Design and Print Process
- Advice & Tips, Information
Design and Print Process
This guide will take you step by step through the various stages of the design and print process and outline both of our roles and responsibilities in order to achieve your goals. It also contains some things you should know to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible, on time and how to avoid any extra charges.
TIP Start as early as possible. Occasionally, unforeseen issues beyond our control can occur which will affect the schedule of your project. These are things like print machine break-downs and delivery issues. Thankfully these can easily be avoided by starting early and allowing some extra time to the production of your project, especially if it’s required for an event. It’s less stressful for everyone and in some circumstances printers will offer preferential rates for longer turnaround times. It’s annoying if your project is delayed but never a problem if it arrives early.
The process begins with you supplying a brief detailing your requirements to us. If you don't know where to start you can complete our online briefing form which will prompt you for all the answers we need from you to work out a quote. We'll check your brief and if necessary contact you to clarify or make suggestions to either enhance or make your project more cost effective.
Next, you will receive a detailed quote from us by email with a breakdown of all costs and a provisional schedule. Quite often we are asked for optional prices for things like laminating or various print quantities, which may not end up being part of your final order. It's for this reason that our quotes are broken down and we ask you to add up the parts you require to calculate the total cost.
If your organisation operates a purchase ordering system we would require your official order prior to work commencing. Otherwise you can simply send us an email confirming you are happy for us to proceed as quoted. Please list the parts you require if more options were quoted.
Due to some of our services attracting VAT and others being zero rated, our quotes DO NOT include VAT.
Once our quote has been approved we would then require you to supply the text along with all the imagery you have including logos which you would like to appear in the project.
Supplying Text
If you’re writing the content for your project yourself please ensure that everyone who needs to see it, has seen and approved the copy before forwarding it on to us. There’s no quick way to merge the amended sections of a Word document and apply them to our working document, this often becomes a time consuming process leading to additional charges.
Don’t attempt to create a layout within your Word file as this is removed when it’s imported into our working document. Keep the formatting simple without colour and set to a single column. Do indicate what should be headers, body copy and bullet points etc. and do insert specific images you may have next to the text it relates to. We will require these images sent separately too.
Don’t forgot – run your text document through a spelling and grammar checker.
Supplying Images
Before we even talk about resolution you need to be sure you have the rights to use the images you’re supplying. If you haven’t done so already read our guide on image copyright here.
For photographs, the best file type for retaining image quality is the RAW format. If this is not an option then an uncompressed TIFF and finally a JPG file set to maximum quality is the preference.
Photographs to be printed in documents should have a resolution of 300ppi or more at the size it’s to be printed in the document. The resolution for large format printing (banners and displays) is lower at 85ppi at the final printed size. The lowest file size is for online uses at 72ppi at the size it’s to be used.
Graphic images like logos and flat colour illustrations are best supplied in a vector format. Unlike photographs, vector graphics can be scaled to any size without losing image quality. There are many file types that support the vector format with the most common ones being EPS, AI, PDF and SVG.
Supplying Data
Because data usage can be so varied and complex the best approach is to decide which data fields you would like to include, we will then take a sample and flow it into the layout and apply styles. Once you are happy with the sample layout we will create a template for you to supply the remaining data.
Many organisations work with much more data than they intent to use in the projects we create for them. When this is the case please make sure the file that is sent to us only contains the information thats meant to go into the project. Redundant data can cause import issues and create confusion which usually leads to mistakes occurring.
When we send you a proof it will arrive by email and be a pdf file (except for websites) with a range of tools activated so you can indicate where and how you would like changes to be made. You'll need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view this file. If you don't already have it you can download it from the Adobe website. It's really easy to mark-up your amendments as you only need to use a few of the tools. Read our quick guide.
You will notice our proof files will have numbered labels like [V1] or [V2]. These indicate which number proof you are viewing. There are two opportunities for you to make amendments built into our quotes, therefore sign off should be achieved at [V3]. If the number of amendments go past this stage there may be additional charges. We will advise beforehand. Once you approve the design we'll send you a final file for your reference without the tools activated. This will be optimised for you to upload to your website should you wish.
What is an amendment?
Amendments can be made to the text and imagery. Should more than 20% of the text on a page be changed or the requested amendments cause the text to flow over to the next page it will be considered as adjusting the layout and additional costs will be incurred. You will be advised how much these costs are and we will require you to confirm acceptance via email prior to the amendments being carried out.
If your project is to be printed we will prepare the files as per the specifications of our quote. We can arrange for paper samples to be posted out to you but this can take a several days so please advise us from the start. Once the printing has been completed it will be delivered or distributed as requested.
In the unlikely event that there is a problem with the final printed item, you MUST inform us within 48hrs of delivery.
There are projects like website development and digital presentations where the process will vary slightly, mainly in the method of proofing. You will be advised at the time.
