3.10.21. 12:37 Prepress Checklist: How to prepare your design for print - 99designs 3.10.21.

r design for print - 99designs 3.10.21. 12:37 Prepress Checklist: How to prepare your design for print - 99designs

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Blog
Topics   The danger of having someone without a design background make
modifications to your file is that it can result in unwanted design
modifications that undermine the overall effect of the intended layout. If you
want to ensure nothing gets lost in translation between your desktop and
Prepress Checklist: How to the print shop, conducting your own step-by-step prepress examination of

prepare your design for print

 
your design files can save you time and a batch of headaches. It can also
save you a ton of money!

— 
According to large-volume print production expert Allen Glazer, 25-75% of a


by Guest Blogger  
design project’s budget should be set aside for printing costs. If you don’t
5 years ago
|
10 min read
catch a mistake in prepress, it will be much more costly to fix down the line.
 
Build a business Grow an agency Learn design Design basics
Preparing graphic design files for printing can be quick and easy once you
Marketing & advertising Other design
 
know what elements to look for. To give you the upper hand when it comes
time to print, we’ve put together a prepress checklist that covers everything

T
he best way to create the perfect brochure, poster or business card is
for a designer and their client to work together. Both parties should be
involved in each step of the project, from idea generation to printing.
Often times, unfortunately, one or both of them assume that prepress and
printing should be handled exclusively by the technicians at a print shop.
you need to look for when finalizing your proof. It incorporates everything
from simple editing to advanced technical procedures. And of course, both
designer and client should be involved. Here’s our prepress checklist to help
get you started:
1. Proofreed Proofread everything

This is a mistake!
—
Small oversights, such as typos and grammatical errors, can be the
difference between closing a sale and a customer choosing the competition.
A poll from Standing Dog Interactive found that only 3 percent of people
didn’t mind errors, whereas most consider typos and grammar mistakes a
deciding factor in whether to continue reading… or not.

“Negative web user experiences hurt sales,” they write, “and the findings in
this sampling indicate that typos and grammatical errors will likely cause a
major segment of a company’s potential customers to have a negative
experience on its website.”

via careyweb.com
Catching errors is even more important when you’re printing. Once your
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design is in the hands of your consumers, there’s no way to update it in real

time.

 Once you’ve finished proofreading, it’s time to set the text spacing. Most

fonts and design programs come out-of-the-box with some degree of
 optimization, but not adjusting your fonts using your own visual judgment

will often leave them looking a little off.
 
Classic typography procedures like adjusting the leading, tracking and
 kerning of your text is central to creating the the unique look you want 
to
make your design stand out. Think of your entire image as a composition:
 each punctuation mark, letter, block of negative space and paragraph 
must work cohesively with the others to create a seamless experience for
via LD Products the viewer of your design.

There are two types of proofreading you’ll need to address before you send
3. Confirm image size and resolution

your file to press. Linguistic proofreading covers what most people

associate with editing: checking for grammar mistakes, typos, spelling and
—
the overall flow of the language used in the ad.

Prepress proofreading (or graphic proofreading) touches on the visual

appeal of the text from a graphic standpoint. Look for splitting words at the
end of line breaks, the length of lines themselves and even text spacing. The
biggest thing to be aware of is maintaining consistent line lengths when via postcarsrus.com
breaking sentences. Longer or shorter lines stand out and can really throw
off the general uniformity in a block of text if not spaced properly. Double check the resolution of your imagery before printing. This means not
only noting the resolution of photos in your design, but also the resolution
2. Check font spacing
you save your whole final draft at.
—
Print items should be saved at 300 DPI or more, but as Sara Duane-
Gladden at SpeckyBoy writes “a good rule of thumb is to always save your
design files at the highest resolution possible. Though you can scale an
image down if you must, it is impossible to add pixels after the fact.”
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3.10.21. 12:37 Prepress Checklist: How to prepare your design for print - 99designs
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In general, it’s best to never enlarge photos more than 20 percent of their
original size. Resizing images in your document changes the output
resolution of your image in the document as well. This is especially true for
large-sized flyers and brochures, and advertorials with photo-quality
images. If you are printing on canvas however, 100 DPI can suffice up to a
certain size.
4. Ensure color accuracy (CMYK vs RGB)
— Another way to ensure color accuracy is to calibrate your screen before you
Wh i i i
https://99designs.com/blog/tips/prepress-checklist/ d i
3.10.21. 12:37 Prepress Checklist: How to prepare your design for print - 99designs
When it comes to printing your design files, what you see on screen is
oftentimes not what you get from the printer. One way to ensure that what
you see on your screen will match what comes out of the printer is to check
the existing color mode of your design.
Computer screens and digital cameras view color and light in different
  in
spectrums than printers do, and failing to sync the two will reflect horribly
your print. Electronics that produce visual light or interpret it via a sensor
 
use the RGB spectrum to make colors, because mixing light in these colors
is easy and smooth.
 
