A guide to some technical back stage when preparing files for printing.
Set up your document correctly
Before you start creating your artwork, make sure you've set up your document correctly. This means choosing the correct dimensions for your print project and setting up bleed if necessary.
Bleed is the area around the edge of your artwork that will be trimmed off after printing. This is to ensure that your design or image extends all the way to the border of the paper without narrow slivers of white at the edge of your design.
Margins is where you should place your most important information within your design. If you plan to display your design within a metal frame, safe space is to ensure your information is visible even if the edges of the artwork get obstructed by the overlap from the lip of the frame.
Check your color mode
When printing, it's important to use the correct color mode for your artwork. The standard color mode for print is CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black)
When printing you want things to overlap, you can use overprint. Overprinting is intentional printing of one ink over another.
But to avoid some mixing of the colors and allow for crisper tones, you would use knockout.
These methods are often used when you want to print spot colors, varnishes or do foil stamping. *Spot color refers to colors outside the CMYK color range, such as gold, silver or bright colors. They are pre-mixed.
Resolution
Additionally when printing, make sure your resolution is set to at least 300dpi. This ensures that your artwork will print clearly and sharply.
Each image has a certain number of pixels. The smaller the pixel size, the higher the resolution and the finer details in the image.
There are two main type of image files: Raster and Vector both are useful in different ways. Vector files work better for digital illustrations, complex graphics, and logos.
Convert text to outlines
If you're using custom fonts in your artwork, it's important to convert them to outlines before sending your files to the printer. This ensures that the fonts will display correctly even if the printer doesn't have the same font installed.
*I would advise to save a copy of the editable text artwork before converting the text to outlines. For any future alterations.
Embed images
Missing images are no fun, but sometimes when your file is sent to another computer, the image cannot be found and be displayed.
To avoid heavy work files, some programs use links to the location of local image files on your PC to display them. That is why when your file is sent to another computer, the image cannot be found and displayed (because that computer does not have your image). When images are embedded, they become a permanent component of your artwork file and can be viewed wherever the file is opened.
Before saving your project, you must always embed any graphics that are raster images (like .jpg and .png files) to your artwork.
Save your file as a print-ready
Once you've prepared your artwork, it's time to save your file as a print-ready file format.
Remember:
set up your document correctly,
check your color mode and resolution,
convert text to outlines,
ensure all the images are included,
save your file as a print-ready file format.
In conclusion, preparing files for print is an important step in the printing process. By following these steps, you can ensure that your artwork prints correctly and looks great.
Good Luck!
What gets scheduled, gets printed.
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