David Airey, graphic designer » Printing

Dayfold’s Little Black Book

David Airey — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:34:16 +0000

Dayfold‘s Little Black Book is a useful print guide for designers and print buyers.

Excellent promotional tool. Handy, too.

In case you missed it from the inside-cover (above), Dayfold recommends the following:

For uncoated stocks, a maximum of 50% C, M & Y with 100% K
For coated stocks, a maximum of 60% C, M & Y with 100% K

Visit the Dayfold Print website and blog.

More UK print company recommendations here.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Recommended UK commercial printers

David Airey — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:24:39 +0000

Finding a reliable commercial printer can take some time. Here’s a head start — UK print companies recommended by a few of the UK’s top (and friendliest) designers and design studios.

(Updated with reader favourites.)

View UK commerical printers in a larger map

Click the blue pins in the map above for company info, or read on and see who recommended who.

Recommendations from Helen Jones of The Partners.

Orchid Print
London — 020 8986 8969

Screaming Colour
London — 020 7549 3400

Beacon Press
Uckfield, East Sussex — 01825 768611

Recommendation from Katie Morgan of 300million.

Gavin Martin Associates
London — 020 7729 0091
“Not only do they provide an excellent, consultative service, but they also have a great resource called the ‘Print Lounge’ where you can go and browse through all the print they have done — a fantastic source of inspiration.”

Recommendations from Steven Willis, creative director at B&W Studio.

Harrogate Print
Harrogate, North Yorkshire — 01423 523449

Teamprint
Littleborough, Lancashire — 01706 370092
“Simon at Team helped us out when we first established B&W Studio nearly six years ago. We still enjoy a great relationship with them today and they’re always up to the task whatever ridiculous specification or timeframe we throw at them. Their quality and attention to detail is exceptional.”

Recommendations from Blair Thomson, creative director at Believe In.

Generation Press
Brighton — 01273 857449
“Proper printers who understand print and know no boundaries. Attention to detail at every level. The designer’s printer. Tip-top environmental credentials.”

Kingfisher Print
Totnes, Devon — 01803 867087
“Local printers with great value and a high-quality service. These guys know their stuff and print some great work.”

Recommendation from Paul Ellerker, director at Branch.

Wellington Press
London — 020 8558 9290
“They’re really responsive, competitively priced, and generally very nice people.”

Recommendations from David Hyde of Studio Hyde.

Dayfold Print
Verwood, Dorset — 01202 812203
“For high-quality printing from a company that specialises in working with and for designers.”

Chromatec
Fleet, Hampshire — 01252 851911
“For good, general commercial print.”

Park lane Press
Corsham, Wiltshire — 01225 815010
“For high-quality environmental (waterless) printing.”

Indigo Press
Southampton, Hampshire — 0800 652 7299
“For ‘package price’ print (good for stationery).”

Imagewise
Eastleigh, Hampshire — 02380 650151
“For digital printing.”

Recommendation from Tom Lancaster, creative director at Stylo Design.

Dayfold Print
Verwood, Dorset — 01202 812203
“They’ve been super reliable and produce quality results.”

A second thumbs-up for Dayfold.

Recommendations from Lee Newham of Good People.

Beacon Press
Uckfield, East Sussex — 01825 768611
“They are eco-friendly, recycle the water they use, are FSC certified and are brilliant digital printers. A very high quality of print and they are carbon neutral. Highly recommended.”

A second thumbs-up for Beacon Press.

Hot Metal Press
Barnsley, South Yorkshire — 01226 740498
“They print hot metal as the name suggests, they are incredibly helpful and good at what they do. They are also very reasonable.”

Recommendations from Jamie Wieck of Airside.

Principal Colour
Paddock Wood, Kent — 01892 835005
“I can’t recommend them highly enough. They are competitive, inventive, and above all recognise that what they produce ultimately impacts the environment.”

Calverts Co-operative
London — 020 7739 1474
“The quality of their work is legendary, so they tend to be a tad more expensive than other printers — but remember — you get what you pay for.”

Jigsaw Colour Printers
London — 020 7394 2799
“Jigsaw are excellent at handling massive quantities of print work and are set up to take on your biggest projects without batting an eye lid.”

Updates from the comment thread

Recommendation from Alan Anderson of Blue Tube Design.

Minprint Ltd
Belfast, Northern Ireland — 028 90705205
“Always a high standard of work, accurate and competitively priced.”

