Creating artwork on your computer is really only half the process. It’s not like you’ll be inviting everyone to your home or office to see what you’ve created on your screen—a client might not be too keen on that. Rather, after your design is complete and approved, you’ll need to send it to a printer to create the final piece.

Naturally, each job is different. In some cases, your final product will be a website or a PDF, but most jobs require a printed piece as the final product. This chapter specifically covers jobs that are printed by an offset printer.

Ask some printers what they think of graphic designers, and they might answer, “They are the root of all evil.” Other printers get along with designers just fine, so what’s all the fuss about? In reality, the issue stems from designers who aren’t familiar with the printing process, its capabilities, or its limitations.

The biggest complaint from printers is that designers create art that is very difficult to print—and in many cases, they design art that can’t be printed reliably at all.

As a designer, you have only to gain by learning more about the printing process and applying that knowledge to the art you design. For example, don’t create 5-point white text that knocks out of a process color background. Find out how close you can come to the edge of a page (a printer needs “gripper” space), or if you are creating art that will come to the edge of the page, be sure to add a bleed (extending the art past the edge of the page).

Undoubtedly, there’s a gray line between what a designer is responsible for and what a printer is responsible for. But when it comes to getting a job done and there’s money on the line—and a client waiting to get the product—you want to make sure that the job is done correctly. And the better shape a file is in when you hand it off to a printer, the happier everyone will be in the end.

I know that many printers value a designer who knows what they are doing, and will even refer design work to them when their clients ask whether they know any good designers. Turns out, I’ve gotten more than just design jobs referred to me over the years—my father-in-law is a printer....

When trying to understand graphics, printing, and the technology that makes it all possible, I like to make a comparison to how some of the greatest professional athletes look at the sports they play.

Sandy Koufax is considered one of the greatest left-handed pitchers of all time, and what made him unique is that he understood the underlying physics of what makes a baseball curve, rise, or sink. He likened the human body to a catapult and understood the dynamics of throwing a baseball.

Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest golf player in history—and for good reason. Besides having talent, Tiger studies the physics of the game and understands why a certain club gives more lift than others, or how the direction the grass grows affects a particular shot.

The point I’m trying to make is that the more you know about your field, the better you can be at it, no matter what you do. In graphic design specifically, knowing about printing makes you a better designer.

Many of today’s printers are utilizing digital workflows to save costs and improve quality and turnaround time. Some printers have a CTP (computer-to-plate) system, which eliminates the need to create film, basically creating plates directly from a computer file. Although these methods present other challenges to printers (trapping, imposition, and so on), use of such a method also puts the responsibility on the designer to create art files that are free of problems (okay, so at least with as few problems as possible).

The transparency features in Illustrator and InDesign have gotten a bad rap since they were initially introduced—and rightfully so. The technology was too new for the older systems that most printers were using, and, above all, there was very little information on how it worked, leaving many printers and designers to struggle with the settings. Most people didn’t even know that transparency existed, and printers who suggested that users save their files as older Illustrator files ended up causing even more issues. At the end of the day, it was all quite messy.

But transparency has come quite a way since then. Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat now all share the same flattening technology (necessary to process files with transparency), and, more important, the transparency features and settings across all of these applications are identical. Adobe has also been extremely proactive in helping print service providers and printers learn about transparency, and numerous guides and whitepapers are also available (I reference these later).

Although it’s impossible to list everything that might go wrong in a job, several issues come up more often. As a checklist for yourself when you’re creating files or preparing them to send to a printer, here are some common issues to be aware of:

Plenty of material on this topic is available, and it would only benefit you to find some time to learn more about the printing process, as well as understand how art goes from the computer monitor to the printed page (and everything that happens in between).

Here’s a list of some resources that I find useful on this subject. Visit www.designresponsibly.com for the latest updated list.

Finally—and I can’t emphasize this enough—talk to your printer. An open line of communication between designer and printer is crucial and can save time, energy, money, and sanity. If possible, arrange to spend a day or two at a printer and see the process for yourself. Learn about the issues that come up and how they are addressed. The information you will learn will prove more valuable than you can imagine.