Ten years ago, artwork for print was carried almost exclusively on an Apple Mac.
But putting together a piece of work on your PC is getting easier and easier with the advent of widely available and more user-friendly software.
However, getting your next project to look good on your computer screen is only the start. In order for any print company to take your file on to the print production stage, there are certain things that you must consider while creating your file.
Here’s a few pointers:
Make sure any images used in your document are at 300 dots per inch. Resolutions lower than this will make the pictures appear blurry or blocky. Don’t include any images from the web in your files, unless you’re certain that they are high enough quality.
Don’t leave any jpeg images in your file. These will not print in the correct colours.
Convert all images to .tiff or .eps format as these are the recognised pre-press image formats. Also you must convert any RGB images to CMKY format.
Try and size your images to the box they’re appearing in. If you have a 20cm wide image in a 5cm wide image box, the imagesetter will ‘dump’ or ignore any unwanted image data. Sizing your images correctly will also make for a much lower overall file or folder size.
If your document has any colours or photos that ‘bleed’ off one or more edges, make sure you allow for this in the file. The standard bleed measurement is 3mm over and above the intended page trim.
Full colour or ‘four-colour’ print work is made up of the four process colours - cyan, magenta, yellow and black (Black is known as ‘Key’ in the trade). Check your colour palette to ensure that all the colours you’ve used are set to CMKY. If you’re using any Pantone or ’special’ colours, let your printer know which colours these will be and leave these (and these only) as Pantone spot colours in your colour palette.
When selecting special or Pantone colours across different software programs, make sure that the colours have exactly the same name. eg a Pantone 321C will output as a different colour to Pantone 321CV or Pantone 321M. Some repro departments have the ability to resolve this colour naming problem at the colour proof stage, but they will always prefer correctly supplied files in the first instance.
Most print files created by design houses are now supplied to printers in high resolution PDF format. However, if you don’t have, or don’t use, a proprietary PDF-creation software, your printer will do this for you. You will, however, need to make sure that you send the printer all the files you have used in the creation of your document. This includes all photographs, logos, fonts and, of course, the file you’ve created your document in.
In our experience, producing any full colour work without a colour proof of some kind is crazy. Today’s colour proofs are accurate to within 2 or 3 percent of the finished work and this is your last chance to check your file before the print gets under way.
Although supplying PDFs to printers has been a mini revolution in itself and PDFs are deemed to be a very accurate way of supplying colour files, THEY ARE NOT 100% FOOLPROOF. In our experience, the time you don’t have a colour proof is the time something untoward happens with the file. There is NO excuse not to have a colour proof.
Once a colour proof has been produced by the printer and sent to you, make sure you check this thoroughly. Generally speaking, the printer will ask you to sign the colour proof as an acceptance that this is what’s being printed. This is your last chance to make sure everything is OK.
For further help and advice, or for a quote on your next marketing project, please call D2P on 01582 764456