Print Design TipsTips and Information About Printing

Hee are some things for you to do if you want a huge bill for your printing and design!

If you have money to burn, here is a great way of getting rid of your greenbacks almost as fast as Brewster did with his millions

Use Non-Standard Folding

A sure fire way to get the printing bill through the roof!

Many publications need folding – a simple one page flyer can be conveniently folded once or twice to create a takeaway menu or neat mini-brochure.  The printer will have machines who do this and machine folding is cheap and fast so with that there is little issue.  try asking for a quote for a four-fold document and you’ll see the cost quoted ramp up enormously!

Why?

The folding for non-standard folds is done by hand and the labor cost is exhorbitant for performing this task as is the wastage rate during production.

Changing Design and Layout After Proofing

Changing the design and layout is costly because once you have gotten to the proofing stage you are on the final leg of the race before the printing and finishing processes can swing into action and manufactre the finished article.  You change the design or layout after this stage and you will have to cover not only the cost of re-design but the printing costs for those pieces which have been produced by the printer.

Make sure all your changes are done before the proofing stage; sticking to established design principles and working closely with your print partner will save you a great deal of cost and wasted time.

Use Complicated, Multi-Step Binding

The more production phases which are required in producing the finished article then the greater the cost to you.  Binding is essential for certain types of document whether it is simple stapling to form a booklet/brochure or sturdybinding for a permanent document such as a book.  Expect binding to significantly add to the cost of finishing the project if you are using complicated binding and especially if you are using a binding method which requires human labor to produce.

Make a Splash with an Expensive Cover

A great looking cover can attract readers but there is a reason why glossy magazines cost so much – they are hellishly expensive!  If you design your business communications so they need great looking covers then you are sure to find a very big bill for the photographer and design landing in your in-tray faster than you can say, “Vogue” or “Time”.

Don’t Follow the Established Rules – Be a Maverick!

Being a maverick is fine if you have the budget and the time to experiment with what works and what doesn’t.  Providing you have a bottomless bank account you can experiment away to your heart’s content with off-the-wall and amateurish efforts.  Someone has to invent the wheel at some point in time so it may as well be you!

Obviously this is all tongue-in-cheek – the object is not to blow tight budgets to deliver effective printed projects, on-time and on- or below-budget!  There are numerous ways you can save money and time and enhance your effectiveness and the very best advice is to find a print and design partner who is experienced and will work with you to get the job done.

When you get wrapped up in producing a business communication it is simple and easy to get wrapped up in what you have to say and forget that sometimes, too much information equals a poor result in assimilation for the reader.  Breaking the rules can produce results but in order to get highly effective page layouts and uniformity of message, you need to know what the rules are before you decide whether you should break them!

Nothing shines through a document better than the tell-tale marks of an amateur production and if you leave this stamp on your publication there is only one place left for it – the trash can!

Follow these rules to avoid the design dump and avoid making obvious errors in your design.

Restrict the Number of Fonts You Use

For the vast majority of documents, two to three fonts are more than sufficient – when we get our hands on a word processor we all tend to go mad with the wide variety of fonts available from the esoteric to the completely unreadable!

DON’T USE FULL CAPS OR FUNNY FONTS!

Avoid “shouting” – online media defines shouting as when FULL CAPS IS USED CONTINUOUSLY – it’s bad etiquette and looks terrible online and in print, but then shouting also applies when you use some of the more horrible fonts.

Restrict the Use of Frames and Boxes

If you frames every block of text on a page, single text blocks will lose their impact and become lost in the page composition.  Frames and boxes are a great way to deliver impact and visual attraction for the reader’s eye but you must use them sparingly if you expect to create the visual impact you want for those important aspects of your communication.

Clip Art is Not Cool

Clip art may seem like a kid’s candy store when it’s first encountered but the truth is it’s strictly for amateurs!  Clip art is free for a simple reason – it looks amateurish and has no place in a professional publication.

Clip art is fine for staff memo which is for internal use no-one outside the company is going to see it but, if you are creating a glossy circular or business brochure which decision makers are expected to use in order to help them come to buying decisions, you need to upgrade your image quality.

