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

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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?

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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:

1. File the job into a tracking or accounting system
2. Use files and folders that bear the job number
3. Stamp the artwork
4. Make it clear who is responsible for the design
5. Proofread
6. Make the artwork the correct size
7. Define bleed and trim marks in the file
8. Ensure the typeface(s) used correlates to the clients corporate identity manual
9. 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

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.

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The following is a print-primer guest post from NetPublications, an “award-winning on-demand printing, publishing and fulfillment company with 25 years of experience in the book and manual business”.

There’s a lot to consider before printed products can go to press, so we’ve compiled a list of the top ten problems that occur when a printing company receives your files. By following this checklist, you can avoid many of these problems.

1/ Fonts not embedded in PDF or missing in application files
When you create a PDF file you need to make sure you embed your fonts. This ensures that even if the person who opens the document does not have the font you used on their computer that they are able to view and print the file correctly. If you send application files (Quark, InDesign, etc.) we will need the fonts to print your job correctly.

2/ Incomplete or corrupt files
Before sending, check to see if your file will open correctly and has all necessary pages, images, etc.


3/ Colors that are not converted from RGB to four-color CMYK mode
You might design in RGB, proof in RGB, preview in RGB, however, we print in CMYK format. It is very rare that a computer monitor will accurately display the colors chosen in your layout. Your images may print in black and white or with inaccurate color if you neglect to convert images.


4/ Inadequate bleeds
A bleed is any area on a printed sheet where ink extends to the cut edge. One problem of inadequate bleeds is that an image that you expect to extend to the edge will show a tiny white line on the trimmed edge. It leads to an unpolished, unfinished look that you want to avoid. We require at least 1/8 (.1250) bleed.

5/ Placed images resolution too low or too high (always use 300 dpi)
A scan resolution that is too low results in a low-quality image. A resolution that is too high increases the file size and printing time, without increasing the image’s quality. Images downloaded from the internet do not print clearly (the resolution is too low — 72-100 dpi).

6/ B&W images saved in RGB or CMYK instead of grayscale
They will print with some color if not saved as grayscale.

7/ Images delivered in wrong file format (JPG, GIF)
Use TIFF / PSD (Photoshop). JPG and GIF are great for photographic images on the web, because it compresses the file (makes the file size smaller for faster downloading). Not ideal for printing, because every time you save it, you lose more color and detail. TIFF / PSD is the best image for printing without loss of color or detail.

8/ Missing images in applications.

Will either print blank or a low resolution image in its place.

9/ Wrong applications used for complex page layouts
Use publishing programs like Indesign, Quark or Pagemaker. MS Word is great for word processing at your desk, when you can print to your printer. Limitations in software make it difficult to do proper, efficient layout. Any MS Word files presented for offset printing will have to be converted to PDF. MS PowerPoint is great for creating slides / transparencies for a presentation. Limitations in the software prevent this from being an efficient layout program. Any PowerPoint files presented for offset printing will have to be converted to PDF.

10/ Not supplying a hard copy proof
This helps us spot potential problems. Please supply final color or B&W laser printouts with your digital files. Printouts should be at actual size (100%). If the image area in the page file exceeds the size of a laser or inkjet print, output the laser at a reduced percentage, but clearly note the amount of reduction.

Further print preparation resources

• 12 money-saving questions to ask before printing
  This is a post here on davidairey.com, and the reader comments add a great deal of value.
• Design guide for print
  Another on this site, with a few basic print terms explained e.g. file resolution, bleeds and trims.
• Preparing your files for printing
  A decent overview from Gregg Stalter on Photoshop Cafe.
• The designer’s prep, print and proof checklist
  Chuck Green does a great job of explaining how you’re in control of the printing process.
• Understanding bleed
  Valerie Martin Stuart explains the term on Creative Latitude.

From David:
I know that many of you will be familiar with these, but I think it’s worthwhile putting a beginner-style post in every now and again. Have you come across similar problems? Do you have any additional printing tips to share?

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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.

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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?

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When it comes to a printed graphic design job, there are certain questions you should ask at the beginning to prevent costly errors and to make the most of your print budget.

Here are 12 important questions to consider before printing your promotional material:

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

It’s funny, no matter how many times I proof-read a job, I can overlook the same glaring error each time I pass it. Another set of eyes can pick up on different errors. In fact, the more people that can proof your job the better. Unlike a website, print is permanent and mistakes can’t be corrected.

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

Its 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 sized flyers printed through a large commercial printer. If you’ve been using one printer for all your projects I suggest shopping around. A printer who specialises in small-run jobs will be much more competitive for those ’spare of the moment’ needs.

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

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 a printer for a quote of 10,000 copies, for example, be sure to ask them to provide “run on” costs aswell. This will help to confirm how many copies your budget allows for.

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 budget quote after budget 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 image 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. This really helps with image 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. Your designer will be able to help out here.

If you don’t realise just how much a photo can be manipulated, I suggest checking out this article, ‘The twisted reality of fashion advertising‘.