Recommendation from Simon Hutchings of Visualise Graphics.

Wincanton Print
Wincanton, Somerset — 01963 33643
“They’re a wealth of knowledge, great value and offer a superb service — highly recommended.”

Recommendation from James Greenfield of Proud Creative.

Push Print
London — 020 7231 1166
“Great print and quality service.”

Generation Press
Brighton — 01273 857449

A second vouch for Generation Press.

Recommendation from Steve Bell of Zavial Design.

Remous
Sherborne, Dorset — 01963 250920
“We’ve been using Remous for seven years. High quality and reliable.”

Recommendation from Andrew Kelsall.

RCS
Retford, Notts — 0800 328 5064
“Not only do they have all the latest printing technology, they also have a smashing print catalogue that is reprinted and updated every year. If you go to their site, you can get a free copy if you’re in the design trade.”

Recommendations from Ebi Atawodi.

ist printing
Beith, Ayrshire — 01505 500 000
“I’ve just done some foil blocking with Ian. Very cheerful/friendly and a great quality printer.”

Copytech Digital Print Solutions
Tunbridge Wells, Kent — 01892 538280
“Highly recommended, especially for short run bespoke work.”

Recommendation from Chris Skelton of What Creative.

Team Impression
Leeds — 0113 272 4800
“Amazing service. Top quality.”

Recommendation from Simon C Page.

Ripe Digital
Corsham, Wiltshire — 01225 815033
“Highly recommended.”

Recommendations from Morag Malloy of Fission Creative.

CCB
Glasgow — 0141 891 4700

Hay Nisbet Press
Glasgow — 0141 959 3325

J Thompson Colour Printers
Glasgow — 0141 429 1094

Recommendations from Rebecca Owen of Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners.

Face Creative Services
London — 020 7713 9797

Pearl Print Management
London — 020 8875 9160

Additional print resources

Here’s a print resource I’ve featured before, Lovely as a Tree. Worth a second mention.

“It’s a fantastic resource that collects together the finest printers and paper in one place, but it’s killer application is that it rates everything by how environmentally friendly it is. Airside is committed to creating eco-friendly design and this website plays a significant role in allowing the studio to achieve this.”
— JAMIE WIECK, AIRSIDE

And here are a few money-saving questions to ask your printer.

Your help

If you have any additional UK printer recommendations, or if you can endorse the printers above, please leave details in the comment thread or send me an email. It’d be great to get some recommendations for companies in Scotland, Wales, and across the Irish Sea.

Post image credit.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Figuring out the Amazon Sales Rank

David Airey — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:53:52 +0000

I’m keen to know how book sales are going, so it makes sense to check the stats provided by the world’s largest bookseller, Amazon. The retailer displays what’s known as the Amazon Sales Rank.

Here’s a quote from Amazon’s help page.

What Sales Rank means

As an added service for customers, authors, publishers, artists, labels, and studios, we show how items in our catalog are selling. The lower the number, the higher the sales for that particular item. The calculation is based on Amazon.com sales and is updated each hour to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on Amazon.com. We hope you find the Amazon.com Sales Rank interesting!

What Category Sales Ranks mean

While Amazon.com Sales Rank is a good indicator of how well a product is selling overall, it doesn’t always indicate how popular an item is among other similar items. Our category sales ranks were created to highlight those categories where an item really stands out. We choose a few categories where the item has a high ranking in relation to other items in that category, and showcase them on the product page. Like Amazon.com Sales Rank, these category rankings are based on Amazon.com sales and updated every hour.

For “competitive reasons” Amazon won’t give actual sales figures.

Here’s how Logo Design Love is faring (figures updated hourly).

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: #1,539 in Books

If you were to view specific categories, my book’s listed as follows:

#2 in Advertising (#1 is It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be)
#2 in Graphic Arts (#1 is The Art of Looking Sideways)
#2 in Brands & Corporate Identity (#1 is Crush It!)

I wonder if the category rankings are affected by the reader-assigned tags you can see on each product page.

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,606 in Books

There’s a much larger catalogue sold through the .com site, so it makes sense that my ranking is lower in the United States.

Strangely, Logo Design Love sits at #1 in Amazon’s illustration category, yet ranks at #30 for graphic design — if you’re an illustrator, I think there’s a niche in the book market for your talents.

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #29,996 in Books

Reader reviews don’t carry across borders, so although there are 17 Logo Design Love reviews on Amazon.com, there are only nine shown on Amazon.co.uk, and just two on Amazon.ca.

