First Steps: Print Jobs

I’ve worked with several people over the past 5 or so years. Many of the were more experienced than me, and for that I’m grateful. I like being around people who know more than me. All I have to do is sit back, ask the occasional question, and I get to soak up their knowledge and experience.

On the rare time that I’m stuck being the experienced one in the room, I find myself wishing I’d written down a lot of what I tell people. That way, I could send them that info, and not have to repeat it.

This post is going to cover Print Production. I’ll go over some basic terms and help with areas that usually present common problems to first time print producers. So, let’s dive in.

File Setup

Some things are pretty common knowledge, but I’m going to assume that the readers here are starting from 0. If you’re working in Photoshop, make sure that your files are set to 300 pixels per inch, and that you’re working in RGB mode.

There’s some debate about this since printing is done using 4 and 7 color printers. The way I look at it is, if you’re working on a system that displays images using 3 base colors, why would you try to work in a color scheme that can’t be accurately reproduced? Monitors don’t show cyan magenta yellow and black. They show red green and blue. You should work with the setup that will give you the most accurate appearance available, and on a computer, that’s RGB. You can do your color conversion over to CMYK once you’re finished. I find that I get better results when I do that.

Also, make sure to set up your files with a bleed in mind. Bleed, or color bleed, refers to how far the ink will go in relation to the edge of the page. Full bleed means that you want the color to extend to the far edge of the page. To make sure that this comes out like you want it to, you should make your files a little larger than you need them to be. The standard extension for full bleed in North America and Europe is 1/8 of an inch on each side. So, to produce an 8.5×11 print with the color extending, or bleeding, to the edge, your document should be 8.75 x 11.25. Your colors and images should extend all the way to this 1/8 inch mark over the edge.

Working on The Project

Now that the file is set up, you should keep somethings in mind. You should leave a gutter on the inside of you documents edge of 1/8 inch as well. When printers make a page, it’s usually printed on pager stock that’s bigger than the final product will be. Once the ink has dried, they’ll cut it down to size. Cutting isn’t always spot on. A good printer will keep it pretty damn close, but the reality is, things can shift a little here and there. If you have text or an important image that is sitting right at the edge of the page, you can’t always be sure that it won’t get cut off. The 1/8 of outer bleed and the 1/8 of inner space ensures that your prints won’t come back with a small whit boarder because the color didn’t go far enough, and that important info and images won’t get cut off.

To be safe, I try to keep things that have to be seen at least 1/4″ away from the edges.

Prepping Your File for the Printer

Now that the piece is designed and the client has signed off on everything, it’s time to get it ready to go to print. The first thing you’ll have to do is convert from RGB to CMYK, assuming you’ve been working in RGB up to this point.

Before you proceed, I HIGHLY suggest you save your work as a new file. This way, you’ll have a pristine RGB version to go back to should you need it.

First, I feel it’s necessary to do a bit of discussion about the differences between RGB and CMYK. RGB is the red green and blue color pallet that is used to produce the images on computers and televisions. RGB is great at displaying reds and greens at high saturation. There are shades of red that just can’t be reproduced using 4 color CMYK process printing. Most of the time, you won’t notice a deal breaking color shift in photographs. The varied amount of color in and shades in a photo hide the problems. The issue comes when you’re dealing with large swathes of solid colors like rich reds.

A great investment for anybody working with print is a color process manual. It’s a big book of colors and their cmyk values. When I come up against a color that I need to make in cmyk, but can’t seem to get right, I whip out the process book. Flipping through the pages, I’ll find what I need, or something close to it, and my problems are solved.

As for the rest of the image, using the color mode conversion in Photoshop really does a good job. Things were dicey back in the old days. But the latest versions of the Creative Suite have seen huge improvements in color conversion. I’ve gotten great results, and when things aren’t quite right, it’s rarely something that spans the whole document, but rather small areas. Those can be fixed easily using the process manual and some minor tweaking.

Once you’ve converted the colors to CMYK and are happy with what you have, It’s time to get it move on. If you’re working in Illustrator or Photoshop, you should make sure of a couple of things. One to know where your images are. Not their position on the page, but rather where do the images reside file wise. You’ll need to be sure that your photos and other imported graphics are embedded into your file. Otherwise, when you send it off to the printer, they won’t be able to use the file since there are links to images that they don’t have. Embedding your images will jack up your file size. Sometimes a lot depending on the size of the document, and the number and resolution of images you’re using.

Secondly, there’s the text. You should rasterize (Photoshop) or outline (illustrator) your text before sending it off to the printer. The reason is, you have a set of fonts on your system, and depending where you got them, they may have different names than the equivalent font on the printers computer. To make life easier on everyone, it’s best to remove fonts from the equation by turning them into images or paths.

Lastly, in Photoshop, you should flatten your images. This will get rid of things like layer effects, masks and transparency, and leave you with a simple, flattened image to send off. This makes your files smaller, and takes the guess work away.

Now that your file is ready, call up your printer and see how they’d like it delivered. If the file is under 5 megs, then you can most likely email it to them. Above 5 megs, your printer will probably have an FTP site ready for you to use.

