THE ESSENTIAL PRINT DESIGN HABITS THAT EVERYBODY SHOULD KNOW

Even in a world now dominated by digital screens and the ever expanding online presence, print still isn’t dead - even though a lot of people may tell you otherwise. Print still holds a lot of power, whether it’s business cards, brochures, books, prints or even posters. But there is still a catch.

Great print design isn’t only about making something look awesome, it’s about the good habits, smart decisions and professional practices that help get you there. In this article, I’ll take a look at the essential print design habits that anyone can apply to their projects, even if you’re not a designer. These practices will help you to communicate better with printers during production and avoid common, costly mistakes. Let’s get going.

1. Always Design with Trim and Bleed in Mind

When designing for print, one of the most common mistakes beginners make is failing to address their trim size or their bleed correctly when they start.

Your trim size refers to the final size of your printed material after it’s been cut down to size. There should always be a safe area margin within your trim size where important content should be placed to avoid being trimmed off.

Your bleed refers to the extra area outside of the trim size of your printed material on all sides of your document. It is typically set to 3mm, but may vary depending on your printer or the item you’re having printed. Your bleed ensures that if your stock is cut slightly off square or isn’t square to begin with, there won’t be any unwanted white material around the edges of the final product.

Be sure to set these both accurately when setting up your documents.

2. Always Use the CMYK Colour Profile

Colours behave differently in print compared to how they behave on screen. Digital displays use the RGB colour model, while printers will use the CMYK colour model. If you design something in RGB from the start, then convert to CMYK later, the colours will dull and shift, and your design will no longer look how you intended. Printing an RGB document without conversion will result in the same outcome. Be sure to set this correctly at the beginning of your project to avoid problems later on.

If you’re interested in reading further about the CMYK and RGB colour models, I have another insight for you to explore with additional information available here.

3. Choose Clear, Readable Fonts

While digital design allows for lots of fun and creativity with typography for different uses, print sometimes requires a more disciplined approach with more restraint. Fonts that are too thin, ornate, or closely spaced become unreadable once printed and are prone to misprints or imperfect execution. This is particularly true when it comes to smaller sized fonts or printed materials.

It is possible to balance your creativity and stylistic choices with solid design practice, but if your audience struggles to read your material, your design ultimately fails - no matter how well executed it may be. Always think practicality over visual style.

4. Only Use High-Resolution Imagery

Resolution is everything in print. Imagery can make or break your design if it’s present. Screens typically display at 72 DPI as the historical standard, but anything that goes to print requires a resolution of 300DPI for crisp, professional results. Anything below leaves you open for lacklustre blurry, pixelated or grainy results.

To check your image resolution, you can do it one of two ways. Either:

Open Photoshop or similar programme, go to Image > Image Size > Check the DPI
For PC users, open your file in File Explorer, Right Click your File > Properties > Details Tab > Check the DPI
For Mac users, open your file in Finder, Right Click your File > Open With > Choose Preview > In Preview > Click on Tools in the Menu > Show Inspector > Check the DPI

If you still can’t locate your DPI, give it the eye test. Zoom in on your image. If it looks pixelated on screen at 100% preview, it will look at least two times worse printed on your materials.

5. Pay Attention to Your Margins and Negative Space

I mentioned it before, but it’s worth reiterating again. Your margins, or your safe areas, are absolutely crucial to a successful print. Anything outside of these areas are at risk of being trimmed off during the cutting process. The absolute minimum size for this safe area should be 3mm but even this can be considered cutting it fine in some instances (pardon the pun).

Another key element to pay attention to while considering your margins is your use of negative space (or white space). Overcrowding your design with too much text or too many elements can clutter and overwhelm your design. The more elements you have, the more space you may need which leaves you with less safe area to play with for your margins.

6. Avoid Using Too Many Colours

Using a full rainbow spectrum of colour might sound like a fun idea, but in reality it has down sides for your designs. The first is that it can increase your printing costs. The more colours you use, the higher your total cost rises - especially if you’re looking at screen printing or offset printing. The second is that it can cause busy designs which aren’t pleasant or friendly to look at or engage with. And thirdly, depending on what you’re printing, the method of printing and the quality of the materials being used to print can also affect the quality of your colours by muddying them.

A general rule I follow is to stick to 4 colours, ideally aligned with the brand or the purpose of the material being created, then use them in a way that strategically communicates and keeps things easy on the eye. This tends to remove these issues.

