The Top 10 Problems Preparing Files for Professional Commercial Printing

 












Here’s a quick look at the most common problems that printers and graphic designers come across and how you can avoid them so that your artwork will print properly.

1: Fonts not embedded in the PDF or missing in application files:
To save sending me the application files (InDesign, QuarkXPress, etc.) it’s best to save your final design as a PDF. But when you create a PDF file you must embed your fonts. This ensures that even if the person who opens the document does not have the font you used on their computer, they are able to view and print the file correctly. 

2: Incomplete or corrupt files:
Before sending, check to see if your file will open correctly and has all necessary pages, images, etc.


3: Colours that are not converted from RGB to four-color CMYK mode
You might design in RGB, proof in RGB, preview in RGB, however, we print in CMYK format. It is very rare that a computer monitor will accurately display the colours chosen in your layout. Your images may print in black and white or with inaccurate colour if you neglect to convert images.

4: Inadequate bleeds:
A bleed is any area on a printed sheet where ink extends to the cut edge. One problem of inadequate bleeds is that an image that you expect to extend to the edge will show a tiny white line on the trimmed edge. It leads to an unpolished, unfinished look that you want to avoid. We require at least 3mm of bleed all round where either solid colour or a photographic image is used. 

5: Placed images resolution too low or too high (always use 300 dpi)
A scan resolution that is too low results in a low quality image. A resolution that is too high increases the file size and printing time, without increasing the image quality. Images downloaded from the internet do not print clearly (the resolution is too low, possibly 72 – 100 dpi). 

6: Black and white images saved in RGB or CMYK instead of greyscale:
They will print with some colour if not saved as greyscale.

7: Images delivered in the wrong file format (JPG, PNG, GIF)
Use TIFF or EPS (Photoshop). JPG, PNG, and GIF are great for photographic images on the web, because they compress the file, making the file smaller in size for faster downloading. Not ideal for printing, because every time you save it, you lose more colour and detail. TIFF and EPS are best for printing without loss of colour or detail. 

8: Missing images in applications
:
Will either print blank or a low resolution image in its place. 

9: Wrong applications used for complex page layouts:
Use publishing programs like InDesign or QuarkXPress. MS Word is great for word processing at your desk, when you can print to your printer, but software limitations make it difficult to do proper, efficient graphic layouts. Any MS Word files presented for offset printing will have to be converted to PDF. MS PowerPoint is useful for creating slides for a presentation, but limitations prevent this from being an efficient layout program. Any PowerPoint files presented for offset printing will have to be converted to PDF. 

10: Not supplying a hard copy proof:
This helps us to spot potential problems. Please supply final colour or black and white laser printouts with your digital files. Printouts should be at actual size (100%). If the image area in the page file exceeds the size of a laser or inkjet print, output the laser at a reduced percentage, but clearly note the amount of reduction.

If you're busy and need help with professional design and artwork creation, then please contact me on: 0208 440 1155 or my mobile: 07889 912 184. Also check out my website for samples of design & print work I have handled for other satisfied clients here: www.dc-graphics.co.uk

How Professional is Your Business Card?

DO YOU REALISE that the smallest marketing tool in your business is your most important one? Yes, you've guessed it – your business card! So why scrimp and save with a cheap, crap business card. So I ask the question; How professional is your business card?

Your card reflects you as a person and your business. Make sure it looks good, feels good and is good at the job of promoting you and your business! Being a graphic designer and running DC-Graphics Design and Print Specialists, I probably notice this sort of thing more than most.

7 Reasons Why Most Business Cards are Rubbish!

1: Ever been given a card that's obviously printed out on a home computer? Why do people do that? Is it for some sort of kiddies club at the local school? It costs very little to get a professionally designed and printed card, even in full colour. If you can't be bothered to do that, just how professional are you, really?

2: I hate business cards that are probably free or purchased for under £10, printed on what can only be described as ‘thick toilet paper’ and on the back it will have the cheap printer’s name and website on it. (No wonder they’re free or laughably cheap)! These are the ones that have a stock background image. I’ve been at a networking event and have been given 2 cards from 2 different people from different trades no less, and yes, you guessed it, they BOTH had the same background image!

