Basic Tips for Print Designers

Graphic printing and design can be quite problematic if you don't have a few basic tips to guide you. There are several general guidelines and themes to keep in mind when doing design work. Of course, for print design services there are even more restrictions. A print magazine has to meet the requirements of being printed out first and bound as a magazine second. As such, you will want to have your restrictions in mind right at the outset of the design phase, even as early as the content creation phase.

What you need for a print magazine

A print magazine has several requirements that should be defined at the outset of your project. You should have these already but if you don't, the main ones are as follows. The obvious one is the layout of a magazine. This includes a cover, table of contents, the contents themselves, and the end matter. Most magazines have a standard size and shape, limiting how much or little you can add. They are usually designed to last through some spills and mishaps in coffee shops. If you want to go outside these requirements it will undoubtedly affect the time, price, and quality of the final product.


The next set of requirements that you should keep in mind is more generic in nature. Things like deadlines which you should give a month or so in advance. For example, with graphic printing and design you want to accomplish four basic things. One, you want the product to appeal to your customers so you have a high readership. Two, you want to deliver content effectively, whether they be ads, or advice, to your readers. Third, you want this to be accomplished quickly as possible. Fourth, you want this to be done with as high a quality as possible. These are in no particular order, and indeed you should strive for a balance. Having said that as a business, time and money are vital to you.

Always remember

Printing and design is all about framing the content that you want. It must be emphasized, but not to an extent that its annoying. It must also be prepared for printing out as a physical object. For example, on a computer screen you can have near infinite resolution, or you can have as low as 100 dots per inch. Most printing jobs tend to be around 300 to 600 DPI. As such, you must always remember to look over your designs at the printed resolution. If you have special paper or glossy coatings as some magazines do, then you have to take glare into account as well.

There are many print design services out there that can help you with any or all of the above. Getting help from a shop that actually handles printing can be enlightening even if they don't directly offer design services. This is because they have seen many designs pass through before, as well as they know how the printing process works. If nothing else, they can tell you what things won't work and what has worked well for others.