Ask them to let you know if there are any issues with the file that you may have missed. This is VERY important because almost all printers will have an additional charge for fixing these errors. I’ve seen this charge run from $25/hr up to $100/hr. This is a source of income for them, and many people take advantage of it because it’s easier to let the the pre-press guys deal with it. If you’re on a budget, this is probably not an option. Something as simple as hiding your layer that has extra images or text on it can cost you an additional $50.

Printers and their pre-press people are going to be one of you biggest allies in this process, so make friends with them. Ask question, and get insight on how you can make their jobs easier (they like that). They want your client to be happy with the product as much as you do. If you’re client is happy, you’re happy. If you’re happy, you’ll send them more business.

If you’re time frame allows for it, you need to get a physical proof from your printer. This will let you see what the final output will look like. Digital prints (4 and 7 colors) produced on Heidelberg’s and HP Indigos will make your life so so much better because seeing the proofs from those machines before your job runs through it fully will show you exactly what you’re going to give your client. That proof will tell you where any errors are, and give you a chance to fix them. Many places will charge for a physical proof, but it’s worth it.

Printing Terms

I haven’t come close to covering the whole world of printing, but these tips should get you started on what you need. I’m now going to turn to some brief term definitions, and we’ll finish off with some tips.

Stock - refers to the type of paper or material that your piece will be printed on. Paper stock is generally discussed in terms of coating (glossy, matte, uncoated, etc) and weight. For a reference, normal printer paper is 20lbs. Business cards are generally on 80lb - 130lb stock. There are specialty papers like velum and odd weights like 110lb that can be used. Your printer is a good person to ask about which you should use. They’ve done lots of projects, and they’ll have some really good ideas.

Process - this is an easy way of referencing CMYK printing. 4 color process and 7 color process are the most common. You can run jobs using any number of the available colors. For instance, you could design a piece to be printed on white paper using only differing amounts of Cyan and black ink. This is a 2 color print, and is cheaper than a full 4 color print. Some areas could contain 50% cyan and 15% black, giving you a blue-gray color. When money is tight for a project, you have to be creative, and working in a limited color space of 1 or two colors can produce memorable and fun results that show off your ability to over come a very common problem.

Spot Color, Pantone Color, PANTONE - Since there are certain color that can’t be reproduced using process printing, the Pantone Corporation has developed shades of very specific ink. These inks will look the same everywhere in the world on any printer. They’re idiot proof. If you absolutely, positively MUST have a certain shade of green, Pantone has your back. Now, the down side is, you can’t mix Pantones. They are solid colors. You can vary their saturation between 0% and 100% (levels greater than 100% are called extra heavy saturation, and should be avoided unless necessary. ask your printer about this). Pantones are great when you’re producing things like business cards, letterhead and other corporate material that needs to have consistent color across the whole line. Telling a printer that you want Pantone 369U will yield a very delightful shade of green. Pantone makes a guide called the Color Bridge which will show you coated and uncoated color swatches along side their CMYK and RGB values. You can buy this at any good paper store.

Proof - The print out that shows what your final document will look like. These are extremely useful in ensuring that your printed piece looks correct when they do the final run. One thing to note: You can’t get true proofs for projects using pantone colors. Many places offer instead a digtal proof, or a proof produced for the purpose of checking the layout of the piece. Pantone colors are specific and standard around the world. If you want Pantone Cool Gray 9, the proof they give you will show where that image or text will be, but not an accurate representation of cool gray 9. But don’t worry, unless your printer is a total moron, cool gray 9 will look like it does on the pantone guide every time.

Bleed - is how far you colors extend in relation to the edge of the page. Full bleed means that, on the final output, the ink will be printed all the way to the very edge of the page. Full bleed is accomplished by extending the images and colors in your original design to 1/8″ beyond the edge of the design. 1/8″ is the standard distance for North America and Europe. This means that if you want your final piece to be 8.5″x11″, you’ll set up your file to be 8.75″x11.25″, and you’ll keep the info at least 1/8″ away from each edge, though you should allow for a bit of a gutter.

Gutter - This is the space from the edge towards the inside of your page. The gutter is the 1/8″ area inside each edge of the page that you don’t want to cross. Your print piece will be produced on paper that is larger than it needs to be, and then cut down to size. By keeping important images and text at least 1/8″ away from the edge, you ensure that when the trimming starts, you won’t loose valuable content in the process.

Black, Rich Black, Cool Black, Warm Black - Black isn’t as simple as you might suppose. Simply filling a page with black ink can leave you with a final product that looks weaker and less appealing than you might think. After all, you’re putting black ink on to a white page (usually) and, when you mix black and white, you get gray. This gray might not be noticeable, but when you compare strait black (100% k) to a rich black such as C 15% M 40% Y 30% K 90%, you’ll see that the rich black looks richer, more dark, and more black. In the Pantone guide, there are several versions of black. Adobe Illustrator by default converts your black to rich black. This is a good thing. Rich blacks can be warm, with more yellow and megenta, or cool, using more cyan. These can make all the difference in conveying the feeling of a printed piece. Black is black, but it’s so so much more.

There are many other terms and things to consider when dealing with print projects, and I’ll cover them in a future post. I’ve not touched on binding, mixed color processes (4 over 1, for example), multi-page layouts and common problems with those, or the use of custom coated areas and defining the use of specialty ink like metallics and foils.

Questions are also a big help. Please leave them in the comments. and I’ll get back to you.