This might explain the lower Canadian figure, or it may also be because my publisher is based in the United States, and I’m based in the United Kingdom, leaving no physical presence in Canada.

Where’s the value?

So if number assigned to your book varies by the hour, is there any point spending time checking?

The Sales Rank comes into its own when an author carries out a marketing push. Say for instance that one week a book is mentioned on Design Observer, and the next it’s shown on Swiss Miss, an author can track which website brought a higher Sales Rank during the days immediately after the feature (useful info for future marketing plans).

Leave it to Amazon

If your book is performing well, Amazon will help. To illustrate, England-based Daniel Gray kindly forwarded me an email Amazon sent. I wasn’t previously aware of the message, and here’s what it said:

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,

We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Logo by Michael Evamy have also purchased Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities (Voices That Matter) by David Airey. For this reason, you might like to know that Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities (Voices That Matter) is now available. You can order yours for just £12.98 (50% off the RRP) by following the link below.

Evamy’s Logo is probably the most popular logo gallery book to be published (it’s one of the few I keep), and I imagine plenty of other people have bought a copy from Amazon.

Of much more importance to me than the Sales Rank are the reader comments. If someone gets use out of my content, and if they tell others about it, then by extension, word of mouth will help the sales take care of themselves.

I can imagine some authors have become addicted to checking their Sales Rank stats, in the same way people religiously check their web stats or online bank accounts.

Anyway, now you know as much about Amazon’s tracking tool as I do.

Amazon Sales Rank mentioned elsewhere

Amazon Sales Rank: Insider’s Guide to Book Marketing
Book Marketing, Amazon Sales Rankings, and Tracking Book Sales, on The Self-Publisher’s Notebook
Quickly check your Amazon Sales Rank across the .com, .ca, .co.uk, .fr, .de, and .co.jp sites using Sales Rank Express

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Hatch Show Print

David Airey — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:59:05 +0000

A fascinating eight-minute look at Hatch Show Print, a 130 year-old working letterpress shop (established 1879) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Photo via Marshall Sokoloff’s stunning photo collection

For those reading via email, watch the video on YouTube.

More info about Hatch Show Print on UPPERCASE.

Photo via Marshall Sokoloff

Whilst on the topic of letterpress, and letterpress wood blocks in particular, here’s a gorgeous office wall-hanging that made me look.

Perhaps more interesting than the wall-hanging is the comment thread on Design*Sponge. Quite a few letterpress artists express their sadness at this use of wood blocks, and say it encourages people to break up block collections to make more of a profit.

Beautiful installation? Bad practice?

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Prepress tips for graphic designers

David Airey — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:02:16 +0000

Photo courtesy of Cybjorg

When you design artwork for print, standard practice is to send a PDF to your printer. But are you 100% sure you got the settings right? Are you confident the size is correct? Have the colours been set to print standards or client brand guidelines? What about font usage?

So many things can go wrong, costing you and your client money. So to help, Sigurdur Armannsson — art director at the Icelandic Ad Agency — has prepared these 16 prepress tips that cover the major aspects for correction in your artwork. By checking each tip as you go your file will be in excellent shape for sending to the printery.

Photo courtesy of Cybjorg

01. File the job into a tracking or accounting system

Every business needs a tracking system where information about the client and his or her jobs are filed. Systems range from high-end business software to simply using FileMaker or similar to store information. Freelancers should also use something that takes care of this. I use iBiz.

02. Use files and folders that bear the job number

Tracking systems create running numbers. You should use them for your files and folders too. The running numbers act as keys to further information about every project and client, and save you from creating new files and folders for every job. You could use abbreviations or codes for your client and then the number and a short descriptive name, e.g. ABC 12345 Brochure Spring 2010

03. Stamp the artwork

Put information inside the artwork. If the client does not object, put a short line in small type 4-4.5 pt., inside the artwork, on the back of a brochure. Include your companies name, the job number and a date. MyCompany ABC 12345 10/09. The name of the printery would be a good addition too. This will help identify the work later.

04. Make it clear who is responsible for the design

Before you start, make sure you have a design brief. What is the main purpose of the design? What are the clients motivations? Who is responsible for the job? An art director? You?

05. Proofread

The odd thing is that clients can be calm about minor errors in the design, like lines not being of same thickness or such. But errors in text are fatal. Use a good proofreader. If the client wants to proofread himself, be sure to have that in writing. An email is great confirmation.

