Spot These 4 Prepress Issues & Prevent Them Before It’s Too Late
Everything you need to know to avoid print press issues.
There are many prepress issues that can arise along the way in the printing process. However, innovations in prepress print solutions, such as improved software and automated checks, have made the printing process more accurate. Despite advancements in printing, there are still some errors that could ruin your print job. The top list of complaints Infomax receives include:
- Color quality
- Resolution and compression quality
- Page area bleed
- Font selections
Color Quality. Color is one of the most complex and talked about issues when it comes to print production. There are many variables that can affect the color quality when it comes to printing your final product. To get the quality of color you envision, you will need to make sure the CMYK is always in the correct format and not set to RGB. While RGB looks great online, it does not translate well in print.
Resolution and Compression Quality. This is a consistent issue prepress operators face when handling images. In the prepress process, you need to ensure that your image is set to 300 dpi (dots per inch) before sending your project to the printer. The lesser 72 dpi will have your print project coming out pixelated and blurry at completion.
Page Area Bleed. The bleed area is excess image area that will be excluded from your final product. Since pages tend to shift during the printing process, leaving excess image area is vital. One main issue is that the bleed area does not have the correct dimensions, and the printer will need to reprint the image a few times to ensure accuracy. One of the things a computer cannot catch is a lack of bleed, so always be aware of how much bleed your image requires.
Font Selections. Avoid overly complicated fonts, as they can be an issue. Even though this is tempting, do not choose complicated fonts when creating a document to send to print. When the printer receives your file and prints it, their software may not support the font that you have chosen. Your fancy font will be replaced by their default font, producing and end-result that you didn’t expect.
