How to Prepare High-Quality Print Collateral

Most brands start by promoting their businesses online, which is only part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. You will still need print collateral such as business cards, postcards, and brochures to promote your business. You are likely familiar with creating graphic images for social media platforms, but maybe not for print collateral. Preparing artwork for print requires a few extra steps, but the result is worth the effort.

You must create quality print collateral to reflect your premium brand if you offer high-priced products or services. Why settle for a subpar result if you are investing your time and money? You need to be sure that you will get a quality result. Wouldn't you agree?

Today, I will share some of my best practices to help you prepare graphics for online printing to achieve high-quality print collateral.

A checklist for preparing your design file for print

Image Resolution

For crisp, high-quality images, make sure to use images that are at least 300 dots per inch (dpi). Images created for digital use are typically 72 dpi. If you try to use one of these images for your print collateral, it will appear pixelated or blurry. The size of the image also affects resolution. 

If, for example, you have a 5" x 7" image and want to know what to set the image resolution to for a good quality print result, multiply the height and width by 300 dpi. This gives you 1500 pixels x 2100 pixels. So if you want to print a 5" x 7" picture at 300 dpi, you need to set your image resolution to 1500 pixels x 2100 pixels.

Pro tip: This is where I often run into problems with my clients when working on a print project with photos. Low-resolution images are acceptable for digital projects but not for print. Please double-check the image resolution of your photos to ensure a quality result.

CMYK Color Mode

People frequently ask me about using RGB, but that's primarily used for digital projects. To get the best result for print, use the CMYK color palette. Your brand style guide ( guideline ) should include the CMYK color breakdown. So, make sure to use the correct color breakdown. 

You can also use the Pantone Matching System (PMS). The PMS color system helps to match and identify specific colors. Keep in mind that printing costs will be higher if you use a PMS with CMYK color mode. Depending on which printing company you're using, PMS sometimes won't be accepted, especially for online printing. It's always better to check with your printer first. 

Pro tip:If you don't have your brand style guide, I encourage you to create one. It's a good investment; your visual marketing activity will be much easier, and you can build brand consistency.

Bleed & Safe Zones

If your project has a bleed (the color extends to the edge of the page), add 1/8" to all sides.

In other words, you will extend the color beyond the actual edge of your image. If you are creating a 5" x 7" postcard, you'll need to add ⅛" to allow for bleeding, so the size would be adjusted to 5.125" x 7.125".

Remember, the printer will trim off that ⅛" on your final print project, so the output dimensions are unchanged. Also, be aware of the "Safe area" (sometimes known as the "live area") for your project. The safe area is usually ⅛" inside of the trim line. When you are creating your artwork, you want to ensure all of your text and images are clearly inside the safe area to ensure they don't get cut.

Spell Check

Before finalizing your project, make sure to either run a spell check or have at least 2 or 3 other people proofread your project. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a typo on your finished project!

Fonts

Make sure you've converted your fonts to outlines and flattened the file (this removes excess layers that are typically used in design programs). If you used Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, or Word to create your artwork, you might need to send the font files that you used as well.

Pro tip:This is not always necessary; it depends on the preferences of your printing company. Save yourself some time and check with them first. Once you outline the text, you won't be able to edit it. Also, the fonts will appear thicker. If you decide to outline the text, create a duplicate file so you can edit the text in the future as needed. 

File Type

Send your files as a high-quality PDF (Portable Document File) with crop marks whenever possible. PDFs are versatile and will give you optimal results. They can be viewed on almost any computer, and a PDF will give you the best representation of your finished print project.

Choosing an online printing company

There are a lot of online printers, but I often use an online printing company called Moo for my print collateral and design projects for my clients. They offer small quantities of orders. Importantly, their print quality is quite good. 

Last year, I used Moo to print my holiday cards with silver foil, and I loved how they came out.

One of the benefits of using an online printer is that they have templates in specific sizes. So, You can replace your design into the template. You don't have to add crop marks. The templates are a big time-saver, and you can avoid errors.

One drawback to remember when using an online printer is that you are limited to their predetermined offerings. 

For example, you may be unable to change the paper stock or the dimensions of the collateral pieces. Whereas with your local printer, you'd be able to customize it to achieve exactly what you want. 

Pro tip: Send your files well ahead of your deadline. The printing process and delivery may take some time, especially during the summer and holiday seasons.

Conclusion

In my experience, it's time-consuming to create print collateral to send to a printing facility properly, but it's well worth the effort when the result is exactly what you were hoping for. Remember that compared to digital projects, you can't redo or change it once you upload a design file to their website. You don't want to waste your investment of time and money.

Following the checklist I provided, you should get high-quality collateral printed. I hope this helped and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Thank you for reading this post.