3: Business cards that are logo farms. By that I mean that they have more than one logo on them. Do I really need to see any secondary logos of groups that the business is associated with? Sometimes I get a card crammed with logos and I have to wonder if this is their only form of advertising?

4: Business cards that have a change of phone number or address label stuck on them. I mean how tight and makeshift is that? It looks as if they just can’t be bothered to gain more business with that approach. That’s just sloppy, and gives a sloppy image to anyone the card is handed to. Are they really going to give you a good service if they can’t even project a professional image of themselves?

5: How annoying is it when someone has to cross out an old phone number or email and write in a new one just before they hand their card to you. Get yourself organised and make getting new cards a top priority!

6: Absolutely nothing printed on the reverse side. It’s dead space that could be working for you, but keep it simple, just a few bullet points about you and/or your business, short, sweet and to the point. If not, a graphic image or a strong colour from your logo so that if it’s left anywhere upside down, curiosity will make people pick it up and turn it over.

7: Another bugbear is when a ‘so called’ professional person in business has a website but the email address on their card is a bog standard ‘joe public’ domestic one, like BT, hotmail, yahoo, aol or gmail. Nothing screams “amateur” more than this. Get an email address that matches your website for goodness sake! And, what’s possibly worse is no email address at all. Come on, it’s 2016; get with the 21st century if you want business!

5 Tips on Getting a Professional Looking Business Card

TIP 1: Get a professional graphic designer to design your card: Click here and you can hire me!

TIP 2: Insist on at least 400gsm thickness of board

TIP 3: Have it matt laminated to give it a quality feel

TIP 4: Make sure you have plenty printed to make it worthwhile

TIP 5: Consider a spot UV gloss varnish over your logo or an image to give your card an ‘edge’ over your competitors for quality

Check a recent case study of mine. This was a logo I designed, together with matching corporate stationery set of a business card, letterhead and compliment slip. See them here.

What about my own business card I hear you ask? Well being a design and print specialists I had to have something a bit different. In fact, you can see it right now here!

But… be careful, quality print finishes of business cards could turn into an obsession of ‘one-upmanship’ in this short video clip from the Hollywood movie ‘American Psycho’ –

 

Check out my full list of design and print services by going here.

5 Reasons Why PDF Files Are Best For Final Print

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Being a Graphic Design and Print Specialist and running DC-Graphics, I thought I would explain why PDF files are best for final, professional quality print reproduction.

When designing work for clients, I email them low resolution PDF files just so they can receive the files easily and view them. They can then print them out if need be, check and finally approve my design work. Because I supply a low quality PDF at this point, I often have to assure new clients that once the job is approved by them, I will be making a very high quality, high resolution version of their job. This means I will be adding the relevant bleed and crop/trim marks that the print company needs to print the job to the highest standard. It’s a well known fact that PDF files are now the industry standard in the professional world of printing.

The Adobe Acrobat PDF

PDF stands for Portable Document Format created by the Adobe company and you probably already use Adobe Acrobat Reader (if not, go here) to open and view PDFs already. If you haven’t used or worked with PDF’s before, the following information will help you understand why designers and professional printers prefer to receive final approved artwork as a press ready PDF file.

1. With many elements used in a graphic design document, such as fonts, logos, photographic and even scanned images especially, a multi-page document like a newsletter, magazine or book means it will now be quite a considerable file size. Often too large to send by email.

2. Print companies used to require you supply all these elements as separate files on disk, but saving the whole job now as a PDF file means that not only are all these elements embedded, but it will also compress the combined data. So the final PDF when saved, is considerably smaller in memory size enabling it to be easily emailed to your chosen printer.

3. There are no cross platform issues with PDF files as they can be opened and viewed on PC’s as well as Apple Mac computers.

4. Correctly made PDF files can speed up the print process and most professional graphic design software lets you make your PDF from within that package.

