A friend of mine (and a good designer and a studio veteran) ran into an interesting problem earlier this week. After designing a brochure in Photoshop and sending it to print (as flat .tif files), the printer rejected the files and requested an InDesign package, which he didn’t have. Needless to say, after submitting several similar projects through other printers as flat files, he was baffled at the printer’s inflexibility and hit me up for some printer advice.
Old School vs. New School…
Now, I’ve taken a few print-production classes in the past year, and the “by the book” practice is that you always, always, always design multipage documents in a page-design program like InDesign. Ok. Fine. But on a number of small projects, I’ve been known to hammer them out in Photoshop and send them out for quick digital printing as flat files. As I understand, this isn’t really a huge deviation in terms of practice – and if you ask me – for most small projects, digital printing is the way to go simply because it’s quality has improved markedly in recent years and the cost is pretty hard to beat.
…or Right vs. Wrong
My take is that if the client’s willing to pay the bill for a nice quality offset print of the project, you always build the file the proper way – in InDesign with a clean & complete pre-flight with assets included. It takes longer, but it keeps the buck off you when you’re dealing with the clients print budget. Plus, especially with text, offset printing is always crisper and easier to read. That said, digital printing for small budget projects is nothing to scoff at. Sure, there’s a chance the text isn’t perfectly crisp, but beggars can’t be choosers right? Perhaps this is part of the problem with the democratization of the print industry – as lower cost (and lower quality) options become available, it blurs the lines between ‘best practices’ and ‘acceptable practices’.
Still, my bud was caught in a strange predicament. A finished project, signed off, and sent off to print; A printer refusing the print the files as flat images; a client just wanting his/her project completed and in hand. What would you do? Find a new printer? Take the time to rebuild the file in InDesign?
Update:
In this particular problem, the printer actually called the designer back and offered to rebuild the entire brochure in InDesign for him. My guess is that the printer is a) worried about the project being sent off to a digital shop and b) being paid by the client for labor.
Feedback
Any thoughts?
At what point in a project do you talk with a printer to decide how you’ll be building the design?
Is the responsibility on the designer or the printer in this situation?
I don’t do much print work at the moment, but when I do it’s usually digital. The only InDesign work that I do is for larger book runs that I do as personal work for myself or the studios that I work with… and even then, it’s usually easier & there’s more creative freedom with Photoshop if I have the choice.
Hey Brandon, love to see that you are back up and blogging again. Lot’s of stuff is going on with band, would love to catch up, talk life, band, business etc. My two cents on the project, use PSPRINT.com (you should have them as one of your affiliates), we send almost all of our work to them, quick turnaround, great quality, and affordable.
Dan Sinner
310-991-0660
@ Dan – Great to hear about the band and thanks for the affiliate link
I’m signing up right now and I’ll let ya know how it goes.
Just testing out the new disqus comments system
Just testing out the new disqus comments system
You got a nice blog up there.
Have a nice day
james kails
______________________________________________
pet sitting fort worth | Colorado Modular homes | watch glee online
really nice post
Have a nice day
gilly dlims
______________________________________________
tvmobilephone | Cubic Zirconia Ring | Austin Tx condos
Hi nice site design
regards
Riksn kloan
______________________________________________
Hey friend finding continues good news of latest art please give me some ideas to find updated news. I also want to promote my site by updated news of latest arts and designs.
I know this comment is a little late to the party but I just found and read it. To answer the closing question
“At what point in a project do you talk with a printer to decide how you’ll be building the design?”
The easy answerer is before you ever begin. This should be part of the initial questions/quote stage when selecting a vendor for any print project. I also, always look for sizes that are standard for a particular vendor and find out their capabilities this alone will easily cut costs way down if they fit the needs of a project. Have multiple vendors and take advantage of their specialties.
At minimum: Sizes the vendor is capable of producing, material/stock that will be used, files accepted & specs for set-up, turn around time, cost, shipping. You need to have at least in order to proceed with your client anyway. But at minimum you should know the file specs or your in for a difficult road and more times than not have to rebuild your files and artwork.