Print Design TipsTips and Information About Printing

You want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to extracting all the sales juice from your marketing budget.

A picture paints a thousand words and there is no doubt that using pictures has a direct and positive impact on the sales success of marketing tools such as catalogs, newsletters, brochures or company magazines.

Creating good-looking and successful collateral is time-consuming and expensive if you are going to do the job right – it also takes time not only for a piece of work but for your overall repertoire of tools you will develop and use.

Catalogs for instance, are very heavy users of photos – and this is where customer seek to cut corners first and save money – this is where a catalog will either succeed and return profits or fail completely and lose the investment.  Do not scrimp on the photographs – take single product shots where possible and make the images as large as you can in the catalog – both directly increase sales.

You can save money by using images from your supplier or manufacturer – frequently these are excellent images for you to use, so always make sure you ask them if they have images you can use in your own publications. You not only want the images but you want them in the format your design partner can work with – for instance, images with clipping paths may be required; if they don’t have them you may end up with a higher design and preparation cost which loses you the money you save with a “free” image – act as liason between the design partner and the suppliers so everyone knows exactly what is required.

Many customers are web-based companies who grew from a web-site and have continued right on growing so there  is little to say where the “traditional” part of the business begins and the “web” business ends.  Frequently they have a stack of images which are used on the web but there are problems with low-resolution and these images simply cannot be used in a print-catalog – the end result will be blurred and there are also issues in handling them causing increased design team costs.

Clients also look to save money by taking the photographs themselves – a false economy on several levels.  Firstly, the cost of the shoot is about 30-35% of the image budget but is 100% important when it comes to the finished quality.  You simply cannot afford to end up with a set of bad product images and taking the shots is where the risk lies – hire a professional volume image provider and get the shots you really will need and the design team can use.

Ever wondered just what a printer or designer mean when they start using terminology?

Here is a brief guide for you to understand the difference between your ells and leadings.

AA’s

Author Alterations – ussually changes made by you as the customer during or after the proofing process and as such billable to you as extra work performed – plan your work carefully beforehand and be meticulous at the proofing stage to avoid a nasty shock with the bill.

Actual Weight 

This is the actual weight of the paper used and it is used to determine the price for shipping as well as the purchase price for the paper itself – you may see different terms such as basic weight or basic size when planning your project and they mean different things so ask your print partner exactly what they mean and what they are using.

Bleed

This is where an image runs off the side of the paper – a technique that can concentrate the attention of the reader but does result in greater costs at the printing stage – the bleeds are created by trimming the paper to size (which increases the cost because of the extra labor and extra paper size).

DPI or Dots Per Inch

This is the number of dots which fit horizontally and vertically into a square inch of printing – the higher the DPI the greater the detail that can be presented including color differentiation.   A higher DPI is needed for graphics and photographic replication than for simple printed text jobs and the cost increases generally with a higher DPI.

Em Space

This is a lateral space equal to the width of the letter “m” – equally there is the En space for the letter “n” – these spaces are used in typography and typesetting.

Finish

Refers to the finish of the paper used – there are various types of finishes depending on your budget and the use to which the piece will be put.  You can have an embossed finish, felt, smooth or vellum, calendering,  papermaking and many others – ask your printing partner for a selection of finishes which they will usually have as a sample book.

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In many cases your brochure will be the first impression you make on a potential customer or client, so it is important that yours be well-designed. The following elements are part of any well-made brochure: originality, design, images, color, and page bleed.

The originality of your brochure is somewhat self explanatory. This applies not so much to the design of the brochure, but how your company is represented. It should inform the audience of something unique about your company in order to make you stand out. The design of your brochure has to do with its outline and layout. In cases like this it is best to go for a simple design that is uncluttered and easy to read. Make sure only necessary information is included.

The images that are used in your brochure should always be the highest quality possible. Always ask the person who is designing your brochure what type of images they will be using. Sometimes they will take their own photos and other times they may prefer to use stock images. Regardless, make sure that they use high-resolution images.

Color is important in a well-designed brochure. Colors have a way of invoking feeling and emotion in a person. The colors used in the brochure should also go well with the images used such as the company logo. Finally there is the page bleed. This is where color runs off the edges of your brochure when printing in order to account for any shifts that may occur. At least a 1/8 bleed is recommended.