#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 your corporate annual report to have the same effect. By choosing a good weight of paper stock (approx. 150gsm) 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 to touch. 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 is less expensive, while still looking as good?

Again, your printer will help here, and 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 fingermarking 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 keeps a higher quality appearance.

#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 summarise…

The most important piece of advice is to ask your printer about possible cost savings. They’re the expert.

Provide as much information as possible about your future print plans. If your printer knows what print projects are on the horizon they might be able to combo-run the jobs to save you both 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.

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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?

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One aspect of where a designer earns his corn is when dealing with commercial printers and supplying them with properly formatted design files. For many, this might simply be a case of “collecting for output” in your layout software of choice (InDesign, Quark etc.).

We’re better than that, though, yes? We take time to acquaint ourselves with the whole pre-press and press methods so that our print jobs run as smooth as possible.

So, you have received a final approval on your design project and it is time to put the message in print. What an exciting time. You have written your instructions to the printer in great detail, you have packaged your CD carefully… you have written the address of the printer you have chosen on the package and you have handed it to the Fed-Ex guy.

Then comes the phone call. The printer doesn’t have the fonts, the files don’t work, the paper you ordered isn’t made anymore and you forgot to add bleeds in your files, and when your head is reeling and you’re freaking out, they tell you they can’t possibly make your deadline.

Now what happens?

Greg Stalter over at Photoshop Cafe has written an indepth article covering the main ideas.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

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I’ve learned that by streamlining the prepress process I am able to pass significant savings onto my clients. My prepress guidelines let me bypass common mistakes made when digital artwork is prepared for print.

Here I show how you can save money when printing.

With quality in mind, all files I send for print are in industry standard:

.ai, .indd, .qxp, .pdf, .eps

Software I use on an almost daily basis include Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat, QuarkXPress, and all filetypes created should be accepted by any commercial print company.

What to know before you print

Resolution

A commercial printer requires all submitted files to be 300dpi (dots per inch). If you design a job at 72dpi or lower they cannot use the file for print purposes. Their prepress department will resize it to 300dpi therefore “stretching” the image. See the example above where one image was created at 300dpi, and the other was created at 72dpi, then stretched out to 300dpi.

Bleed, trim and safety

Bleed

About 3mm on all sides will be trimmed off. Everything that extends past the original canvas size is considered a bleed. Make sure you do not have any important content in this area. Adjust your canvas size to compensate for this; allow another 3mm. (See Size) Although printer cutting staffs are extremely precise, they usually cannot guarantee any print job cuts with out the added bleed. There are no exceptions. Also, please keep your text at least 6mm away from the edge of the piece unless it is an eighth page or smaller. This way your text is in a “safe” area.

Trim

The trim area is a space of 3mm after the bleed. Its purpose is to separate any text or important content from the edge.

Safety

The safety area is the space where its “safe” to put your layout, design and content.

Size

Your print files should be designed in the size that is being ordered. Printers assume that you desire what you have ordered, and files will be re-sized in accordance to the job. A printer will not stretch and enlarge a file unless at your request. For example a 4.25″x5.5″ quarter page ordered as a 4″x6″ postcard will print as a 4″x6″.

Colour

There are two types of colour spaces that are used for graphic and print design:

RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
These are the colours your monitor uses to display everything.

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black)
These are the colours used for printing.

Colour shifts are usually not visible in colour photographs. However, rich and solid colours (like a background) can be affected by a colour conversion. Most of the time, colour shifts are minor and may not be noticeable.

Using the colour BLACK

Rich Black

Large, solid black areas and text over 36 points should use Rich Black to prevent the colour looking gray. Rich Black consists of 30% Cyan, 30% Magenta, 30% Yellow, 100% Black. For regular body text, do not use Rich Black.

4 Colour Build Black

If you have small, thin text on your piece, it is STRONGLY recommended that you do not use 4-colour build black on your piece. Although, using a 4-colour black is recommended on larger areas, using 4-colour text on small areas will make your text blurry and at times, unreadable.

Process printing uses 4 plates that overlay to make your full colour spectrum on your paper. Although precise, the registration of the 4 plates will shift during the print process. If you use all 4 colours to create your black, they will not line-up precisely, creating a ghosting effect.

This is especially evident on small lines, or small text, 12pt and smaller. In order to fix this, all small text should be created as 100% black, 0% Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. This way, as plates shift, it will not affect the black colour.

Fonts

Convert fonts to paths when possible. By converting fonts to paths in programs like Illustrator and FreeHand, you will avoid having to send the fonts with your files. When converting to paths, the text becomes a vector shape and will look no different than its original state.

In Photoshop, text can be rasterized and therefore does not need the fonts. Keep in mind that after rasterizing, no changes can be made to the text.

If your fonts are not converted to paths or rasterized, your design may not be viewed the way it was meant to be seen.

File names

In order to make the pre-flight process more efficient, please use unique file names for files you are submitting. The file name should reflect the job name that was given when ordering. Example: jsmith_4×6_front.pdf

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