There are many design, color, paper choices made during the creation of a file that can affect the quality of the final printed outcome. We've listed below the combinations that typically lead to a higher risk of production error, and why you should avoid them. When armed with the right information, you can limit these mistakes and produce high quality designs for print!
In this article:
Placement Issues
One of the most common mistakes in the design process is the placement of images and logos on the paper. There are several ways that placement on the page can negatively affect the quality of printing.
Creeping
Creeping is caused by the way paper lies once it has been bound. Elements closer to the inside edge risk creeping into the folds of the paper.
Ensure there is a buffer zone between the image and crease. This will allow any creeping risk to be mitigated by the buffer zone. Alternatively, important images or information should be placed on the opposite side of the page from the binding, minimizing the risk of important information being lost to creeping.
Cutting Error Risk
When preparing your design for print, you need to take into account the cutting of the document after it has been printed. There are three areas you need to consider when designing your printed material:
- Bleed Zone
- Trim Line
- Safe Zone
The area between the bleed and the trim line is the area that will be cut during the trimming process, whereas the area between the trim line and the safe zone is at risk of cutting errors. Within the safe zone, there is no risk of trimming issues and this is where all the important information should be placed. There should be 8mm of space between the edge of the paper and the safe zone giving space for a 4mm bleed zone and 4mm between the trim line and safe zone.
Although the bleed zone will be lost in the trimming process, it’s important to make sure your design fills this area to avoid any white edges on the printed material.
2. Colour Issues
There are also certain design aspects that can cause colour issues when your product is printed. These can easily be avoided if they are addressed at the design phase.
Colour inconsistencies
If you are planning to print a full page with one colour, the probability that this will cause colour inconsistencies is higher for multi-location production. Gelato has implemented a colour consistency program to review the settings of all machines (including our proprietary web-based colour consistency tool), and the Gelato print jobs are always the first ones to be printed early in the day. Despite this effort, print is still a physical process and even factors such as the location’s humidity can potentially affect the result.
Risk of pixelation or misregistration
Font, text size and colour are important factors that should be considered in the design. If any are too small or thin, it can increase the risk of pixelation or misregistration during the printing process. This is also the same for the colour you have chosen. If the text is not 100% one colour, there is an increased chance of quality issues with the final product. Selecting at least 7 point font with sufficient thickness and single colour will allow for a much higher quality printed product.
3. Paper Issues
Along with the design elements to produce a high-quality end product, you must consider the paper and the various elements around printing on paper to avoid any post-print issues. You can add a layer of protection to your print material on Gelato to mitigate a number of risks.
Smearing Risk
Printing a flat product with colour on one side and white on the other, such as flyers or business cards, produces a high risk of smearing if no protection has been added. To avoid this, you should select paper type Silk and add protection to stop any smearing.
Scratching Risk
Choosing not to add protection on a full-colour cover increases the risk of the product being damaged with scratches post-print. Using silk paper type and adding protection for your covers will ensure the product maintains a high-quality standard.
Cracking on the spine (after folding)
As brochures are folded while being read, the spine is at risk of having the colour crack, especially if the spine has full colour. Avoid the issue by selecting Silk paper with protection for the cover pages, and less than 200gsm (or 100lb cover) paper thickness for inner pages. This will ensure your final product is durable and will maintain high standard of quality throughout its use.
