Leap Graphics

Now you can follow all of my Helpful Hints!

leapgraphics — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:17:21 +0000

Valerie, owner and founder of Leap Graphics is now officially blogging with PS Print, a leader in the online printing world.

Follow her blogs, posted every week at PS Print Blog

Bleeds

leapgraphics — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:25:41 +0000

After you’ve finished a graphic project and are now in the process of getting it professionally printed, you may hear your printer talk about something called a bleed. A “bleed” is the margin around your image that will be trimmed off in order for the ink on your image to look like it runs completely to the edge of the paper. Have you ever printed something and you see a white border around it? A normal desktop printer does not have bleed capability, and the ink will only go so far to the edge of the paper. This is also the case with professional printers. They cannot print all the way to the edge. This is why they will require you to make your file a little bit bigger than the final size, so that when they print it, even with their own margins, the ink will run over the trim edge, and allow them to cut off the excess for a clean look.

The normal bleed margin that most printers require is 1/8” all the way around your project. So, if you are making a 4” x 6” flyer, you must make the file 4.25” x 6.25”. This means that there is 1/8” margin on the right, another 1/8” margin on the left, another for the top and another for the bottom. If you do not add bleed space, your piece will either be smaller than you intended after the printer trims it, have a white border around it, or the printer will not accept the file at all. Keep this in mind the next time you are desigining a project that will be printed by a professional.

File Formats

leapgraphics — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:18:12 +0000

A lot of questions that I get from my clients have to do with file formats. They want to know what kinds of files can be created and then later altered after they are saved. Chances are they’ve found a typo or need a picture removed and want to know why they are not able to make those changes themselves.

When you save a file, there is always an extension at the end. When you save a Microsoft Word document, the file extension is .doc. The same thing goes for graphic and picture files. We’re going to talk about the most common file extensions and which ones can be altered after saving.

.jpg – This file extension is the abbreviation for JPEG, Joint Photographic Experts Group. It is a compression technique used for saving images and photographs. This compression method reduces the file size of the images without reducing their quality. Widely used on the World Wide Web.

.pdf - Portable Document Format. This is a universal file format created by Adobe that preserves the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it.

.tiff – Tagged Image File Format, TIFF is an image file format that does not lose any quality when it is saved and compressed. Similar to .jpg.

.gif - Graphics Interchange Format. A common graphic file format on the World Wide Web; used by online services and Web browsing software, GIFs contain information compressed into a relatively small file size and may display faster than other formats.

.eps - Encapsulated Postscript which is a sophisticated file format for capturing precise image and text information. Similar to .pdf

.psd - Adobe Photoshop native file

.ai - Adobe Illustrator native file

.pub - Microsoft Publisher native file

.pmd - Adobe PageMaker native file

The most important thing to know is which files can be altered and why. When you create a design in Photoshop or Illustrator or Publisher or Microsoft word or Powerpoint, you can save that file as a native file (native meaning it is saved in the format that is specific to the program you used to create it). After saving, you can go back into that same program and alter it again and again. If you give that file to someone else that has the same program that you used to create the file in, they can also alter the file. But if you send a native file to someone who does not have that program, they cannot open that file. If you send me a file that was created in Publisher, and I don’t have the Publisher program on my computer, I cannot open it. Same thing for Photoshop and Microsoft Word and other design programs. But, there are some file formats where everyone can open them.

If you save or receive something as a .jpg, .pdf, .tiff, and .gif, YOU CANNOT ALTER THE MAKE UP OF THESE IMAGES. The reason why these file formats exist is so that no matter what program you are using, you are able to see these images the way that they were created. If I create a file in Photoshop using Times New Roman font, and I send you the Photoshop file, even if you have Photoshop, you need the Times New Roman font in order to see my file the way I created it. The pdf format was created so that if I save my image that I created in Photoshop as a pdf file, even if you don’t have the fonts and pictures that I’ve used, you can still see the image as I created it. The same goes for the other similar file formats.