5. One last tip – if you are making your own PDF’s – ensure all colours used are in CMYK format and your images, logos and scans are no less then 300dpi (dots per inch) resolution as this will mean less chance of your final printed job ending up with a pixelated, jagged edge look to all images. Don’t worry about the sharpness of the fonts, they will be fine.

Free Advice from Doug at DC-Graphics

There is plenty of other reasons why PDF’s are a printer’s preferred choice of artwork format. The information above is just a brief, basic outline. If you are not sure about anything, then please contact me on: 0208 440 1155 or email me: doug@dc-graphics.co.uk and I will give you some free advice over the phone. Or, if you prefer, like all of my satisfied clients, (see some testimonials here) - let me design your project for you, set up the artwork in the correct way and I’ll arrange the printing for you and get it delivered to any location of your choice.

Printed Leaflets – what they’re called and how they fold…

When a client contacts me here at DC-Graphics and tells me that they want a folded leaflet, a conversation often ensues with me trying to fathom the type of folded leaflet they have in mind.

A good example would be a document requirement of 6 pages or more. Documents such as these are normally designed to either be finished with a Concertina Fold (also called a ‘Z’ Fold) or a Roll Fold. Both names are quite close to what the finished outcome would look like. What follows is normally a series of questions from me to try and find out exactly what the client has in mind, what they have seen and if they have a sample leaflet for style in their possession. This can slow down the start of the design and print process, as they may have to mail the sample leaflet to me, or I have to travel to them to pick it up. One client tried to speed things up by actually photographing their sample leaflet with their Smartphone and then emailed the image to me! But if they had have had access to my handy guide below, a lot of time could have been saved. So below is a list and description of the most common types of folded leaflet used:

The Z Fold Leaflet

The Z Fold Leaflet is folded in equal parallel parts much like an accordion and will look like a ‘Z’ when viewed from above and opened out. This zig-zag style of leaflet is much easier to set up as it requires the flat page to be divided exactly into the required number of panels and will back up perfectly on the reverse. Example: A typical DL sized Z fold with 6 pages will fold into three equal sections measuring 99mm x 210mm. This leaflet size is very common as it originates from an A4 page which is in effect just folded twice. See the diagram. Because of this, the guides and back up will be exactly the same on the reverse.

The Roll Fold Leaflet

The Roll Fold Leaflet is a little more involved. The largest two panels being the same size at one end with the rest of the panels being slightly smaller so that they can fold into each other and line up correctly. This means each panel is slightly different in size and the designer has to consider the back up very carefully. Example: A typical DL sized Roll Fold will have three sections, two of which will make up the front and back cover and are the largest at 100mm each. The third panel needs to fold inside neatly without buckling the leaflet and therefore needs to be slightly smaller. As this leaflet will usually originate from an A4 sheet, so the last measurement must be 97mm. The first diagram shows the outside spread of the leaflet which includes the front and back cover on the right. The second diagram shows the inside spread which is the exact inverse and reverse of the measurements on the front. This is where most people slip up. The outside spread must start with the lowest measurement on the left and the inside spread, the lowest measurement on the right – remember, they have to back up correctly and so they are not the same on both sides!

The best and most simple way of checking that everything works is obvious. Print one out, cut it out and fold it up! If the margins and text line up correctly and the folding is flat without buckling, you have successfully created a correctly folded leaflet. Now call me on 0208 440 1155 or email me and I can start on a design and print your folding leaflet.

I Slapped Boris, Ken and Brian...

...on the front of a Newsletter that I design, print and distribute for one of my clients - Radio Taxis Group!

Issue 7, the March edition of 'Mountview News' - is a Newsletter that now seems to have developed into a 36 page magazine for all Radio Taxis' self employed London black taxi cab drivers. Geoffrey Riesel, the Chairman and CEO of Radio Taxis Group interviewed all 3 of the top candidates for Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick with the interests of London's black cab drivers at heart. You can read not only the 3 interviews but see the whole content of what I design, typeset and layout every quarter for Radio Taxis Group by going here.

