Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Creating documents for large format printing

We often get requests to print a large format document - court related exhibits, pictures, posters, etc. And by large I mean 16" x 20", 20" x 30" or 30" x 40".

This is usually not a problem UNLESS we get a file the size of a postage stamp (yes, we've gotten pictures that measured 1 x 1.25). We also receive files that won't blow up easily because of a variety of other reasons - but in the end, it all has to do with the size of the original.


Let's take that 1 x 1-1/2" picture. Some background first - lets assume that this is a picture off someone's phone and they "just saved it". Chances are it is saved at 72dpi (for web/computer/phone viewing). If you print at this resolution you will already see "Jaggies" (please remember that most printers print okay at 150 dpi and print great at 300 dpi)

Now let's blow it up to something as small as 8-1/2 x 11. Doing the boring math, this makes the picture have a dpi of 9.8 (that is 9.8 huge dots in a 1 square inch area) - imagine the jaggies here, not to mention it being blurry! Now lets blow it up to 16 x 20 - we are now down to 5.4 . this means that for each square inch of paper, we get 5.4 dots and since it has to fill the same amount of space as 150 dots would have in the beginning - these dots are gigantic. (Click on this picture and it will open in another window and you will see exactly what I mean)

Of course this is extreme - but even taking a 8-1/2x11 document (jpeg or tiff) starting at 150 dpi, and blowing it up to 20 x 30 takes the dpi down to 63.75. This may be okay from a distance, but if you want to read words, it will definitely give you a headache! Imagine reading a whole page like this - and this is really pretty good - I've seen worse.

With the cheap cost of storage - make those pictures/documents as large as you can to begin with. It will save you alot of headaches in the long run. And don't forget your camera/phone. Set your default size as large as you can - it will take up more space, but then you can transfer to another storage device. If you want to keep it on your phone for viewing - do a "save as" and save it in another document with a lower resolution.

A really good article on sizing pictures in photoshop can be found at http://www.layersmagazine.com/photoshop-resizing-images.html.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

A Super Feature in Microsoft Publisher

More and more of our customers are using Microsoft Publisher. We happily accept those files! We would much rather see Publisher files than documents created in a word processor (i.e., Word or WordPerfect) or even worse, a presentation style program. We charge a fee for accepting these latter files.

But I am getting off point. I wanted to clue everyone into the Design Checker tool that resides under the Tools menu in Publisher. This little gem will help you avoid 95% of your problems when you take your file to ANY printer.

As you can see from the sample on the right, there are several types of checks you can run. I am mainly interested in the first 2.

"General Design Checks" will show you such problems as items outside the print area, overlapping items, hidden items, and even hidden text. But I am more interested in the commercial printing area.

Both checks inform you of many errors that are problematic for printers. The main errors we see are incorrect color spaces (RGB instead of CMYK or spot colors), poor graphics (i.e., "low resolution picture" which is under 150 dpi), or a transparency error.

The color space errors are worthy of several separate discussions. But depending on how your project is to be printed, RGB might be acceptable.

Picture resolution should ideally be 300 - 1200 dpi. Unfortunately, we often receive items that were copied from the web - those are always 72 dpi and just do not print correctly. At best they look blurry. And if they are scaled to a larger size, they get a seriously bad case of the "jaggies".

A transparency error is a little more suble. But it will not print correctly when processed through our equipment. This occurs because you selected a color and then used the "Transparency" section in the color menus. This is great for the web - but doesn't always turn out like you expect in printing. It may turn our okay at home, but when we send it through our postscript processors, there is no telling how it will come out. Sometimes it is solid, sometimes its a different color, and sometimes it just dissappears.

These are just a few of the most commor errors, but each item that is listed must be reviewed. As long as you understand the consequences of the design error, you may want to ignore it. However, it ALWAYS helps us produce the result you want if you fix all the issues found by the Design Checker.

Monday, January 18, 2010

3 Weeks & Counting

We are starting our 3rd week of the new year - and I'm still sticking to my schedule! Its amazing.

I committed to work on certain projects on set days each week. This is new for me - I have just been kind of "rolling with the flow". But I was tired of always being behind and just putting out the current hottest fire.

Monday is my day for blogging, tweeting and updating books for a Foundation I volunteer for. In the past I would get caught up in answering everyone's questions and just let these jobs slide. Well, as you can see from my blog list - I let it slide from last May - that is not acceptable! And the foundation calendar & books got updated just before the board meeting.

Part of my problem has been that I would simply forget. Well, let me tell you...To Do lists are my best friend this year. This may be 2nd nature to most of you, but it is a struggle for me. I would try to keep lists, but would loose them, or the list would be so doodled on, I couldn't make it out. I was also bad about taking a scrap of paper and writing a note on it if I couldn't find my list - then I'd lose the note!

This year I am trying once again to use a time-management system with a weekly calendar. AND THEN TO OPEN IT! Simple isn't it. I have those weekly, monthly & quarterly items noted for the year. Then I use Post-Its to keep track of the stuff I have to remember. I also note all promises if have made to customers and even put message slips in my planner if I have them.

I've already laid out my marketing planner for this year - with post-it notes. They are little strips of notes. I wrote all of our products on a separate note and then put them on the year at a glance calendar. Now, if I get a special from one of my vendors, I can easily change my plan to pass that particular savings on to my customer. Love it!

Wondering how I have been in business all these years? Me too...but I must admit I have great employees. And it isn't that I lost business (probably did, but don't know it), but that I want more business - and I feel my personal organization is a major factor for success.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Happy New Year!

New Year... New Blog... New Website

I am ready to start this new decade with a new attitude - especially as it applies to marketing, both for me and for you. Over the past year I have been reading, studying, surfing, tweeting and linking to all sorts of great people in the field of marketing. Now it's time to put some of those lessons into practice - for both of us. After all, if you look good and get more business...I should too!

One of my first accomplishments was to rough out a 1 page business/marketing plan for the year. I got some basics on this from Maria Marsala at http://www.businessandmarketingplan.com/. I plan on taking some of her seminars this year. Find someone you feel fits your style and follow them. You don't always have to pay for their information...just follow them on LinkedIn or Twitter and pick and choose the seminars you feel would really benefit you - then pay for those.

This whole year all of MY marketing efforts will focus on YOUR marketing. And while we are at it, I think the biggest lesson I learned this year is that EVERYTHING is related to marketing! From planning my day to the processes we use in our shop to the way we answer the phone, and even our "on-hold" opportunities.

So over the course of this year, you will see lots of changes.


  • I plan on blogging at least once per week. The first week will center on general marketing issues, week 2 on Microsoft Publisher (and other programs), week 3 on preparing for the upcoming month, and week 4 on general topics - hopefully suggested by you.


  • On Mondays, I will have a Tweetbit..maybe a special or maybe a really hot marketing tip. So be sure to sign up to follow me - I promise, I won't tell you when I'm going to lunch!


  • Our web site will be constantly updated to reflect everything we do - I'll Tweet that as its completed too!


  • Continue our bi-weekly e-newsletters


  • We now have a discussion board on the web site (accessed from the Home Page). Hopefully we can all share tips, tribulations and triumphs!

I told my family that I wasn't making any resolutions for this year...but it seems like I just did!