Various Articles

OK, this is going to be a steep learning curve for most people. So you need to have a comfy chair, a coffee handy (maybe a snack too!) and some patience. We're going to take you on a little trip down the road of desktop publishing. It can get a little rough now and then, but you'll make it through with our help.

We get many requests from customers for information and tips on designing Business Cards, Brochures, Flyers and Letterheads! The following four articles will be covering the most common mistakes made.

Incorrect Page size. Yeah, it sounds like it would be a hard mistake to make, but this is one of the most common mistakes we see. Most of the time it's because the designer just starts the design of the Business Card, Brochure or Letterhead with the default page size of the application, which could be Letter or A4.

This can cause problems when supplying your files to a commercial printer, since most printers have automatic layout applications to place your design on a press sheet. If the page size is incorrect it means it won't position it correctly and can cause it to be cut at the wrong position. This is completely undesirable! What the printer then has to do, is adjust the page size, before they go to the imposition stage. If there's a few pages this takes a little time, but If there's a lot of pages, it can take a long time! Regardless of how much time it takes printers will usually charge for it. However you'll probably find that the printers will simply reject the job and ask for it to be resupplied.

The solution? Contact the print provider before creating your document. Ask them about the exact dimensions for the final product. Punch those values into your design program. This can be under 'document setup' or 'page settings' in some applications. However, if you're doing it in Adobe Photoshop or another 'pixel based' application, you'll need to make the document larger again to account for bleed. That's coming up in the following article

Like we said, you would think it's a hard mistake to make, but it's one of the most common mistakes made with Business Cards, Brochures & Letterheads! That's why we made it mistake #1.