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TheGuideToPrintDesign FINAL PDF
TheGuideToPrintDesign FINAL PDF
PRINT DESIGN
Reproduction of this resource is prohibited without permission. All rights reserved. Lindsay Marsh.
THE GUIDE TO
PRINT DESIGN
“
I do not need to learn
about print design
because that is in the
past.”
How many times have you heard a
statement like that? Digital design is the
future but that does not mean that there
is no longer a need to learn how to size
and create printed items.
PRINTING OPTIONS
SINGLE PRINT
Professional printing
LARGE QUANTITIES
AFFORDABILITY
to place on a wide variety of
printing needs and is best printing companies have gone
This is recommended if products. You can even
used for larger quantities. global to provide print products
you need just a small place your designs on
quantity printed as ink in large quantities to more
products to sell to others.
The higher the quantity the geographic areas.
costs are very high.
less each additional item
The best feature about print
costs to print. This is due to This has allowed printers to
Laser Printers on demand is the ability to
the ability to scale costs. offer printing options at lower
low material cost just have one item printed at
prices.
a time and shipped to
Each printing company has
InkJet Printers anyone who orders. No
different capabilities. The Quality is sometimes an issue
higher cost, better photo need to fulfill or ship orders
larger the company the with big online printing compa-
print quality yourself.
more the printing options. nies.
A great passive income
Check Google to find and Doing a test print to review the
opportunity.
locate local printers near quality is paramount.
you. Society6.com
RedBubble.com
VistaPrint.com printify.com
PSPrint.com
Premium Option
smartpress.com/
THE GUIDE TO
PRINT DESIGN
BLEED
THE
BASICS Bleed is not always required by the
printer. In most cases they will request
you add additional size to your
document to ensure your document
TRIM
has enough bleed.
BLEED The final size of the document If not required, they will not post any
type of bleed requirements.
after the bleed is cut away.
Print items that print all the way to
the edge will sometimes require
When you add bleed to your document
what is called bleed from the printer.
make sure to avoid placing important
Bleed is an extra small border information in the bleed as this will all
around a final document that will be be trimmed off.
trimmed or cut by the printing
machine.
TYPES
There are so many different paper choices
you have to think about.
WEIGHT
How heavy or thick do you want your
paper to be?
MATTE (UNCOATED) GLOSSY (UV COATED)
Matte paper is very porous giving it lots of Glossy paper has a smooth feeling to it
HAS TEXTURE
COLOR
LASTS LONGER
texture. You can feel the paper as you rub because it is coated with a chemical that
What will be the base color of your paper? your fingers across it. It is easy to grab and makes the paper less porous.
Not all paper is pure white. It can come in gives most projects an overall high quality
off whites, yellows and other colors. There feeling. It allows for ink to dry quicker and helps to
is also brightness and whiteness levels lock in the ink, giving it a glossy, brighter
that can have subtle effects on the paper As we will talk about later, it does absorb look.
color. ink more than glossy paper and can reduce
the vibrancy of some inks. The coating catches the light and can give
SHEEN projects a sleek feel.
Do you want it to be glossy or flat (Matte)? Uncoated paper allows one to write on it
easier with pen and pencil, while coated
paper makes it a bit more difficult. USED MOSTLY FOR
Book Covers
USED MOSTLY FOR Posters
Book Pages Flyers and Handouts (because of the
Reports higher durability)
Appointment Cards Magazine Covers
Greeting Cards Packaging
Maps
20 lb. to 32 lb (Most Common) Workbooks
Printer paper, letterhead,and stationary paper
35 lb.
Resume and Contracts
Digital printing prints directly onto the A more traditional method of printing that
AMAZING QUALITY
QUICK & EASY
For example, when I created my media or print document. Technology has requires four metal ink plates to be made in
posters for sale on Society6.com they improved to make digital printing a great CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black).
required that I submit my posters in valid option for quicker printing time.
RGB format as a jpeg or png. As RGB These metal plates are applied one at a
printing becomes better (and can print In the past, I have personally found digital time, one for each of the four inks.
in wider color gamuts) you will see printing to print a little darker than expect-
more requirements for RGB files in lieu ed, or darker than offset printing. The quality of this type of printing is
of CMYK files. unmatched and of the highest quality.
This is because all inks are applied at the
same time into the photo, instead of in Large quantity orders are suggested for the
different stages and allows the inks to mix use of offset printing.
more causing a slight darkening of the
overall appearance.
DOWNSIDE:
The downside is offset CMYK printing
Most cheaper Online printers use digital
requires the production of 4 metal plates
printing machines so they can print quickly
which can drive up costs for really small
and reduce the need to create metal
quantity orders.
printing plates.
DOWNSIDE:
Digital printing does not allow for the use of
Pantone colors or special inks.
SPECIAL INKS Pantone® produces color swatch books
which you can order on their website.
They contain various swatch books you
can use to better predict how the color
will look printed on paper.
EMBOSSING
For a super finished look you can do what is called embossing on your
printing projects. This process uses a two metal plates (and heat) to
stamp together and create a raised effect as seen in the photo above.
It provides texture to the print and allows certain parts of the design to
be raised while others remain flat.