06. Make the artwork the correct size

Does the design brief specify the size? Have you checked Document Setup again? Or the outmost frame in Illustrator? Is everyone using 210×297 as Width by Height? Did the client say an A4 because it looks like an A4 or is it 220×286? For ads, contact the magazine or website. They will love to hear from you. Always double check if you aren’t sure.

07. Define bleed and trim marks in the file

Bleeding — the distance the artwork needs to extend beyond the final size of the artwork — can vary. 3mm is most common. In some cases it may not be needed at all, nor the trim marks. Clarify before you create your PDF, and open the PDF afterward to check inclusion.

08. Ensure the typeface(s) used correlates to the clients corporate identity manual

Are you using the correct typeface for your client? Are there any unnecessary fonts that shouldn’t be included the file? In Illustrator check Document Info or Find Font… and in InDesign Find Font… under Type in the menu. When delivering artwork as a PDF there is normally no reason to outline the fonts.

09. Ensure logo usage correlates to the corporate identity manual

The client loves her logo and usually wants it bigger than we want it to be. Stick to the size in the manual or the size used for recent works. If she wants it bigger have that in writing and be sure to tell her if it’s overshadowing other information.

10. Keep the colour of the logo in the right format for the media used

For print, use the logo in vector format if possible. Logos sent to you inside Word documents are no good unless the design is for web or a PowerPoint presentation. Make sure the colours of the logo are in accordance with the corporate identity manual. For print, the format should be CMYK, not Pantone unless the work is going to be printed with spot colours.

11. Keep the colour of the artwork in accordance with the media used

Now, this depends on what kind of colour workflow you will use. For CMYK workflow, all colours should be in CMYK. Pictures should be in CMYK, colour separated for the paper used. No colour profiles should be attached to the pictures. If you are still using pictures as EPS it’s time to switch over to using native Photoshop files. The reason: If you are using transparency in your artwork, like drop shadows or transparent type or colours, your PDF will most likely have torn the photos into strips. This can be avoided by using the pictures as native PSD.

For RGB workflow, you can still use CMYK colours, except you should have all photos in RGB. It’s important to have all photos in RGB and they should have a colour profile attached. Use native PSD — it’s great, and has options not available to other formats.

If you are including Pantone colours, make sure only the colours used are in the file. In InDesign and Illustrator, go to the Swatch panel and in the fly-out menu choose: Select all unused and delete those colours. If in doubt, contact your printer. He will love to help you and he will most likely send you the correct settings for Photoshop that fits the jobs going to his printery.

12. Colour correct your monitor every four weeks

There is no way you can use either CMYK or RGB workflow with confidence if your monitor is not colour corrected at least every month. Colour correction software like iOne has a reminder built in.

13. Ensure all pictures are the actual size shown

Pay close attention to the resolution of the pictures used. Most common resolution is 250-300ppi. You should try not to enlarge or minimise pictures by more than 20% of the original size. This is just a thumb rule. When you change the size inside your document you will change the output resolution too. A 300ppi picture will be 600ppi if you minimise it by 50%. Way too high a resolution. Enlarging too much might get the resolution below what is needed to pass the printery’s preflight.

14. Preflight the artwork

Preflighting the artwork before sending to the print shop is a must. If you have done all the things mentioned above, you have manually preflighted a great deal of what is needed. Using a preflight program like FlightCheck from Markzware or similar will help further. It’s most annoying to discover just before you deliver your work that it’s not in line with necessary printing standards. If you don’t have a program like FlightCheck you can go far by using the built in document info and preflights.

In Illustrator you have Document Info. Turn off the default Selection Only and browse through the items in the list, one by one to see what’s inside your file.

InDesign has a preflight feature. In CS4 it has been moved over to Window > Output > Preflight. There you can see an overview of the document, check fonts, links etc. Also, in CS4 you can see the red or green dots at the bottom of the window that indicates various errors you may have in your file. Great help but it doesn’t beat a professional application like FlightCheck.

15. Ensure the final PDF is high resolution

Did you send your client a low resolution PDF earlier in the day? Did you remember to switch over to a high resolution output? Are you using the built in PDF settings of InDesign or Illustrator? Ask your printer for PDF job settings. The built in settings are usually not what is used for professional PDF output. Or at least know which of the built in settings you are supposed to use.