Learn to Punctuate and Use Good Grammar

If you don’t know whether to use “its” or “it’s, “there” or “their”, “to”, “two” or “too”, or know how to use a semi-colon and a question mark then you need to find someone else who does.  The text is the most important part of your communication because this is where your message is conveyed to the reader – good graphics, good layout and so on all help to attract the reader, the headline gets them to read the first line of text but all these elements exist simply to get the reader to read!  They won’t get far unless you can punctuate properly and know how to spell!

Page composition deals with how you layout a page; it is the process of placing text and images to produce an attractive and readable page which will hold the reader’s attention.  Good composition looks good and is very effective in transmitting your message to your readership.  Bad composition is equally noticeable because no-one bothers to read it.  When you are compiling a business communication whether it is a flyer, a glossy brochure or an employee notice you have to pay attention to the composition.

Imagine this: you open a brochure and are confronted with a wall of small text – will you read it or put it down?

Most people will not read it or if they do, it is under duress.

As page composition is so important it should come as no surprise that there are well-established guidelines and rules for you to follow!

Use a Grid to Align All the Page Elements

When you have all your text and images you want for a page, place them on a grid and align them horizontally and vertically so they form a natural and flowing connection with each other.  Using a grid will especially help you when you have a complex page layout though the Mark 1 Eyeball is sufficient for a simple layout in many instances.  Using a grid will help you enormously no matter what the layout because our brains like a minimum level of order.

Construct Strong Visual Connections

Maximum impact is often created by using one strong image and building the page around that.  Frequently, you need to use multiple images and so aligning them and paying close attention to their proximity to each other can help you maintain the visual impact of the completed page.

Use Odd Numbers of Elements for a Dynamic Page

Using odd numbers of text and image elements makes for a dynamic looking page – using symmetrical or an even number of page elements makes for a static or formal appearance.  Breaking up the page with the use of asymmetrical alignment and odd numbers of page elements adds “pizzazz” to your design but you need to be careful that you do not dilute the visual impact by giving free rein to chaos.

Split the Page Into Thirds

The Rule of Thirds provides the basis for a more eye-pleasing page composition using one of the three following rules:

1. Concentrate the most important page elements in the upper of lower third of the page;
2. Divide the page into horizontal and vertical thirds and place the most important page elements where the lines intersect; and
3. Evenly space the most important elements within either the vertical or horizontal thirds.

Make Good Use of White Space

White space is essential – simply stuffing your page with too much text, too many images or both will make the page unreadable and chaotic.  White space provides the reader’s eye with “breathing space” and also helps lead the viewer onto the more important page elements which you are using to transmit your message.  White space around the page edges and the edges of text and images is essential but pay attention to spacing between paragraphs, lines and the individual letters themselves.

Repetition of Page Elements

From page to page, you should have uniformity of certain page elements.  For instance, a reader will expect the page number to be in the same place on each page – in the middle, bottom, top left, bottom right – wherever you place it, it ought to be the same throughout the document (though if aligned in a center-stapled document you will place the page number either in the middle or the out-edge of the document page).

This applies to colors, fonts, spacing, pull-quotations or using similarly formatted images.

Contrasting Elements

While maintaining uniformity with some page elements, using contrasting elements can make a huge visual impact but this is something you must do where appropriate and sparingly.  This will enhance the page composition and make the layout that much more effective.  Examples include, making the text for headlines much bigger, using different colors for captions or using italics and bold text for pull-quotes.

For non-professionals and especially those who are first timers in the field of print and design, there are so many acronyms and new jargon flying around which makes it very distracting at best and off-putting at worst.  Here is the very best business tip you are ever going to get – if you have a supplier loading you with jargon, make them explain what they are talking about or fire them!