Going out to eat is one of the great pleasures in life and the window onto what an eatery has to offer is, of course, the menu.

For restauranters, the menu is crucial but so many menus fail to deliver either the information in a readable and easily identifiable way or just as bad, fail to convey the atmosphere and tone, that ambience, which is so vital in creating an enjoyable dining environment which creates repeat business and restaurant success.

Strive for Clarity

Most menus fail to achieve clarity and by this we mean the food and drink choices are easily found and understood but also the overall message and personality of the venue is carried on through in a unified theme.

Almost every menu has too many words - take any menu and cut the word number in half and you will automatically improve that menu – take whatever yours is and try to cut out all the extraneous wordage making it more direct and compelling with respect to your dining offering.

This makes it easier for the customer to understand what is available and also with yoru servers efforts at cross-selling other food, sides, desserts and drinks.

Typeface & Font

The print on a menu should never be too small to read but you also must take into account the lighting when a customer is likely to be reading the menu – if the venue enjoys bright light that’s fine but if it is providing a more intimate experience with reduced lighting or candlelight then it is imperative a customer can be able to read what is before them.

Never use less than 12 point typeface – anything less is going to be difficult to read for many customers under any conditions.

Making sure you have a font style in keeping with your ambience and personality is also important but again, many customers look to the weird and wonderful fonts available as a means of distinguishing themselves from other competitors – only to end up with frustrated diners quizzing the servers over what is meant!

Menus Change

Depending on your clientele and the market you are in, your menu is going to change no matter who you are but how you effect these menue changes will have a direct impact on how you present the menu to your customers.

Having a card based menu which needs to be reprinted every time you have a menu item or price change is going to be expensive and perhaps only suitable for higher-end eateries.  For mid-range dining establishments, a folder with inserts is probably a better option so each insert only needs to be changed and not the entire menu.

Offset printing may still provide the clearest print quality available, but digital printing allows for much faster speed and this may be necessary in a fast-paced, business environment.  Digital printing is not only fast but it is dynamic and susceptible to change in a manner which offset printing is not – making alterations to a work-in-progress can be handled in minutes and not hours or days.

While offset printing still holds the top slot for quality, digital printing is catching up very, very fast and for many projects, the level of quality is perfectly acceptable.  Full-color, high quality marketing brochures may be better left to offset printers, but when you have a constantly changing catalog or a newsletter, you should look to utilize a digital printer instead.

Size & Shape

Digital printing allows for quick and simple customization of sizes being used – offset printing requires the use of standard sizes with labor intensive cutting to size which significantly adds to cost.  It does not matter whether you are producing a poster or business card, an offset printer must use standard sizing and there are limitations on the dimensions in any event; changing between different sized jobs is time consuming and labor intensive, which again serves to dramatically increase the cost to you.

With a digital printer, you can specify virtually any size and any shape – you are only limited by the actual size of the printer capacity, which is not likely to be a practical limitation given modern digital printer sizes available.

Production Time

Digital printing is extremely fast, much faster than offset printing methods and especially so when color printing is involved.  Rush jobs can be handled overnight, even for full-color projects compared to two to three days for traditional offset printing methods.  More than this, digital printers can be changed from one task to another very quickly which also serves to increase turnaround times of multiple items required for one project while the inks used in the digital process are faster drying.

Versatility & Adaptability

Digital printing is run by software which makes it easy to manipulate images and text elements when setting up your piece.  There is no need to make major changes to the printing machine, which is the case with offset printing.  This allows you to play around with effects both virtually and in print so you can see how the finished product will appear when using differing design elements and techniques. This also does not require much in the way of manhours, which serves to keep the cost down even further.

Cost

Digital printing scores over offset printing in terms of cost – all the flexibility and speed of turnaround do not come with a premium but rather, they serve to make the process faster and minimize the involvement of expensive labor. With offset printing, the initial product is usually the most expensive because of the high set-up costs involved, but digital printing provides an evening out of costs throughout the run and removes the heavy direct, fixed costs involved – you end up simply paying for the size of the run with minimal set-up costs involved.