Vectores

damage all that work by handing out a business card that looks like I just did not care enough?

And, when it comes to designing your card, if you are not a designer or do not have a friend who is a designer, do yourself a favor and get it professionally designed. A poor design job will still look poor no matter what paper or printing process is used.

In this ever growing world of technology and the Internet, there are even more ways of getting business cards and other materials printed for your promotional needs. With the advent of the world wide web, there has also been a huge growth in online printers who can print your materials at a fraction of the cost of offset printing.

However it is very important to know that not every online printing place is the same. This is why as a designer I can not stress the importance of always doing your homework up front before going with any online printer.

Always ask for samples to be mailed to you. If they say they only have samples online, then move on elsewhere. You need to have real samples on the paper they print on. Seeing the product in your hands will be the only way for you to really understand the quality you will be getting and can expect from them. If they are a legit and professional business, they will have no problem with your request. Another thing you will want to keep in mind is that you can and should ask for a proof. A proof is what they run off for you after they have set up your card for printing. This way you can see exactly what it will look like and it is your way of fixing any problems before you are stuck with thousands of cards that are not right. Spend the extra money to have a proof done.

Now sometimes they offer you online PDF proofing. This is OK ONLY if you want to proof the type and text and make sure the elements are where they need to be. However, a PDF proof is NOT an accurate display of actual color and quality of the color being printed. For this, you would need a live proof sent to you via mail. This is the best way to make sure the color is exactly what you want it to be.

Once you sign off on a proof, you are telling the printer you are OK with what they have. If there are any mistakes on the printing and you did not catch it on the proof, then you are stuck with them. Make sure to take your time examining the proof thoroughly before signing off.

If there is a mistake that was not on the proof, then this clearly means that they messed up. The proof then becomes your proof to them that what they printed is not what you approved. This is the value of a proof and why I always re-

quest them. Yes, they probably will charge you for a proof, but it is money well spent.

Another topic I would like to mention is to find out what exact process they use when they do their printing. There are so many types of digital printing these days and they all produce vastly different results. Find out ahead of time by reading their site or asking a question to them.

You will want to do this any ways because you will need to be sure to find out all the details on file submission. This is a key area. A lot of mistakes on cards coming out wrong can be from the customer uploading a file that is not set up properly. Find out exactly what size they need the cards to be. Find out if they need you to add room for bleed objects. Find out what format they need it in (CMYK or RGB). Find out what format they need it saved as (.JPG / .EPS) or oth- ers. All of this information is critical for you getting exactly the card you want as an end result.

I always find myself asking several key questions whenever I am dealing with a new online printer:

1) What formats can they except and what ones do they actually prefer to use?

2) What is their exact printing process? Is this digital print- ing, offset printing etc.? As you are aware there are so many variations that asking up front can help me to understand the end results and to design accordingly.

3) Can they send me direct printed samples of stuff they have run on the exact system they plan on running my de- sign on. Seeing the real thing really can help me gauge if I like their overall quality and get a sense for what to expect. 4) What type of proofing do they use and what proofing options can I get? Being able to proof or to get even a “blueline” helps me to catch any mistakes or to adjust things before they actually make the full print run.

5) Do they have any templates that can be downloaded from their website. Usually a lot of the online printers have templates that you can use that account for “bleed” and also have an area they call “live art area”. having this informa- tion in a template makes it a bit easier for me to make sure I adhere to what they need.

As always, I encourage you the readers to let me know your thoughts. So if you have any thoughts on my articles or sug- gestions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me directly at [email protected]. I would love to hear from you.

FROM