What are the questions you might want to ask as you prepare to print at a professional print shop?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• How will your document be printed? Because digital presses use toner and commercial offset presses use ink, it is a good idea to know what type of press will be used.
• Should you convert to CMYK or should you leave your files in RGB? Some RIP (Raster Image Processor) programs convert to CMYK, whereas others prefer a CMYK file to start with.
• What color profile should you use? Do they have one for you to download? This may change with every job because it is partially dependent on the paper on which you will be printing.
• What file format would the printer prefer to receive? Today, many printers prefer to receive a PDF file, and most printers have preferences for specs for compatibility, compression, output, and so forth. The preferences vary from printer to printer, so it is important to ask.
• What resolution should your files be? Most often 300 ppi is fine, but sometimes a printer will ask you to provide images at a slightly higher resolution. The required resolution will depend on the line screen frequency the printer uses to create halftones, which are used to print continuous tone images, such as photographs and gradients. Halftones are actually composed of small dots that vary in size with the lightness or darkness of the area being printed. Dark areas use larger dots, and light areas use smaller dots. Halftones simulate continuous tone images while using less ink. Line screen frequency refers to the number of halftone dots in a linear inch. The resolution of a digital image must be high enough to create the halftones at the specified line screen frequency.
• Do I need to add a bleed around the edge of my document and, if so, how large should it be? Documents printed at a professional printer often have color that goes all the way to the edge of the page. To achieve this look, you create a document that is slightly larger than the size you need the final document to be, and the printer trims the outside edge off of the final document. If any color or part of an image in your layout will go to the edge of the document, the printer will ask you to create a bleed—to extend the color or image into the area that will be trimmed from the final document. This is done because the cutting process is not exact. By extending anything that should go to the edge of your document, you can be sure that, regardless of slight variations due to the cutting process, your final documents will appear as you intended. Usually the bleed will extend an eighth of an inch or a quarter of an inch on all sides of the document. In addition to requesting you create a bleed, the printer may provide additional guidelines. For example, they may ask you to keep all text and important elements a certain distance from the finished edge of the document to ensure that nothing important gets cut from your document when they trim the bleed from the outside edge, and they may ask you to add guides or crop marks to the document so that they will know where to cut the final document.