High Quality Print and Press Quality settings are tempting to use if you want quality (because of the names), but in most cases you will have to use PDF/X-1a:2001. Consult your printer here. They will love you.

16. Have artwork approved as final

Get in writing (preferably email) a client approval before the job is sent to the printery. Or in bigger agencies the approval has to come from an art director or account manager. Verbal communication cannot be relied upon if something goes wrong.

These 16 pointers may seem overwhelming at first. Don’t fret, because when you’ve worked through the steps a few times they’ll become a part of your prepress routine. You’ll be able to quickly run through the list and discover that you’ve covered almost every one while working on your design. Once again: Talk to your printer to get the best results.

And finally, here are the 16 tips without the above explanations — you can keep this handy since you already know what they mean:

File the job into a tracking or accounting system
Use files and folders that bear the job number
Stamp the artwork
Make it clear who is responsible for the design
Proofread
Make the artwork the correct size
Define bleed and trim marks in the file
Ensure the typeface(s) used correlates to the clients corporate identity manual
Ensure logo usage correlates to the corporate identity manual
Keep the colour of the logo in the right format for the media used
Keep the colour of the artwork in accordance with the media used
Colour correct your monitor every four weeks
Ensure all pictures are the actual size shown
Preflight the artwork
Ensure the final PDF is high resolution
Have artwork approved as final

From David:
As well as his art director position, Sigurdur Armannsson teaches at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts and carries out font related freelance work. He blogs about design at Font.is and is on Twitter @sigurarm.

Sigurdur’s 16 tips are based on a document he developed at his work, and he teaches a course at the Academy on the matter — preparing young design students for the real world (and stopping them from clogging the Academy printers).

If you find value in the advice shared, please let Sigurdur know. He’d love to hear from you, and equally, I’m always interested in how guest posts go down with you.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

HP invent

David Airey — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:04:06 +0000

Hewlett Packard set a design brief for the recent D&AD Student Awards, and one result in particular stands out.

Brief:
Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.

Response:
Focusing on the synchronisation of a range of HP products, printers become an orchestra in an aesthetic symphony conducted by HP Workstations.

Filmed, edited and directed by Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth.

The two designers are recent graduates from the Design Communication degree course at Kingston University, London, and they’re currently looking for experience within the creative industry.

Good luck in your search, guys. Love the video.

HP – invent on Vimeo via Johnson Banks.

Music © Round Table Knights.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Musings on book writing

David Airey — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:05:17 +0000

Image copyright: the trial

I’ve been asked to author the first logo design book from Peachpit Press.

We’re discussing possible topics, and the aim is to publish a book that’s different from any other in the logo design market. I thought it’d be a good idea to involve you.

It’s funny how these things come about. Nikki (my contact at Peachpit) has long admired my logo design for Miskeeto, and it turns out that Robert Hoekman, who runs Miskeeto, is also a Peachpit author and one of Nikki’s long-time colleagues.

The main reason I’m asking for your advice is on the book’s focus. Nikki suggested we call the publication, “Logo Design Love“, then add a descriptive subtitle e.g. “Logo Design Love: the sketchpad diaries”, or, “Logo Design Love: iconic logo designers”.

Great idea, I thought, and a nice way to promote my website offline.

Here are just a few of the topics we’ve considered.

Creating effective identities

An all-encompassing look at the journey of a logo, from initial design brief through to style-guide and contextual use. Nikki thought we could include a section showing how to use Adobe Illustrator for creating specific logos. I’m reluctant, however, to incorporate software screenshots, as this automatically dates the content. Besides, Peachpit already publish some excellent Illustrator handbooks (I own one).

Iconic logo designers

This idea revolves around the iconic logo designers website. When compiling that resource, I chatted with many of the featured designers. They may want to participate in a book that highlights their skills.

Conversations from the blog

Since October 2006, I’ve published more than 450 blog articles, with the main emphasis upon logo design and the business around it. You’ve helped create some compelling debates in the comment section of certain articles, and there’s no denying the mass of possible book content contained within.

Why write a book?

Personally, business is better than ever, so do I need the additional workload? As with anything, there are pros and cons.

The preparation involved will undoubtedly improve my knowledge of the industry, which is a big plus, and in a way, I’d consider it like return to education — spending long periods of time researching a personally chosen subject. I’ve also been contemplating writing a book, although on the other hand, sacrifices will obviously need made, and I won’t be able to focus as much on client projects.

