Kay, so. I'm making some posters that I'd like to put up around town and stuff and I'm wondering if anyone could give me any tips they have on printing posters?

Iunno, like...

Is an HP powershot good enough to replicate what I see on my screen on paper?

How do I ensure good quality?

etc

I dunno, I just don't know if there's anything to it. Last time I tried printing a poster in greyscale it didn't turn out that great.

kthx. ;D

When I printed posters, we just went to a store that offered printing services and got it done there. Quality was good enough

How much is it per page?

Did you bring it in psd format on a usb key or something?

Print it at the UPS Store in Westdale if you want good quality.

Lol, would never have thought to go to UPS.

Do you know the prices?
And when you say "bring it" ... is this like a psd/pdf file? xD

I design the product brochures for the company I currently work for, and we have them printed at Impressive Printing in downtown Hamilton (http://www.impressiveprintin g.ca/contact.php). I had samples made at several printers around town, and they produced the highest quality output at a very competitive price. We usually deal with someone there named Leslie.

If you want presentable results, you will probably have to opt for professional printing - there are very few affordable solutions that will allow you to make posters or other print media at home at an acceptable quality for distribution (surprisingly this is due to the media available for ink jet printers and not the printers themselves). There just isn't anything that good out there compatible with ink jets (photo paper being the exception, but heavy weight media papers are lacking).


If you do have your posters printed for you, a majority of printers will ask for your work in PDF format (press quality PDF, not the compressed format you usually find online). Unlike PSD's, they are universal, and are better for holding color profile information. Make sure to work in CMYK, otherwise the colors you get will look very different from what you thought you were expecting.


EDIT: Don't forget to add an edge bleed and crop marks in your design (if there is any object that is intended to be on the edge of the poster). They wont mess around with fine alignment trying to match up your edges, and you might find they just send it back leaving you to rework the entire design. It's way easier to start the design with a bleed in mind than to go back and add one.

Originally Posted by ViktorVaughn

I design the product brochures for the company I currently work for, and we have them printed at Impressive Printing in downtown Hamilton (http://www.impressiveprintin g.ca/contact.php). I had samples made at several printers around town, and they produced the highest quality output at a very competitive price. We usually deal with someone there named Leslie.

If you want presentable results, you will probably have to opt for professional printing - there are very few affordable solutions that will allow you to make posters or other print media at home at an acceptable quality for distribution (surprisingly this is due to the media available for ink jet printers and not the printers themselves). There just isn't anything that good out there compatible with ink jets (photo paper being the exception, but heavy weight media papers are lacking).


If you do have your posters printed for you, a majority of printers will ask for your work in PDF format (press quality PDF, not the compressed format you usually find online). Unlike PSD's, they are universal, and are better for holding color profile information. Make sure to work in CMYK, otherwise the colors you get will look very different from what you thought you were expecting.

Argh, that's what I was worried about. D: I know I've read somewhere to not use RBG or whatever...

Once I'm done my project and I go into Image --> Mode --> CMYK Color, is that the equivalent to working in CMYK all along?

Originally Posted by lawleypop

Argh, that's what I was worried about. D: I know I've read somewhere to not use RBG or whatever...

Once I'm done my project and I go into Image --> Mode --> CMYK Color, is that the equivalent to working in CMYK all along?

Ideally you would work in CMYK from the beginning, but converting to CMYK as you described works. You might have to play around with the colours a little bit afterward (there are certain colours you can make in RGB which don't exist in CMYK, and you might find that the conversion changes these colors to something you find unacceptable. Eg: Certain shades of blue are a pain in the ass - they turn into a dingy green-blue color). By converting your file yourself, you can see these issues and tweak the new image to make it look the way you want again before printing. If you leave it in RGB, the printer will just do the conversion, leave the new colours as is, and print them.

Keep in mind your average person would probably hardly notice or care about the differences. This is only really relevant if your making something really important and want it to be 'just right'.

Are you printing out posters that say Over 9000! on them?!?!

um..
Step 1: make sure you are working in 300DPI.

Re: RGB vs. CMYK

CMYK works like inks. They print different layers out with a different percentage of the ink. RGB is used for screen, where the colours are cleaner, and more vibrant. CMYK aren't as bright. So, make sure to always work in CMYK mode because the colours tend to be quite different in luminosity than RGB. Also make sure your monitor is properly calibrated. The digital representation of CMYK should be a good estimation of how the image will print. RGB will not be able to do that.

---

Viktor,

How is Impressive Printing in terms of ease of use, business, and service? I'm looking into professional printers and was going to go check them out on Friday, but would love to get some feedback.

Originally Posted by rohan10

um..
Step 1: make sure you are working in 300DPI.

/facepalm

I already started in 72dpi. Does it really make that big a difference? D:

Gigantic difference.

72dpi is for the web because screens are generally in 72dpi. Printers however print with 300dpi (MUCHHHHH BIGGER). If you don't print at 300dpi, your stuff will come out super blurry and pixelated because the printers will blow it up.

It's the most crucial part of making proper print documents. It also is a big pain in the ass for photographs because you need RAW photographs when working with big documents.

Proper print design is a hell of a lot tougher than web design.

Here: http://www.davidairey.com/design-guide-for-print/

Thanks bro.

What if my poster is like... a gradiant, a border, a picture of a guitar made with the pen tool, and some thick font? still blurry? D:

(and I guess I'd have to restart from scratch if I want it in 300dpi? No easy way to convert?)

I would restart in 300 DPI. It will look like crap otherwise. You can also start off with CMYK so the colours will be right.

I also second the UPS store recommendation. We had to get our work printed for Graphic Design and the quality was good. I don't remember the prices and I also got something huge printed so it was 30 bucks, but that was a reasonable price for the size I was getting compared to other places. It was massive though, like way bigger than poster size.

I was going to say something about using gradient but I'll refrain.

Go ahead.

I'm just making this poster to advertise guitar lessons, I mean it's not pro or special or anything... I'm just **** as hell, lol.

Edit: wthhhhhhhh 300 dpi makes your thing huge (that's what she said). 32megs and I haven't even done anything. Not to mention the dimensions of it.