Before you get to that drastic stage, here are some of the more commonly used acronyms and language used in the field of resolution.  Resolution is how clearly an image and text is presented from the original image to reproduction; a high resolution image will typically be capable of much better reproduction especially if the original is enlarged in your brochure or publication.  You may see some images look blurry in some publications and this is due to low resolution images being enlarged so much that you see the dots or pixels which make up the image and as we are now using some jargon (pixels) we’d better get you clued in!

Pixel

A pixel is the smallest data component of an image – you may see them as the dots on a computer screen (if they are large enough) or in a photograph especially in a newspaper.  Pixel is a combination of two words – “pix” (for picture) and “el” from element – picture element, the smallest building blocks of an image in printing and digital reproduction.

PPI – Pixels Per Inch

This is the number of pixels displayed in an image.  When you look at a digital image on your computer screen, that image is composed of pixels and the more pixels per inch that there are, the higher the resolution i.e. the picture looks more clearer and sharper.

When you are using PPI you must understand it is relating to the screen resolution and not the image resolution or the finished, printed reproduction.  Adobe Photoshop uses PPI but Corel Photo-Paint uses DPI just to add to the confusion which leads us neatly onto….

DPI – Dots Per Inch

DPI measures the printer resolution and refers to the dots of ink used by an image setter or other printer used to reproduce the text and images of your project.  This is a better measure than PPI because it relates directly to the finished article and not the representation on the computer screen which may look fantastic but let you down when printed off.

LPI – Lines Per Inch

This refers to how a printer creates the finished image and text on paper – it specifically refers to how a printer prints lines of halftone spots which recreates a continuous image.  The number of these lines per inch is the LPI – the more the better the reproduction – LPI is sometimes referred to as the line frequency or halftone resolution.

SPI – Samples Per Inch

SPI is the scanner and digital image resolution; a scanner actually takes portions of the original image to be scanned  and not the entire image (it is not a photograph for instance) and the more samples it takes, the greater the amount of the original image is recreated and this increases the resolution of the scanned image.  The higher the SPI then the greater the resolution produced.

Professionally designed and produced brochures do more than simply raise awareness of your company and product offering, they also positively attract business to your company and increase sales.  While business brochures are not as popular as business cards, they provide much greater scope for delivering your business message and sales pitch in addition to providing a permanent reminder to clients and prospects about you.

Many business brochures fail to impress because they are obviously amateur creations using Microsoft Word with stock templates that have been used a hundred thousand times before.  First impressions count for so much and your brochure has to have that instant impact which will attract the eye of the beholder and grab their attention so they actually take the time to read it.  A poorly put together brochure is destined for the trash can so consider these tips and points when you come to design your own brochure.

Using Images

Pictures and graphics are great for getting the attention of the reader but you should beware images which dominate the message – your message is in the words and not the graphics so keep a tight rein on them.  In addition, be careful when you are using images as you must wither own them or have permission to use them.  Using clip art is lame – avoid using clip art wherever possible; clip art may be OK when you are producing a simple employee bulletin but these images have no place in a customer orientated brochure.

Text

Use your words to get to the point quickly; use lists for clarifying your message or for underlining the unique selling points or features of your service or product range.  Manage the use of paragraphs carefully and keep them short and on-topic.

Brochure Templates

We’ve touched on templates already and while you should not use them for the elements of your brochure design, there is nothing wrong in using the broad outline as the foundation and to give you some ideas.  Don’t use the template elements and additions however.

Font and Spacing

You must ensure your font size is easily readable – try to stick to easily read fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman and steer clear of less easily read fonts.  The font size must be large enough to be read and is easily reproduced when scanned or photocopied.  Line spacing is also important so you don’t jam everything in too tight.  Leading (pronounced “ledding”) is important too – this is the vertical spacing which separates columns and text from images – using leading creatively helps keep your brochure tight and focused as well as maintaining visual appeal.

Brochure Background

You must pay particular attention to the background you are using and bear in mind if you are designing a brochure with a white paper and a colored background, the finished article may not be the same as you anticipate from your mock-ups.  The background should never detract from the content you are creating rather it should enhance it – low-key is a good way to go and avoid any background/content combinations which don’t strike you immediately as workable.