Self-publishing

It’s no longer a requirement to use traditional publishers, and with the digital age comes the ability to self-publish your book. Cardiff-based designer, Mark Boulton, is doing just that in the form of an ebook, and recently shared how he’ll deliver his published works online.

Blurb and Lulu are two print-on-demand options, where I could always produce a small run of hard copies, for a memento more than anything.

Elliot Jay Stocks has recently finished writing a book, and although he used a traditional publisher to produce his writings, he’s now considering self-publishing for his next instalment.

One of the most appealing aspects of self-publishing, is that you create your own deadline, and aren’t working towards the schedule of a publisher. The last thing I want to do is cause anxieties when client projects may need precedence over looming book deadlines.

Your thoughts

Nikki and I both thought it’d be a good idea to gauge your opinion.

What content would compell you to buy a logo design book? If placed in my position, would you choose to run with an established publisher, or attempt to self-publish your book?

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

12 money-saving questions to ask before printing your promotional material

David Airey — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:08:08 +0000

There are certain questions you should ask yourself and your commercial printer in order to make the most of your print budget. Here are 12 of them, with some excellent additions in the comment thread.

#1 Did more than one person proof-read the job?

An obvious one, this. No matter how many times I proof-read text, I can miss the same glaring error each time it’s passed over. Another set of eyes can sort this quickly. In fact, the more people that proof your job the better. Unlike online content, print is permanent. Mistakes can’t be corrected.

Daniel at Daily Writing Tips recently published The Impotence of Proofreading.

“It’s a fact that a spell checker will not catch all the mistakes on your text. More specifically, it will not catch misspellings that form other valid words.”

#2 If we change the size of the printed product can we print on a smaller press and save money?

There’s no need to have your A5 flyers printed by a large commercial printer. If you’ve been using one printer for all your projects try shopping around. A printer who specialises in small-run jobs can be much more competitive.

#3 Did you make a “dummy” or mock-up to check configuration and presentation?

If you’re producing a folded leaflet, for example, it’s always worth printing the pages yourself to be sure you have them in the correct order. If you’re in any way unsure, ask your printer for help. They’ll check the composition for you.

#4 Are you absolutely sure about the quantity to be printed?

A second print run will cost a lot more than extended first runs (or “run-on” as printers call it). If you’re asking for a quote of 10,000 copies, for example, be sure to also ask for “run on” costs. This will help with budgeting.

Cat at Business of Design Online gives this advice when asking for quotes:

“In the heat of a project it can be easy to lose sight of getting the information you need. Sure, you could request quote after quote. There’s a better way. Relax. Make a printing quote check list and bring your printer in early.”

#5 If there are photos in the document, do they need to be retouched?

One of the most common changes I make in Photoshop is to adjust the levels of an image. This is to make sure that white areas are bright white and black is actually black. It really helps with contrast (in the image menu, select ‘adjustments’, then ‘levels’). Also, colour prints tend to get darker after scanning, and large reductions can make shadow areas heavier.

#6 Is the paper opacity sufficient or will there be any see-through?

If you hold a newspaper up to the light, you can read the text and see the images on the other side of the paper. This might be fine in the newspaper industry, where paper costs are astronomical, but you obviously don’t want a promotional brochure or annual report to have the same effect. Choose a good weight of paper stock (approx. 150gsm+) and you’ll not only prevent this from happening, but your colours will print more brilliantly too.

#7 What about the texture of the paper?

Cheap paper feels cheap. Is this the impression you want to give? When receiving a quote, why not factor in a few different weights of paper? You might be surprised at how little extra you need to pay for a higher quality paper.

#8 Can we substitute our choice of paper for a stock that’s less expensive, while still looking as good?

Your printer can advise you. One factor this depends on is the amount of ink you’re going to use. For instance, if you have large areas of black to be printed, you’ll need a decent paper stock to prevent the paper going out of shape.

#9 Will ink colours change when printed on a particular type of paper?

Printing inks are transparent and will change depending on the brightness or “yellowness” of a white paper. Remember, paper critically affects the colour of your printed product.

#10 Does the printed sheet need a varnish?

If your print job is to be stacked and packaged, you have to be careful that the ink doesn’t transfer from one brochure/poster/business card to another during storage and transit (this is called offsetting). Varnishing can be a useful preventative. You can also consider aqueous coating to guard against finger-marking and scratching. Most printing presses will apply anti-offset powder, which is a fine powder lightly sprayed over the printed surface of coated paper as sheets leave a press. This is normally sufficient to prevent ink offset, but if in doubt, ask.

