Print quality?

[suzy@cystem]

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on designing good print quality designs.
I am very new to the design world and have self taught what i know so far which up until now has been all i've needed as all my graphics have been going onto websites.
However now i am getting an increasing number of clients who would like a logo designed for them to use on business stationary, leaflets, posters etc.
The problem i have is up until now i have used photoshop but when the design is printed it looses alot of the quality u have on screen.
Has anyone any suggestions on how i can improve this or what programme would be better used to design for for print?

Thanks in advance

Suzy

[Boss Hog]

Hey Suzy

Adobe Illustrator would be your ideal software, exporting as vector PDF's. For multipage projects most people use Adobe InDesign.

However, although not ideal there shouldn't be any problem using Photoshop, just ensure your colour space is CMYK and you design at a minimum of 300dpi, when saving export to a Press Ready PDF (this is an option in PS), ensuring no compression is selected.

[Captain Craigman]

Hi Suzy

Boss is correct in saying that Illustrator will give you a better tool for preparation for print particularly if you are working with spot colours and fonts. That said you will no doubt get into multi-page projects and when it comes to that end you are best going for InDesign which is a Adobe product and you will have familiarity of the user interface. For PDF production then I would recommend Acrobat.

Can't wait to hear how you get on! And don't forget, you can always pitch a file over to us and we can advise on the set up for print.

ATB, Craig.

[Captain Craigman]

Hi Suzy... me again.

More advice;

Our designers are prone to slipping in to relying on what they see on screen even though they have a £4k laser print sat behind them (Quote: Steve the stormtrooper looks after the printer!)?

What I keep reminding them of is that it is there so they can print designs off at an early stage, trim them to size and look at them spatially and to check on legibility (fonts of 12pt are not all the same size, therefore the tracking and leading may need adjusting before they start on preparing artwork for print).

A good habit to get in to!

ATB, Craig.

[CYoung]

I think these 2 (above) have covered it. I recently started using Illustrator instead of photoshop and it has a lot of benefits by having the vecotrs, I noticed this recently when I reprinted some leaflets I get for a local business. I remade the doc in illustrator and it has turned out much better

[suzy@cystem]

Hi,

Thankyou to all of you that have replied sounds like i was on the right sort of lines in my head just needed it verified.
Must admit it was driving me nuts at one point and looks like i may have to recreate one of my client logo's before sending it to her but it's all in the learning process i spose!!

When sending a client a logo on disc is it better to send in various formats for them to pick and choose from or should there only be a couple of specific ones?
Sorry for the added question but popped into my heads whilst writing this so thought i'd ask whilst here!

Suzy

[Boss Hog]

Take a read here....Saving Logos?

[suzy@cystem]

Hi,

Thanks ever so much that's a really useful thread!

Suzy

[10thWay]

like boss hog said, photoshop is the way to go if you are using photographic elements in your artwork as long as you set the document to 300dpi CMYK. For logos and flat artwork with solid colours illustrator is the way to go. Whilst for booklets and other similar jobs. Indesign should be the weapon of choice.

[Eagle]

Consider also CorelDRAW: The UK's finest uses it. Logo Design portfolio - Eagle Imagery