It used to be that all things aim part out in print . telly commercial message , radio billet , outdoor board and even World Wide Web land site start out with a mark ad and were modified to fit other mediums .
That time has long - since passed . Many Web land site designers nowadays are finding that the market for Web body of work is rough going and extremely competitive . Most site are either way too large for one designer , or so small that the money just is n’t deserving the trouble . Factor in ever - changing engineering , and you have one thousand of internet and multimedia system graphic designer scrambling to supplement their income — or slip over to print invention completely .
So , if you ’re a Web designer looking to append print to your stable of talents , what do you do ?
Get the right hardware for your jobs
First come the vault of upgrading to Modern hardware and software , if you have n’t done so already . Sure , you could carry on to work on that graphite Power Mac G4 , Titanium PowerBook or iMac — after all , they worked great for writing HTML and Javascript . But you ’ll chop-chop see that they are the short road to a full - waste breakdown when working on500 Mbit effigy ( or larger ) , which are usual in photographic print design .
For the budget - disposed buyer I recommend going with the 24 - column inch iMac , with 2 GB RAM , 250 GB difficult driving force , built - in SuperDrive and wireless capability . The advantage to the iMac is that you get the beautiful 24 - inch screen and a compact design . If you have a little more to spend , go with the Mac Pro and upgrade the RAM to 4 GB . If you have a small more room in the budget I suggest adding a 20 - inch Cinema Display to complement any monitor you already have , since graphics applications tend to be as pallet - happy as Web tools like BBEdit or Dreamweaver .
You may already have a near helping of the software you ’ll require , so use the following as a checklist of software you ’ll need to at least get started :
project on budgeting for annual upgrades to software to maintain compatibility with client and vendors , as you will be sharing file quite frequently .
Size counts in a different way print design
Now that you have all the hardware and software you need , the next thing to remember is that , in photographic print , everything counts . grim - resolution RGB image used for the Web are no longer acceptable . They ’ll search absolutely horrible when output from a high - goal imagesetter or ink - jet proofer . Your images must be in the range of 250 - 300 dpi at the size of it it will be really printed . This equates to large image sizing , especially when you ’re working on an 11×17 - inch image with multiple layers in Photoshop .
You ’ll also have to work inCMYK(cyan , Battle of Magenta , lily-livered and black ) rather than RGB , because print shops , paper and magazines all use this four - color process . The main divergence between RGB and CMYK is that CMYK pop the question a much low gamut , or mountain chain of color . Those bright blues , greens and orange color you see on Web pages plainly wo n’t print in four - color process . For that , you need to operate with Pantone Matching System ink ( also known asspot semblance ) . This introduces unequaled intent issues , adding to the cost of printing and limiting your ability to blend colors together as you may with RGB — something you must take into consideration when you ’re design .
You ’ll also have to make do with single file complexness . In general , Adobe’sPDF technologyhas gone a longsighted way in solving the problem , but many printers still insist ( or at least strongly promote ) on having “ working files ” to output . That means they will postulate not only the InDesign or Quark master documents , but all the fonts , embedded graphical files and picture as well . Reading through the clause link up in the above paragraph will give you an idea of what I ’m talking about , but again , your local commercial-grade printer is your best resource .
Another consideration is future usance . You ca n’t just throw together a brochure to look good now , the way you’re able to with a World Wide Web page . HTML and CSS let for a lot of flexibility in how thing are displayed on a Web page — peculiarly if you need to go back later and make some change in positioning , text or colors . With print design , you have to ensure to build your file so that they can be easy manipulated in the future by not only yourself , but possibly others , which mean that you do n’t flatten all those layers in a Photoshop written document . Many times a client will request the working file to be sent to them for further minor edits . You ca n’t just institutionalise them a CD with a bunch of flattened Photoshop images and a gazillion overlapping text boxes in Quark . You have to be smart about it . Making your files “ uninfected and slap-up ” not only helps you in the purpose process , and facilitate your client and printing machine when they work with the files .
There are many other issues to moot when change over from Web to print design that only a photographic print shop will be able to apprize you on , but you may take a feeling at sites likePrePressureand PhotoshopCafe ’s “ prepare your files for Printing on a Commercial Printing Press , ” for a little backcloth info to get you started .
Designing for the differences between the Web and print
The gap between “ design ” for the entanglement and print is small ; after all , cracking intent is ecumenical . But the techniques , tools and step used to attain bang-up design are drastically unlike between the two mediums . One of the first “ design ” considerations to take note of is that you do n’t have the option of just tot up more page . Web innovation is about clicking and scroll while print design relies on the reader to cull and prefer where there eye goes to on the printed sheet . Pick up brochure , annual reports , booklets , posters and other print textile for idea . Or grab a book from theBest of Brochure Designseries or get a subscription toCommunication Artsfor quick reference . Also consider that the newspaper publisher you have your design printed on is part of the innovation cognitive process and many times can put over an otherwise mediocre design . Build your collection by visiting the Web sites of paper ship’s company such asSmart Papersand petition that sampling be sent to you .
There are a lot of ledger available for learning more about the software package you ’ll be using . You ’re credibly fairly well-off working in Photoshop , but you ’ll most likely ask to bed about a few more of its feature . InDesign and Illustrator may be altogether alien to you . The comply are just a few book and magazine that I ’ve find to be fantastic resource :
Adobe Creative Suite:
Adobe Illustrator:
Adobe InDesign:
Adobe Photoshop:
And last ( and most significantly ) , schedule an appointee to sit down with a commercial print shop ’s pre - press section for a twenty-four hour period or two . It may seem like a existent annoyance , but the noesis you reach in one or two days can be extremely valuable . There is no Word , magazine or WWW situation that can even get to teach you what a seasoned pre - press operator can teach you in just a few hours regarding how to go down up files , get around bug in software and just plain avoid pull in figure decision that just wo n’t work well .
[ James Dempsey is the man behind theCreative Guyblog , which declare oneself tips , legerdemain and notion on a range of design topics . ]
