5. Use a Bleed at All Times

If you are unfamiliar, a bleed refers to artwork that extends past the boundaries of a document. Although it sounds like a bad idea, it is one of the most essential elements of a good print job. Let’s say for example, that you are printing business cards. Because of their small size, they are not able to fit on a full printed page. Consequently, it size must be adjusted with a cutting tool called a guillotine. Unfortunately, guillotines are not the most accurate devices, so a bleed (about 1/8^th of an inch around the print job) will effectively minimize any trimming inaccuracies that may occur. Not using a bleed can result in parts of your designing being cut off or thin white strips of paper along the edge of your print.

6. Raster vs Vector Based Test

When it comes to designing print, most beginners tend to utilize raster typography in their design. Unfortunately, using raster (pixel based) text cause blurry edges when printed. So, if you want your typography to be laser sharp, you must always use vector based graphics and typography.

With a properly formatted vector graphic, you are able to customize your print to any size you can think of and the result will still be perfect. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to use this type of typography. Let’s say, for example, that your design is based on a photograph or raster image, vector would not be recommended in this instance. Instead, you will have to set the document’s resolution to, at least, 300ppi nor should you print anything larger than A2.

7. Get an In-house Proof Before Taking Materials to the Printers

Get an in house proof of your print before you take it to the printers. In this way, you will have a more accurate representation of what the final product is going to look like; compared to what you think it will look like. If there are any inconsistencies with your vision and the actual proof, you can make relevant changes before the prints head out the door.

8. Consider the Design of Your Prints Carefully

Any print that you design is an extension of you as a business entity. In other words, if you create a print that looks weird or tacky, this negative impression will impact the way that your target demographic looks at your business. If you don’t have a lot of design experience, make sure to set some time aside to do your due diligence and research everything you can about creating effective print material. In addition, taking heed to the above steps will give you a basic grasp of the kinds of concepts that may be of use to tou. In fact, don’t be surprised if you find that creating effective print material is not that difficult at all.

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