Any Commercial Printers in the House?

[bob4432]

let me first start by saying most of my knowledge is web related as far as graphics are concerned. i am somewhat familiar with illustrator as i use it in conjunction with photoshop quite often to make small amounts of printed materials for some offices i have worked for. the quantity is usually very low and it is stuff that can easily be handled on a nice inkjet printer using good quality photo paper. most of the items i have made end up on a wall in a frame or in the plastic stands for trade shows, etc. my equipment is not calibrated to exact color, as that has never really been a problem because if the color is a little off from what i want i could easily make the adjustments and when all is done, just print out 15 of them.

now i am required to create a invitation for a grand opening that will be sent to a printer and over 1000 of these will be created. needless to say i have a lot to learn quickly. i want the finished cards to be 4"x6".

is there an industry standard that says i should start any graphics or text 1/8" inside of the edge or should i do 1/4"?

as far as color, should i send along one i print out on my printer and ask the printer to match it as close as possible? i have a cmyk eps logo from the company, i am assuming that if i take colors off that in illustrator in cmyk mode then it will be correct for the printer for what i am making - or am i way off?

i am assuming that when i make the item in illustrator i use cmyk and not rgb.

since it will be double sided, should i just make both sides on one 8.5 x 11 sheet in illustrator or make 2 4x6, one front and one back?

thanks in advance for your time,
bob

 

[bob4432]

anybody ??

 

[kranky]

Make the front and back on separate sheets. 1/8" from the edge is probably OK but for that, and for what to do about the color matching, call the printer and ask.

 

[cbrookerd]

cmyk color matching is easy for most print shops as they have high end printers to handle anything........the gap away from the edge shouldn't be an issue if you only need 1000 of these printed b/c the printer will probably just use their high end color printer to print the document, and most of those have what is called leading edge and side to side registration which will move the image to about 1/8" away from the edge

 

[spasticnationboy]

For the color, get it as close as you can in Photoshop or Illustrator, if they are any sort of good printer, you should be able to get a high end Proof from them for color, that you can approve or change one way or another before the Press run..... As far as the image from trim, it depends on what process you are using..... some places will print bleed and then trip, then you can have graphics all the way, but for Text I would say 1/8th is minimum, a 1/4 probably looks better.....

 

[Wahsapa]

ehem.

what program you should make it in (ill. or pshop) and color profile it should use is a moot point because it really all depends on how the printer is going to print it.

you can very well cut and paste letters onto a blank mock up(folded peice of paper that doesnt even need to be the real paper you want to print it on) and send it in as long as you give them a disc (with the most important data of the job) that includes the fonts and images you want.

you dont have to worry about keeping the text 1/8th of an inch away from the boarder because professionally they should be able to deal with that in house.

all you really need to give them is a proof(make sure its exactly how you want it) and the fonts and images you use, they do the rest.

as for color. find the color values(eye droper in pshop or ill.) and use thoes values whenever you want to use the color in a different program. what you print out on your inkjet, is probably not going to be that color.

if you really wanted to learn HOW to print something like this then youd need to know what kind of press etc etc but since a commercial printer is doing the job for you i dont think an explanation is needed. if you wanted to do there job for them youd probably have to make a quark or pagemaker file they can shoot out, but then again you'd still need to know what kind of printing press they use and some other stuff.

anyway, good luck :thumbsup:

 

[bob4432]

thanks

 

[hungrygoose]

if you only need 1000 of these things printed, i can almost guarantee that they won't use the press.......this type of things isn't as complicated as you guys are making it sound.....i go into print shops all the time and service their machines, and for a 1000 print run like what you're talking about, i bet they will just use their copier to make the run.....u don't have to worry about color matching if u just send them the digital file that u used to design the project......they'll handle it from there