[lauralil]

hey everyone :)

I'm kinda new to preparing posters for print. I have designed an A2 poster that has been approved, and now the client has asked for it print ready poster with cutmarks.

So the poster I have is A2, and its got a 3mm bleed. What size should I make my canvas in AI to have this ready for the printer? What size do I need to allow on each edge for this?

And if anyone can point me in the direction of some useful reading material so i can get up to speed on this then that would be great!

L x

[SenseCreative.co.uk]

Hi Laura,

A2 would be 420mm x 594mm without bleed 426mm x 600mm with 3mm bleed around each edge.

On our website we have a PDF template for A2 which to download Print Templates

Hope this is useful

David

[Lisa]

I would suggest you take your artwork into Indesign and export it as a high resolution pdf with the settings attached or you can add crop marks to you illustrator document and supply your printer with this along with any fonts that you have used (unless you convert them all to outlines).

Just out of interest is your poster purely vector thus your reason for choosing illustrator?

[lauralil]

thanks both

lisa, illustrator is my weapon of choice! And I got some of the artwork in PDF form by the way, so figured illustrator was my best bet. Need to get up to speed on indesign. Is it best for print then?

[lauralil]

What I was trying to work out was whether you had to make room on the artboard for the artwork AND the printmarks. But then i realised that when you export the PDF you can add them on that way rather than them just appearing there when you print from illustrator!

God what a numpty I am! haha oh well...i'm sure I'll get there eventually!!

[Lisa]

Generally Indesign is thought to be the industry standard when it comes to publication print like posters, leaflets etc. Using illustrator is not as uncommon but is mainly used for creating vectors for use in Indesign and most commonly for logos.

I think it is defiantly worth you spending the time learning Indesign and even Quark Express as you will one day be required to do brochures etc or in the case of Quark you may be asked to take another designers artwork in Quark and amend it.

[Xenonsoft]

This may sound odd, or even wrongly worded, but is Indesign bitmap or vector?

[dogsbody]

Originally Posted by Xenonsoft

This may sound odd, or even wrongly worded, but is Indesign bitmap or vector?

both you can import bitmaps and vectors or use vector tools as in illustrator

[LovesPrint]

Originally Posted by Lisa

Generally Indesign is thought to be the industry standard when it comes to publication print like posters, leaflets etc. Using illustrator is not as uncommon but is mainly used for creating vectors for use in Indesign and most commonly for logos.

I think it is defiantly worth you spending the time learning Indesign and even Quark Express as you will one day be required to do brochures etc or in the case of Quark you may be asked to take another designers artwork in Quark and amend it.

Yes

[LovesPrint]

Originally Posted by lauralil

thanks both

lisa, illustrator is my weapon of choice! And I got some of the artwork in PDF form by the way, so figured illustrator was my best bet. Need to get up to speed on indesign. Is it best for print then?

You can place PDF's into InDesign with no problems if you need to.