Printing Tips

Layout and graphic design software such as Corel Draw, Microsoft Publisher, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, QuarkExpress, and others has become relatively inexpensive and available to just about anybody with a personal computer. As a result, print shops (like ours) are receiving more and more customer-designed files in digital format for printing. However, just as a word processing program does not automatically make one a good writer, neither does graphics software automatically make one a graphic artist. We often spend as much time tweaking or redesigning a customer's file for printing as we would have had we created it ourselves. However, it sure is nice when a customer sends us a file that's set up appropriately for printing—it saves us time, saves the customer money, and makes the printed result look great.

On this page we will occasionally post definitions, explanations, and guidelines that will help you, the do-it-yourself designer, get the best printed results possible. Check this page from time to time, or send us a question about design, layout or the printing process, and we'll post the answer here.