My 'Magic' Marketing Letter for Business

I have been using a Direct Mail 'Magic' Marketing Letter to target Marketing Managers who outsource all of their graphic design and print work. This letter, once sent to a named prospect, ALWAYS got me noticed AND more importantly - remembered. It especially came into it's own when I made that all essential follow up phone call. It has truly helped me win new clients for my graphic design and print business. It's been so successful I thought it was time to share it with others absolutely FREE!

A small item (that costs virtually next to nothing) is added to your letter. You probably already have this small item at home and also at your office, so you could start to use this unusual method straight away. You use your own, existing letterheaded paper. You just need to copy me and follow my exact instructions to tailor it to suit your type of business.

My 'Magic' Marketing Letter secret will show you:

• What ultra-cheap item (you probably have already) to add to your letter 
• How it will make you stand out against all other mail 
• Why your follow-up phone call will work in your favour 
• How and why you will be remembered 
• Which day of the week is best to send it

To get this 'secret' information, I'm not asking for money, just a fair swap of your name and your email address. I will then send you by return email, my secret, successful method ABSOLUTELY FREE for you to implement straight away. All you have to do to get it is click here.

How to Organise Design and Print in 6 Easy Steps...

"TIME IS MONEY" is an old business cliché, so when it comes to getting information to your graphic designer in order to get the ball rolling on a graphic design and print project, it pays to streamline the process and get back to what you do best – your job. If you have to keep feeding bits and pieces to your designer or answering questions regarding the project, it can sap your energy as well as your time. Follow my 6 easy steps below and you will find that getting it right from the start will speed things up tremendously, save lots of time and as a bonus, you'll come across as a well organised professional.

 STEP 1. Write a graphic design brief - which is basically a written explanation from client to designer outlining the key aims, objectives and time scales of a creative project.

STEP 2. Supply all text as a Word document to your designer in plain black ordinary text as they will be extracting and formatting it in their chosen font(s) within their professional graphic design package.

STEP 3. Photographic images should be supplied as JPEG files separately, DON'T embed within a Word or PowerPoint document. They need to be as large as possible, ie; copies of the original shots. Avoid downloading existing images from your website as they will be of low resolution (72dpi) and print images need to be 300dpi. Much better to scale images down than to enlarge them. If you use a stock photo library, then always download the 300dpi versions.

STEP 4. Supply logos as vector graphics, normally as .EPS or .AI files. These will reproduce at the very highest quality and sharpness whatever their final size. Make sure if you do, that all fonts are converted to outlines or paths. This means that fonts originally used within the file do not have to be supplied separately.

STEP 5. Your designer will probably supply you back proofs as a PDF file attached to their emails. You will need to check PDF or printed proofs thoroughly, ie; with a 'fine tooth comb' as mistakes missed will need to be corrected and the job re proofed. Thus avoiding a complete re-print which will be costly and delay the final delivery of the printed job.

STEP 6. When you are happy with everything and approved the quote for the quantity required, email your designer/printer and say "approved, please proceed to print."

I hope the above is helpful to all those of you who have to outsource professional graphic design for final printing. If I can help you with a forthcoming project in any way, please have a look at my online portfolio here. Then call me for a brief initial chat on 0208 440 1155.

Supplying Artwork for Print

MANY PEOPLE SPEND HOURS DESIGNING THEIR OWN MARKETING MATERIAL, knowing that they will want it printed professionally – eventually! But not saving your final work in the correct colour format and file type that professionals require can cause serious production problems when professional printing is needed. Having over 25 years' experience behind me means that I can handle everything from concept to completion for you. But, if you just happen to have a design completed and now need it printed, follow my guide below and you won't go wrong when you send your final finished artwork file to print and end up with a job to be proud of.

PDF’s are rapidly becoming the standard file format for transmitting files for printing, but it is important to prepare your PDF file in the correct way. 

 Supplying PDF Artwork 

Press ready PDF - with fonts embedded, for best results – high resolution – 300dpi. Here at DC-Graphics I prefer that all artwork to be supplied to me for printing to be as a high-resolution PDF.