7. Use Vector Graphics Where Possible

Unlike raster format files like photos which are made of pixels and set as their finite sizes, vector graphics are made up of paths instead which means they’re created to be indefinitely scalable. This allows them to be resized to any dimensions desired without losing any quality whatsoever. They are perfect for logos, icons and graphical illustrations. You should generally avoid using raster file types like JPEG’s or PNG’s for these types of assets where possible.

Instead, you should look to be adopting either AI files, EPS files, SVG files, or PDF files (as long as they’ve been created from a vector format). This will always ensure you then receive sharp, crisp graphics for a polished and professional result. If you’re interested in understanding more about these file types, you can read my file types guide here.

8. Choose Your Stock and Finish Wisely

When it comes to print, your work doesn’t end with the layout. Your production choices play a big role in how your design is made and how it’s perceived. These choices are your stock choice and your finish choice.

Paper stock is categorised into weights or thickness which are measured in GSM (grams per square meter). The higher the number, the thicker and more durable the paper. It can range from around 35GSM to 400GSM+. Different stocks are made in different ways which can also affect how your items are printed.

Your finishes are what you’d expect - the finishing touches to your print. You can choose from things such as Gloss, Spot Gloss, Matte, Satin, Silk, Uncoated, Textured/Linen and Foiling. Each has their own characteristics and unique production requirements that need to be factored into your design before you prepare your files.

Your stock and finish not only impact the final look, but also the feel and function of your printed material. They communicate whether your print is for something premium, budget-friendly or somewhere in between and can be the difference between something usable or not - having gloss finishes on items that are meant to be written on is a nuisance waiting to happen!

9. Double and Triple Checking Before Sending to Print

Everyone will have seen funny typos or design mistakes on printed material at some point in their lives. It’s very common. So as you’d expect, a lack of proofing is a fairly obvious mistake a lot of beginners make. However it’s more than just grammatical or visual issues that go overlooked.

Different printers have different requirements, but most will request a PDF for versatility and reliability. It’s important to note that not all PDFs are created equally. I have a checklist that I follow on all of my export processes and on all of my document export sanity checks. You should always double and triple check that:

Your colour mode is CMYK and that your colour profile aligns with your printers specification requests
Your document includes your bleeds and your crop marks and that they align with what you set up
Your fonts that you have used in your designs are embedded within your final files
Your images are of adequate quality and are presenting correctly as intended
Your trim size and orientation are exactly how they are supposed to be

Issues within your document, misprints due to mistakes, missing media or wrong file formats can all lead to delays and extra fees which can be easily avoided with proper proofing. This leads onto our next step.

10. Always Ask for a Printed Sample or Proof

Your screen is never your final output. It’s always the step before. Whenever you’re working on printed material, you should always be requesting a printed proof before committing to a full print run. Always run another review on your printed materials once you have a physical proof in your hand. You’ll want to check if:

Your colours are accurate
Your text is legible and not too small
Your content is within your safe area margins
Your bleed is correctly being trimmed off
Your imagery is sharp and not blurry, grainy or pixelated

Catching any of these mistakes at the proofing stage gives you another round of adjustment before committing to the final run and can save a lot of time, money and frustration ahead of time.

11. Work With a Trusted Printer

Last but certainly not least, you should find a printer who you can build a relationship with and trust with your printing. It’s arguably the most important step on this list. A great product can be ruined by poor printing, and an experienced printer can help you through all of the previous items listed here, even catching the smallest of issues before they go to press.

Printing is your very last step and finding the right partner for your hard work will translate into great results. Many printers will offer you advice on file setup, provide you with your options for proofing, communicate their printing methods transparently and provide you with their requested file requirements from the offset. They can even provide samples of their prior work for you to handle and look over. Be sure to put the effort in to guarantee your printer is doing these things for you. If they aren’t, it might be time to reconsider your choice!

In Summary

You don’t need to be a graphic designer to produce decent printed materials. If you follow these foundational habits, you’ll be able to create print pieces with little to no issue that are polished and effective without spending extra time or money on mistakes, or experiencing a heap of needless stress.

However, if you would like assistance with a print project, need help reviewing your final files, have mistakes that need correcting or simply need some advice with the basics, drop me a message via my contact page. I’d be happy to help with any of your queries. Good luck with your printed projects and I hope these tips have been helpful.