Whether you are a rookie or a veteran when it comes to print, you could be making these very simple artwork mistakes. Below are the top five most common mistakes and how to avoid them.
1. Bleed and Crop Marks
Before sending your artwork off, you need to make sure that you have marked down crop and bleed marks.
Crop marks are to show where the page should be trimmed once it has been printed and bleed marks are the area that is cut off the page when it’s trimmed to size; therefore if you have any images or graphics on the page that run into the trimmed edge, then you need to include a 3mm bleed to avoid this being cut.
There is always very slight movement when we print, and if your images run only to the crop marks, then a fine white line could appear at the edge of your work.
2. Safe Zone
Guillotines can sometimes cut a little out or inside the line, so it’s important to leave a safety zone to ensure that none of your information or images are cut off.
Generally a 3mm margin around the edge of your work on top of your crop and bleed marks should be enough, however, you might need to leave more if you are producing a book, due to the binding edge.
If you are unsure check the print specification or relevant template on our website before you send it to us.
3. Low-Resolution Images
All images used in print must be in 300dpi and at 100% in size. It’s a common thing to forget to check this because often low-resolution images are used because the high-quality image isn’t available or it hasn’t been approved for the final draft.
Just because the image looks fine on your screen doesn’t always mean that the image will print well. For example, a 72dpi image will be very blurred and pixelated when printed, so make sure you go through every image you have and check the resolution before sending it for print to ensure that crystal clear quality you are after. This same rule goes for text.
4. Use CYMK
This is a common problem that is often overlooked because most images that are captured or downloaded are in RGB mode. The difference between RBG and CYMK are the colour spectrum that they use. If you use RGB you might end up using a colour that isn’t available within the CYMK colour mode and your print will look different than you designed it on your computer.
Before sending artwork to us, ensure that you are using CMYK mode.
5. Fonts and Text
When designing your product on your computer screen, it’s quite difficult to tell how the text will translate on paper; especially when it comes to sizing.
You don’t want to create the perfect artwork, send it to print then find out your text size is too small to read. To avoid this mistake, we recommend that you don’t go anything below 6pt.
If your font is not embedded or outlined, then it may not print correctly. Ensure that your text is outlined or embedded so that they become graphics and don’t appear differently when you receive your printed work.
Northside Graphics is Northern Ireland’s oldest and largest digital printers. Our wide range of products are printed expertly using our four HP Indigo digital presses that produce exceptional high-quality work every single time. We make sure we meet your deadline by using our SmartStream system, which allows us to recognise potential bottlenecks before they even occur.
To get a quote or find out more about how digital print from Northside Graphics can help you, call us today on 02890 222 111 or visit www.NorthsideGraphics.com