 

Correct Preparation of PDF Files 

When creating a PDF in Adobe Acrobat Distiller, there are job options which must be set for commercial printing. These include default resolution, compression settings and font embedding. Please ensure you choose high resolution. Compression settings for colour and greyscale should be downsampled to 300dpi with “auto compression” set on high. Bitmapped (monochrome: i.e. line art) images should be set at 600dpi. Font embedding should be set to “embed all fonts.”

Bleed 
One of the most important elements in artwork for printing! Please ensure there is 3mm bleed all round the PDF, i.e. save the PDF with 6mm added to each measurement (i.e. for A4 usually 210mm x 297mm, save as 216mm x 303mm). Crop marks may be included if you wish. If your artwork is supplied without bleed I may not always be able to add it on for you and you may have to amend your original artwork yourself and then re-supply a new PDF artwork to me.

Bleed and Crop Marks 
As mentioned above, all artwork must have 3mm bleed if you require the image to bleed off the edge of the paper. Crop marks should be included if artwork does not fill a whole page area (i.e. no bleed). They should be 5mm long, 3mm outside of the page area and coloured in the colour ‘registration’ to ensure they appear on each colour separation. Please ensure that artwork is supplied at the correct finished size (i.e crop size) required. If this is not possible, please inform me to allow time for amending the artwork.

CMYK not RGB 
Please ensure that all embedded images are CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) files. RGB images may look good on your screen but final output to print is always in CMYK. One should be aware that files converted from RGB to CMYK may alter the colour composition significantly! Further to this, please ensure that objects that should be black only, (black text, for example) are not RGB black, but only show on the black CMYK channel.

Microsoft Office Files 
When creating a PDF from an MS Publisher or Word file, care must be taken to ensure spot colours are created correctly in your original documents. Do not set to RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colours as they cannot be printed as such.

Supplying EPS Files 
Ensure your files have bleed and crop marks and please confirm the final size of the artwork and supply a hard copy for reference.

 

Artwork Amendments or Re-submission 

I will endeavor to correct any easy to rectify issues that we spot. More extensive amending or correcting is charged dependent upon the amount of time required to rectify. Or I will contact you to advise how to correct the problem and request that you then re-supply a new PDF.

 

Imposition 
Please do not supply imposed pages or pages in “printers pairs” because my printer uses imposition software to impose correctly for our printing processes.

Booklets 
If you are supplying a document with multiple pages, please try and make the front and back cover of the document a separate file, and supply as single pages in page order. Also, please remember to allow for “creep” – I suggest you keep all text and copy at least 5mm away from the trimmed edge.

Fonts 
Include all fonts you have used in the file. Whilst I have an extensive font collection, there is no guarantee the version you have used matches mine. This can create problems with line lengths and spacing of the type. I will assume all fonts supplied are licensed and take no responsibility for embedded fonts.

Lineart and Images 
• Scanned colour and greyscale images should be 300dpi at the final size in the document submitted for output. 
• Images should be submitted as TIFF’s, EPS or JPEG’s. 
• Line Art (bitmapped) should be 600 – 1200dpi at the final size in the document submitted for output.

Screens 
Screen tints may range from 99% down to 1%. From a practical printing viewpoint, anything above 90% or less than 5% will generally not be visible to the naked eye.

Sending Artwork by Email 
Please address it to: studio@dc-graphics.co.uk with any relevant information regarding the job. Maximum file size preferred by email is 10mb. Files larger than this should be sent on disk or by using one of the many file upload sites that are now readily available and allow you to send large files, often free of charge. Check out either www.mailbigfile.com or www.yousendit.com
 

Sending Artwork on Disk 
I can accept CD Rom, DVD, and USB memory sticks. Please include a hard copy of your artwork for reference with any useful instructions. Please quote the order reference number and include a contact name, email address and telephone number in case of a query. Don’t forget to keep a copy of your file, in case I need you to undertake changes or corrections.

High Resolution Digital Proofs 
My print quotes always include a PDF proof. If you require a high resolution digital proof, then these can be supplied for an extra charge. Proofs are calibrated to the printing presses that will print your job.

If all this is too much to bear, then I can obviously design your project for you and all of the above will be taken care of for you at no extra cost at all. Just contact me on 0208 440 1155 or email me here.