Print Design TipsTips and Information About Printing

Turning a print project around quickly is sometimes an urgent necessity, but whether you are under strict deadline or not, everyone likes to have a job go through the print production process smoothly and without a hitch.

You can help to make the process go faster and without excess hassle by considering these two “fast” tips:

Don’t Submit Print Design Files as PDFs

Adobe Acrobat PDFs should not be used to submit your design files – they are great for making sure the content within is not changed but Adobe will automatically set the control defaults for web presentation and not for printing to paper. This will require your print partner to work around the default settings so true reproduction is achieved when the design files are used to print out the content.

There are a large number of design applications – PhotoShop, Quark, CorelDraw and so on – which are far better for creating and storing your design files. If in doubt, speak with yoru print partner for what is the fastest and best method for your particular print project.

Avoid Taking the Design Close to the Edge of the Paper

If your content runs close to the edge of the paper being used to print it out with, then there is a risk that the ink will not completely covering the full sheet of paper and parts of the content either being poorly printed or missed altogether.

The “bleed” is the space around the edge of the sheet of paper which is used to bound the content you are printing out. Bleeding is the process by which the ink is deliberately run off the edge of the sheet of paper to ensure full coverage of the content. Typically, the bleed is trimmed off the sheets of printed paper so they then conform to the actual paper size required – this means printing with paper which is larger than the finished product.