On the same subject, if you have decided to make your file a .jpg or .pdf, etc. and you send it to someone, it is a “flattened” file. This means that every single thing that you’ve typed and placed and moved around has been frozen in place, and is now 1 single image. No one picture can be moved independent of the other. No text can be altered. If you cut something out, there will be a hole, if you change the color of something, all of the colors will change. It is no longer an editable file.

Setting Deadlines

leapgraphics — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:50:42 +0000

Sometime or another you might be faced with spearheading a graphic project that requires dealing with others and their information. For example, a souvieneer booklet, event program or even a directory. These types of projects normally mean that you’re going to have to ask other people for pictures and bios or other text in order to complete the project.

Headache.

But it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Setting deadlines is something that many of us do all of the time, but missing deadlines is something that everyone does or has done. To avoid pulling out all of your hair, follow a technique that we’ve come up with to account for the late comers and ensure that your project will run a little smoother. Keep in mind, this system is best used when you first know you are starting the project. The earlier you plan, the easier things will go.

First, create your post-submission time line. These are set deadlines for processes needed after you receive all content from the public and other outside sources. This time line will consist of 3 dates:

The deadline for print. If the printer needs 10 days to get everything finished and ready for pick up, include those 10 days in your time line.

The deadline for approval. If you know that a “higher up” or another committee, etc. needs to review what you’ve been working on in order to move on to the printing, include their allotted review time into your time line.

The deadline for creation of the project. If your designer (or you) know that you’ll need 2 weeks to set up and complete your layout and design, include this in your time line as well.

Let’s review: If your program is on January 1, and the printer needs 10 days, the CEO needs 1 week for review and revisions, and you need 2 weeks to design, your time line should read as follows:

Program – January 1
Finished Draft to Printer – December 20
Rough Draft to CEO – December 13
Deadline for accepting material from outside sources (we’ll call this “final deadline”) – November 30

Now that you know what needs to happen after you’ve received all of your information from the outside world, you can begin to plan your pre-submission deadlines for accepting material from the public. You will do this by setting 2 more dates:

Published deadline: This deadline should be 2 weeks before your “final deadline”. This is the deadline that you will print on all of your forms and guidelines that will be sent to participants.

Late deadline: This deadline is 1 week before your “final deadline” and will be the cut off submission date for late comers. Someone will almost always come to you after the deadline wanting their material to be included in your project. By creating this second deadline, you will account for this group and still stay on schedule. This deadline is not to be included in any guidelines sent to the public. It is a private deadline for you and your staff.

Let’s review: We’ve already established that our “final deadline” is November 30. So the remainder of the time line should look like this:

Final deadline – November 30
Published deadline – November 16
Late deadline – November 23

By doing this, you will have ensured that everyone is aware of cut off dates well in advance of your deadline to have layout ready and the final drafts to the printer.

The most important rule is to stick to your deadlines. Participants will always try to push the limits, but whatever date you set for your late & final deadlines be sure to stick to them so that the next time you have a simliar project, people know that they must have their material ready on time in order to participate.

Picture Distortion & Aspect Ratio

leapgraphics — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:58:58 +0000

We’ve all seen those program booklets or advertisements that have a picture of someone that looks like they are staring at themselves in a fun house mirror. Either the picture has been stretched out way too far causing it to blur and make the person look wider, or it has been squeezed to fit into a tight space making the person look sickly and warped. The problem with these pictures is an off balance in the aspect ratio. Aspect Ratio (for our purposes) is the relation of a picture’s width to it’s height. Every picture and graphic has an aspect ratio. If you stretch or shrink the width of a picture by a certain amount and the height of the picture by a different amount, this will throw the aspect ratio off and cause the picture to distort.

When resizing pictures follow the golden rule: do to one side what you want to do to the other. If you would like to shrink the picture by 2 inches, then decrease the width by exactly 2 inches and the height by exactly 2 inches. This will ensure that the picture’s aspect ratio will remain in tact. Another easy way to do this is by holding down your SHIFT key when resizing pictures. Whether you’re on a PC or a Mac, this will work. Simply click on your resizing or formatting tool, grab a corner of the picture you’re working with, hold down the SHIFT key, and drag your mouse. You will see that the picture will remain proportionate.