DEBOSSING
You can also combine foil stamping and embossing to give your foil
effect a more dramatic look. The photo to the left is a wine label that
uses embossing and gold foil. Both of these are usually applied at
the same time to assure proper treatment.
AMA
ZING!
Less than 300 dpi is acceptable (150 dpi) if you are doing super large format printing (large
banners and billboards) or when the viewing distance of a project will be several feet.
THE GUIDE TO
MILLIMETERS INCHES PRINT DESIGN
A0 841mm x 1189mm 33.1" x 46.8"
A1 594mm x 841mm 23.4" x 33.1"
A2 420mm x 594mm 16.5" x 23.4"
A3 297mm x 420mm 11.7" x 16.5"
A4 210mm x 297mm 8.3" x 11.7"
A5 148mm x 210mm 5.8" x 8.3"
A6 105mm x 148mm 4.1" x 5.8"
A7 74mm x 105mm 2.9" x 4.1"
A8 52mm x 74mm 2.0" x 2.9"
A0
The A series paper has a ratio of 1:1.4142. That means each size A2
doubles in size. A1 is twice as large as A2 and A2 is twice as large
as A3 and so on.
A4 is the typical size you will see used in home and office printers A3
while A1 would be your commonly sized large poster.
A4
If you are in the United States this system of measurement is used
less often. It is good to still get to know this system if you plan or
A5
using a printer located anywhere else in the world. A6
A7
A8
THE GUIDE TO
PRINT DESIGN
Used exclusively in the United States and for printers located in the
United States the following sizes are the most commonly used.
LARGER SIZES
LEDGER / TABLOID
Poster Small 457 x 609 mm 18.0 x 24 in
Poster Medium 558 x 711 mm 22.0 x 28 in
Poster Large 609 x 914 mm 24.0 x 36 in
Poster XLarge 914 x 1219 mm 36.0 x 48 in
Do not see a common size listed? That is okay, this just lists the
HALF LETTER (HALF PAGE)
standard sizes. There are other sizes not listed that tend to be
popular when working with particular projects. 6 x 9 inches for
example is common for booklets and book covers.
THE GUIDE TO
PRINT DESIGN
SPINE
Book sizes can vary not only by type (hard-back or soft-back) BACK FRONT
but also the genre of the book. Most standard book sizes
range from 6”x 9” to 8.5” x 11”.
INSIDE FLAP
INSIDE FLAP
.125) = 9.25 inches. The total document to put your design on would
SPINE
be 13.25 in x 9 in. A softback book jacket with flaps on the side
would add additional width to the document but not height. BACK FRONT
BLEED HARDBACK COVER
1/8 IN OR .125 6 X 9 INCH
6 IN 1 IN 6 IN
Laying out your document for a book jacket or cover is
relatively easy when you view it as one large sheet of paper
that will be folded. The hardest part is setting up your template
but many common sized templates can be found Online or
through your printer.
BLEED
INSIDE FLAP
9 IN
SPINE
BACK FRONT
CREATE A PLAN
Fold your paper in the desired way and label which side will be the
MOST front, back, and flaps. This allows you to plan out your design file so
COMMON it will fold in the proper manner after being printed and folded.
2 INCHES
or 3.5 in x 2 in. The width always comes first in a
measurement and height is the second number.
8.5 X 11 IN Postcards get more expensive to mail the larger the size. Make
sure to check postage prices. Size can and postage costs vary
wildly for each country.
6 X 9 IN
These are the easiest to
prepare for print. Simply
create your design on the
final size and add any
bleed upon export (if
required).
Flyer/handout
T-shirts might be one of the easiest files to
prepare for print. You may have just a front
file or you may have both a front and a
backside file.
SCREEN PRINTING
AKA SILK SCREEN PRINTING
This is the traditional method of
applying ink to cloth. You would
create a silkscreen with one color
for each silkscreen and slowly
imprint the ink to the t-shirt one ink
at a time. This is similar to offset
printing.
BOXES BARCODE
TOP
GLUE
What makes package design preparation a bit difficult is
you have to think of your design in a 3D space. We no
longer just have a simple flat fold to worry about but
sometimes multiple folds that end up folding into other
folds.
Flap
BACK LEFT SIDE FRONT RIGHT SIDE
Break down boxes that you find around the house to see
how they fold together. The example to the right features
a tea box that was broken down and folded completely
flat.
PACKAGING
Cylindrical packaging also can be a bit tricky
because the viewer never sees the entire TOP LABEL
DESIGN FILE
design at one time. Similar to boxes, they
need to rotate the product to see all of the
sides.
DISTORTION
IN PACKAGE
DESIGN
Lotion bottles are a great example of bottle
distortion. Hold a lotion bottle in your hand. Do
you notice how it blends inward as you get
closer to the cap at the bottom? The width
seems to get smaller than toward the middle of Using a Photoshop or other type
the bottle? of mock-up program helps to
visualize the final design.
Make sure to think about these bends and
curves when creating a package design. This works out great for standard
designs. For custom designs it
You may need to avoid using critical helps to know a basic 3D
typography in the areas that are bend or modeling program like Adobe
rounded to avoid a distortion effect to the type Dimensions or Blender to create
or photos. your own custom mock-ups.
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THE GUIDE TO
PRINT DESIGN
Reproduction of this resource is prohibited without permission. All rights reserved. Lindsay Marsh.