Comments on: 3 Deadly Sins of Print Design

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:19:40 +0000

Nice article Jonathan.

You might all like to check out our Print Handbook for Designers which covers similar topics to the ones mentioned here and gives actual printed examples. Examples of things like rich black, overprinting, different dpi/ppi and more.

You can check it out here: http://www.printhandbook.com

Just thought you might all find it useful.

By: Eduardo Portillo

Eduardo Portillo — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:20:03 +0000

Yopu can set overprint in InDesign, Quark or Pagemaker but is no overprint in Photoshop of freehand, also overprint is a instruction that says for example if you have blue text over blue “fill everything with blue and put the black over the blue” and that what is sugested here put some other color “under” the black, then you have overprint.

By: Diane

Diane — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:33:12 +0000

Great article!
Just a quick question, didn’t you actually mean “180-200dpi” on the last paragraph of The Fix in the Resolution part?

By: BungustDesign

BungustDesign — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:33:22 +0000

Did anyone mention that black should be set up to overprint? It`s a good tip for professional print designers.

By: ciara

ciara — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:55:42 +0000

This is good but if your looking for something more here is a more in-depth article to help you prepare files for print
http://designinstruct.com/print-design/a-guide-to-preparing-files-for-print/

By: Name

Name — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:58:27 +0000

Good article! Thank you so much for sharing this post.Your views truly open my mind.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:58:24 +0000

You may not necessarily drive the press operator crazy with some of these issues, but you WILL make the prepress staff insane. Also, if you use white lettering with rich black background (knock-out text), odds are you will get misregistration (whether traditional printing methods or digital). There are also some exceptions regarding rich black and/or resolution: and that is magazine and newspaper design. When in doubt, ask your printer. They will be happy to tell you. Sorry if I repeated any of the other comments (I have to be honest, I just kinda skimmed them).

By: Neztra

Neztra — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:30:07 +0000

I am usually able to achieve rich black with 100K, 40C and 20M, but you are correct – it definitely depends on the stock.

By: Mix

Mix — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:36:25 +0000

For large areas of black, I use 60/40/30/100. This seems to fly with most printers I have worked with and it does not aggravate the press operator.

I also work in RGB when in PS and then convert to CMYK, but before the final output, I go back and change the colors of things that must be CMYK. Illy I always work in CMYK.

Thanks for the article.

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:24:35 +0000

Fourth deadly sin:

Rich black on a black and white page. Only one plate gets burned, the three color channels disappear, and your “black” sadly prints maybe 30% to 50% gray.

By: ladyJ

ladyJ — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:33:00 +0000

A high-resolution is not always good in print: For newspaper ads/photo’s/etc. keep in mind that the paper will make your designs 20% more yellow and 30% more dark. (Ofcourse you can use UCR/GCR/ICC tools) but extra: the best results for photo’s you get when keeping them 133 dpi. Try it! :-)

By: aegony

aegony — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:30:53 +0000

i think there are many more deadly sins like some designers dont use crop marks & bleed by whole colored cover, dont embed fonts by export or dont break fonts to shapes… but these three are enough on the start to be a ‘print design master’ :)

By: Neztra

Neztra — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:19:01 +0000

I design a lot for print, specifically packaging and point of purchase, so I have gotten in the habit of designing in CMYK. If, God forbid, I forget to do so and have to convert from RGB to CMYK, it can be a pain in the butt to go back and revise colors. Design converted to CMYK always seems more drab that those created in CMYK.

Great article! I see these common mistakes in a lot of really great designers, but it is mainly because so many designers are use to producing work for web and interactive media rather than print these days.

By: CMYK blacks for book cover design « Nimble Books LLC

CMYK blacks for book cover design « Nimble Books LLC — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:05:43 +0000

[...] 3 Deadly Sins of Print Design | Fuel Your Creativity. February 2nd, 2010 | Tags: Book Covers, Design, Nimble Books Authors | Category: Uncategorized | [...]

By: ms baroque

ms baroque — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:36:39 +0000

Thank you! Now I know what happened to my so-called “black” boots from Bertie. They are cute as hell but not exactly “black”. Clearly a rather poor black…