#11 Can we print four colours on one side of the sheet and black on the reverse to give the illusion of a “four colour process” job?

If you want to use colour, but find that it’s too expensive, you can always print one side of the paper using full-colour with the reverse in black only. Newspaper companies use this technique to give the appearance of full-colour printing. What you’ll find however, is that a lot of the time only one side of a newspaper page shows colour, whereas the reverse of that page is in black only. This saves money, yet gives the appearance of higher quality.

#12 Can we combo-run any of the elements for a cost-savings?

Always ask the printer if there’s any space left on the printing plates for extra work. You could, perhaps, print some extra business cards on the same printing plate as a batch of brochures, saving you money.

To sum-up

I’m sure you get the gist by now. The most important piece of advice is to ask your printer about possible cost-savings. They’re the ones who know best.

Give them as much info as possible about your future print plans, too. If your printer knows what projects are on the horizon they might be able to combo-run your jobs to save time and money.

By scheduling jobs in advance, your printer will be thankful of the notice. There’s very little a printer dislikes more than a client who needs their job yesterday.

What advice have you gathered during your time dealing with printers?

If you have any tips or hints I’d appreciate you leaving a comment. Perhaps you have a question about the print process. I’m always happy to help where possible.

If you’re unsure about any specific terms that your printer uses, here’s a resource for commercial printing terminology.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

How paper can critically affect the colour of your printed product

David Airey — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:09:03 +0000

Have you ever had a client ask you why their marketing material hasn’t printed the colour they requested?

Their first reaction is normally to point the finger in the direction of the designer, and here I explain how printing can go wrong.

In one instance they’re absolutely correct to place blame upon the designer, because chance are they haven’t been educated how different paper stocks produce different tones from exactly the same colour of ink. Graphic designers, amongst many other professions, take on the role of teacher to give their client an understanding of critical factors such as this one.

Colour control is important even when colour ink isn’t used. A black ink can appear to contain colour when printed on a colour substrate.

Remember, the grade, grain and colour of paper used affects the colour of the ink.

Also, the light source under which you’re looking at the printed product can dramatically affect the colour tone. It reminds me of how supermarkets distort the colour of their meat displays with different lighting, giving it a fresher appearance.

If you select a colour from a colour swatch book and ask 100 printers to print it, you could well get 100 different tones. If you don’t have a swatch book and are thinking of picking one up, here are some useful pointers for before you buy PANTONE colour guides.

Always, always ask your printer for a proof before signing-off on your print job. Make it a hard copy (or digital proof) too, which should usually be included in the price of the project. A PDF proof will not show you the results of how your colour prints.

Have you always been happy with the colour of your print material?

David Airey, graphic designer » Printing

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Prepress tips for graphic designers

01. File the job into a tracking or accounting system

02. Use files and folders that bear the job number

03. Stamp the artwork

04. Make it clear who is responsible for the design

05. Proofread

06. Make the artwork the correct size

07. Define bleed and trim marks in the file

08. Ensure the typeface(s) used correlates to the clients corporate identity manual

09. Ensure logo usage correlates to the corporate identity manual

10. Keep the colour of the logo in the right format for the media used

11. Keep the colour of the artwork in accordance with the media used

12. Colour correct your monitor every four weeks

13. Ensure all pictures are the actual size shown

14. Preflight the artwork

15. Ensure the final PDF is high resolution

16. Have artwork approved as final

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12 money-saving questions to ask before printing your promotional material

#1 Did more than one person proof-read the job?

#2 If we change the size of the printed product can we print on a smaller press and save money?

#3 Did you make a “dummy” or mock-up to check configuration and presentation?

#4 Are you absolutely sure about the quantity to be printed?

#5 If there are photos in the document, do they need to be retouched?

#6 Is the paper opacity sufficient or will there be any see-through?

#7 What about the texture of the paper?

#8 Can we substitute our choice of paper for a stock that’s less expensive, while still looking as good?

#9 Will ink colours change when printed on a particular type of paper?

#10 Does the printed sheet need a varnish?

#11 Can we print four colours on one side of the sheet and black on the reverse to give the illusion of a “four colour process” job?

#12 Can we combo-run any of the elements for a cost-savings?

To sum-up

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How paper can critically affect the colour of your printed product

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