Printing Basics Tips
Read these 9 Printing Basics Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Printing tips and hundreds of other topics.
Printing Images From Stock Photography Companies
Know the image size required for your layout before you purchase stock photography online. Read their information prior to purchase as it will determine, price, color, file size, copyrights, resolution and quality.
Each image should be at a resolution of 300dpi for the final size in your layout. Reminder: get the image in CMYK color mode (rather than RGB) if possible. Here are some guidelines for you to follow:
• 2 inches x 2 inches @ 300dpi = 600 pixels x 600 pixels = 1.38 MB
• 4 inches x 4 inches @ 300dpi = 1200 pixels x 1200 pixels = 5.5 MB
• 8.5 inches x 11 inches @ 300dpi = 2550 pixels x 3300 pixels = 32.2 MB
Resolution Required for Printing Scanned Images
The human eye cannot detect the squares of color if there are 300 or more in an inch. For clear and crisp printing, images at their final size in the layout should be at 300dpi (dots per inch = squares of color in an inch) or 400dpi if the images include text.
You should scan your images using a resolution of 300dpi at the final dimensions you intend to use them so that your colors will look smooth, and hard objects will look sharp. In other words don't scan at 300dpi and then enlarge the picture by 200% in your layout program! This is another reason why you should not use images that are lifted from websites; they are probably only 72dpi in resolution and will look very blurry if printed on a printing press.
Printing Colorized Text
It's best not to colorize small text. All printing presses have a little bit of variance in the consistency of the position of the different color plates. This is called misregistration.
In misregistration, cyan, magenta, yellow and black portions of the text characters don't line up exactly. As a result, little colored halos appear around the characters.
It's ok to use colored text on large, headline type, or smaller sizes down to about 12 point size, but much smaller than that will be too noticeabl. The same thing holds true for white (knock-out) text on a dark or colored background. You can do it but don't use point sizes smaller than about 12 point. Otherwise the words may be hard to read and it will look unprofessional.
Printing Images from the Internet
Jpeg and Gif files are Internet images, saved with a compression process designed to remove color and visual quality to achieve small file sizes. Internet images are usually saved at a resolution of 72 dpi for quick screen loads and will not print clear and crisp on a printing press.
Since the physical dimensions of an image and resolution are in direct proportion to each other, shrinking the physical dimensions of an Internet image by 4x will achieve decent printing results (72dpi x 4 = 288dpi). Here's how to calculate the size you must reduce (shrink) an Internet image to get it to print well: reduce the size to 24% of its original size (because 72dpi is 24% of the 300dpi resolution you want). For example, if an Internet image is 3 inches x 3 inches, at 72dpi you want to shrink it enough to get it to 300dpi for crisp printing
Zoom into your images to see the quality. Be aware of your design, purpose of your printing, and the needs of your customers before using images from the Internet.
Use the Best Possible Publishing Equipment...
Make sure the church has a computer with all the media components needed to do a church newsletter. By using the best possible publishing equipment you will set your newsletter up for success. The computer will need a large memory base, up to 200 MB of RAM, a large processor and plenty of media-based applications. Programs like Microsoft Publisher and Word, Quark XPress, and Adobe Photoshop are excellent applications to begin with.
Make sure you have a printer with copying and scanner capabilities to produce great results for hard copy printouts. A copy machine that is economical in price and strong on work use is the Cannon copiers. Contact them about buying a copy machine for your church.
If you would like to purchase a complete system, try Gateway or Dell computers; both companies sell complete computers systems along with printers.
Use the Best Possible Publishing Equipment...
Make sure the church has a computer with all the media components needed to do a church newsletter. By using the best possible publishing equipment you will set your newsletter up for success. The computer will need a large memory base, up to 200 MB of RAM, a large processor and plenty of media-based applications. Programs like Microsoft Publisher and Word, Quark XPress, and Adobe Photoshop are excellent applications to begin with.
Make sure you have a printer with copying and scanner capabilities to produce great results for hard copy printouts. A copy machine that is economical in price and strong on work use is the Cannon copiers. Contact them about buying a copy machine for your church.
If you would like to purchase a complete system, try Gateway or Dell computers; both companies sell complete computers systems along with printers.
Oh, is that how it is suppose to look?
Many desktop publishing software packages offer consumers the ability to design anything from flyers and business cards to catalogs and that first Great American Novel.
But, everything that starts on that computer screen does not necessary end up the same way when the disk or CD is delivered to the printer. The larger the project, the more complicated the layout.
Or a design with a funky font may end up being printed in ugly plain Courier because the printer did not have that particular font in their computer system.
Before you receive some unpleasant surprises when you pick up your project, stop and check:
1) Does the printer have your software on their system and more importantly, know how to use it?
2) Ask what the printer requires from you when the project file is brought in on disk or CD. Do you need to supply fonts or graphics with the file?
3) Print out a draft of your project to create a mockup of what it should look like.
4) Ask about paper as some absorb more ink than others.
Use the Best Possible Publishing Equipment...
Make sure the church has a computer with all the media components needed to do a church newsletter. By using the best possible publishing equipment you will set your newsletter up for success. The computer will need a large memory base, up to 200 MB of RAM, a large processor and plenty of media-based applications. Programs like Microsoft Publisher and Word, Quark XPress, and Adobe Photoshop are excellent applications to begin with.
Use the Best Possible Publishing Equipment...
Make sure the church has a computer with all the media components needed to do a church newsletter. By using the best possible publishing equipment you will set your newsletter up for success. The computer will need a large memory base, up to 200 MB of RAM, a large processor and plenty of media-based applications. Programs like Microsoft Publisher and Word, Quark XPress, and Adobe Photoshop are excellent applications to begin with.
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| Joe Wallace |
