After days, weeks, or months of working on a print design you’ve got a finalized output file and are all set for your commercial printer. Wait! Before rushing off, make sure you know the common problems encountered after printing a design and understand how to avoid them!

Common Print Design Errors:

1. Fonts did not match the fonts I chose

We know how frustrating it is to see that the beautiful serif font that you chose for your design show up as a default software font. How did it happen?

Simple, the font was not available in the computer where it was processed for printing. As a result, another font took over in its place. To avoid this, the final PDF copy of the design must have the fonts embedded so the font design is retained and there’s no need to install the font whenever you transfer the file to another computer.

2. The color of the design is different

The most crucial step to choosing the best colour mode for the design is to know the final output purpose of the design. If the design will be displayed on computer monitors, RGB (Red, Green, Blue) is the right color profile to use. On the other hand, CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) is best used for printed projects because printers usually have fewer set of colours which limit the number of colour available to the design.

3. Part of the design is accidentally cropped

In some scenarios, the small elements and texts that are put near the edge of the page are cropped. If you don’t want the printed output to be trimmed unintentionally, or have unnecessary white lines printed on the edge of the paper, it is important to always set the proper bleed and trim of the page. For the bleed, you can set it to .125” – .25” depending on the type and thickness of paper to be used. The trim is usually adjusted after the bleed is set.

Also depending on the quality of the production equipment, pages can shift when being cut and this will make things skewed.

4. The images are blurry or low quality

Don’t ignore it if there are images which appear to be grainy or blurred in the design. It is usually an indicator that the size of the image is too small or the resolution set for output is too low. This issue can also be caused if the original link to the image was not included in the output files; these are called “missing links.”

To correct the quality of the design, always use high quality resolution images and logo. The standard resolution for printing is 300 dpi (dot per inch), this can change for large format productions.

5. Print quality – the images look distorted

It is common for design files to have big data. But if the file is too big to download or transfer to another storage, the irrelevant data and space in the file should be reduced by compressing the image. Image compression process should be carefully considered when editing a print design. Lossy compression, such as JPEG, GIF and PNG, should be avoided because it gives distorted and low quality image. It is advisable to use lossless compression, like TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) because it produces clearer and crisp image output without losing any colour in the design.

6. Black looks pale

In a “what you see is what you get world” it can be pretty frustrating to have colors show up differently than expected. One of the common mistakes committed by inexperienced (or forgetful) print designers is using the default black color in the software, which can be based on RGB values. As a result, the color black in the final print looks light and pale even if it looks dark in the computer monitor.

To ensure a rich black color, make sure to set your color settings to CMYK with ratio of 75% Cyan, 68% Magenta, 67% Yellow and 90% Black (adjust as needed).

7. Page size is incorrect

Some companies assume that one image size fits all type of mediums and paper size and that few differences in measurements won’t affect the final output of the design. Definitely not! The image size and paper size should have the exact measurements so that good quality printed output can be achieved. Having incorrect page size can lead to too stretched or too squished images.

It is best to always proof your final design to avoid reprinting of file and unwanted charges. If you’re team has lots of design to fix, resize and proof, contact Made For Print and we’ll be glad to help you produce your best print ready designs.

 

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