PrintPlace.com Blog

These days, graphic designers are often categorized by their medium of choice: either Web or print. Those that are new to print or are trying to make the leap from Web to print, often make these common printing mistakes.

1. Designing in RGB instead of CMYK
Printers don’t print using RGB (red, green and blue), the colors that computers emit to produce what you see on-screen. Printers produce colors by combining cyan, magenta, yellow and black. (Actually, cyan, magenta and yellow pigments act as filters, subtracting varying shades of red, green and blue from white light to produce color. CMYK is considered subtractive colors, whereas RGB colors are considered additive because adding the colors together produce different colors.)

 CMY = subtractive

RGB = additive 

Printers use CMYK to produce color for print, which means when you’re designing something on your computer, the colors you see will be RGB. You can switch to a CMYK palette, quite easily though in Photoshop by changing the “Color Mode” option to CMYK Color. If you submit an RGB file to a printer, you’ll likely be asked to convert it to a CMYK file, or the printer will print your file without concern about the color accuracy. It’s up to you to make sure that your color is set correctly.

2. Not using Rich Black
When you have large black text (meaning not body text) or any image that needs a lot of black, it’s best to use Rich Black rather than just standard black (which is 100% K). 100%K looks like a dark gray, a washed-out black. Take a look at the image below to see the 100%K black on the right. (You might have to move your position in front of your computer screen to see the difference.)
 
What you should see is that the circle on the right is slightly lighter than the Rich Black circle on the left. The difference comes from using the other CMYK colors to fill in the black color. Rich Black is created from combining all four colors to saturate the color.

The problem with using Rich Black is that the registration, or alignment, of the plates can be a bit off. This creates a kind of 3D look to your text. 

You can easily fix this by outlining your text with .5 of 100%K. Outline just inside the text or image so that registration is not noticeable.

3. Using the wrong resolution
A blurry image can make an otherwise great brochure or design ineffective at best and confusing at worst. Most printers print at about 300 dpi (dots per inch). The resolution of a computer monitor is 72 ppi (pixels per inch), which is the default setting in Photoshop and Illustrator.

All you have to do is change the dpi to 300 or more (some printers print at 600 dpi), found in the File – New menu that comes up when you start your document in Photoshop.