Most (if not all) design software programs use the RGB color mode by
 
default. Printers, however, use the CMYK process to overlay different
intensities of each tone and create the full range of colors. This additive
 
process—as opposed to the subtractive RGB system—involves adding color
to create deeper colors on the way to black, not adding light to move away
from black.
If you want to learn more about the difference between the two, check out
this blog post. But the basic takeaway: if your computer and printer aren’t
speaking the same color language, your results aren’t going to come out
right. So set your program to CMYK.
5. Calibrate your screens
—
print. When you are printing mock-up drafts, the true tone of your colors can
easily be thrown off by a screen that is inaccurate.
Graphic designers and photographers have a range of tools to check the
color accuracy of their images before sending a design off to the press, and
making sure your imagery is correct before you send your specs to the press
can quickly save you a whole lot of money in misprints.
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An image can look very different on differently calibrated monitors. Via fstopers.com.
It’s important to realize that customers and designers may have their 
monitors calibrated differently, which could lead to issues in
communication. It’s often helpful to view a design on several different 
devices to see if that’s a potential issue. Or, even better, to print the design
 
off! While the colors won’t perfectly match those that you’ll get from a
professional printer, this small step can help you notice small differences
you’re not seeing on your monitor.
6. Define bleed and crop marks
— check out this helpful guide from Adobe.
via Trillion
Taking your design from the digital realm to the physical involves making
https://99designs.com/blog/tips/prepress-checklist/
3.10.21. 12:37 Prepress Checklist: How to prepare your design for print - 99designs
Taking your design from the digital realm to the physical involves making
sure your file’s bleed, crop and cuts are lined up properly. These marks
indicate the edges of your design and where cuts should be made once
things are printed. These will give your design that professional, designed-
all-the-way-to-the-edge-of-the-page feel.
 Crop marks indicate where your design will be cut, and the bleed is where

parts of text or objects extend past the page boundary to compensate for
 
trimming. The slug is an area that is well outside the bleed that features
printer instructions, additional info on the print, and other need-to-know

stuff about the job. Ignoring the bleed will run you the risk of having a white
border along one side, where the physical paper extended beyond your
digital design. Not pretty.

If your text or images buttress the crop edge or a fold, it’s also immensely
important that you consider the cutting tolerance of your chosen paper.
Subtle differences in your layout can make a big difference when it comes to
symmetry once your flyer is cut or bound.
For more info on lining up and signaling your crop, bleed, slug and more,
7. Take care of imposition
—
No, it’s not just that annoying dude at a party who keeps following you
around and trying to inject himself into all of your conversations… In
printing, imposition is the process of arranging all of the pages of your
design onto the paper in order to print faster and reduce extra paper waste.
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via pdfsnake.com
Taking bound materials to the press used to require a lot more organization.
From lining up pages to ensuring they are evenly set back to back when
printed, printing booklets and multi-page pamphlets was a task. Thanks to
The right paper makes all the difference. The last step before you send your
design along to the print shop: choosing your paper.
Different types of paper create a different feel and visual appeal than others.

Adobe Publisher, and similar layout-oriented programs, setting up a multi- For example, you can often get the same type of professional results you
 
want with a less expensive semi-gloss paper rather than a heavier matte.
page design to be published in a brochure or booklet is much easier.
Spend a little time considering which type of effect you are looking to create
 
Tip: remember to add a little extra space to your design in the center to before you start printing.
compensate for the binding.
 
Going through prepress and looking for red flags helps you preserve the

8. Create a high-resolution PDF


integrity of your design from concept to final print, so nothing gets lost in

translation. Prepress helps you catch the little errors that become big
— mistakes when they find their way to the print shop—errors that render
 
hours’ worth of thought and design moot immediately. With only a couple
Once you’ve gone through every step, it’s time to save your proof. PDF files
quick steps, you can save money, while you make sure that the work you
are mostly lossless printable file formats perfect for just this purpose. Once
produce is up to your high standards every time.
you’ve got everything saved in PDF, you’re ready to go!

—
9. Select the perfect paper

— This article was written by Nicholas Brown of LD Products. The LD Products

content team constantly researches and writes about the ways businesses in
various industries can cost-effectively utilize printing technology for improved
efficiency in design, marketing and overall office operations.

Featured image via Anderberg Print. 

via Kleinfeld Paper

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