What is design for print? Final print manual

What is design for print? - Revised layout

After looking back at my initial layout design, I noticed there was no definitive structure and organisation so I decided to devise a revised layout based on my new 'top 10'. The following was my original design:

Using Illustrator, I created the following CMYK and RGB colour palettes as the images I found online had a low resolution and were pretty awful design-wise. These would be featured on the main 'colour' page.

I used a simple, 3 column layout, with the content appearing in just two of these in order to create white space (a theory of which was explained in Graham's type workshop). I used a darker grey for the subheadings and a light grey for the body copy. Towards the bottom of the page, I showcased what category the content belonged to along with the colours featured on that page.

I then added a header which gave a brief outline as to what the content explains in more depth. I used the serif font, Bitter in order to create an interesting contrast between the heading and content.

Large content pages featuring segmented type which allowed me to increase the type in size. Due to the large font surrounded by a lot of white space, this creates an immediate starting point for a specific section in the manual..

The A0 and B0 series charts found online were a little dull therefore using the colours featured in my multi-tonal images (below), I created two charts. These used a range of tonal values of a particular spot colour, decreasing the smaller the page becomes.

I added more images to break up the amount of text and provide visuals which the user could reference the content against in order to further their understanding.

What is design for print? - Font choice

I thought 'Bitter' was the perfect font choice to be featured within my manual due to the description and basis behind the type explained by its designer, below.

"People read and interact with text on screens more and more each day. What happens on screen ends up being more important than what comes out of the printer. With the accelerating popularity of electronic books, type designers are working hard to seek out the ideal designs for reading on screen.  

Motivated by my love for the pixel I designed Bitter. A “contemporary” slab serif typeface for text, it is specially designed for comfortably reading on any computer or device. The robust design started from the austerity of the pixel grid, based on rational rather than emotional principles. It combines the large x-heights and legibility of the humanistic tradition with subtle characteristics in the characters that inject a certain rhythm to flowing texts."

As this font is based on printed text designed for screen, I thought it was a suitable choice to show the translation of print to web and vice versa. This type can be used with a sans-serif font, most likely Helvetica Neue as this is what was used in my last print manual.

Type Workshop 3

As an optional task, we were asked to fit a proverb in a central space, by 'breaking' the sentence in the right place and using different weights, sizes and orientation. I began by simply writing the proverb out and breaking the sentence in its natural pause when read aloud.

In today's task, we are required to work with a body of text as opposed to a word or sentence. We were first asked to fit a body of text into one column (A4). I altered the point size to 11 and the leading to 12.5.

I looked at decreasing the point size by 1 to see how this would look (without realising what the next task would be). The second column is 10pt on 13.9pt.

The next task was to duplicate the body of text over the next 3 columns and decrease the point size by 1 each time. Again, this needed to fit the column exactly. The point size and leading were as followed:

1) 11/12.5pt

2) 10/13.9pt

3) 9/15.6pt

4) 8/17.7pt

This was then printed out and we were asked to choose which we liked best in terms of legibility, readability etc. I originally chose the third column due to its aesthetics but when printed, the second column seemed the most effective.

We then opened a 10 column document and asked to fit the second body of text (above) into the first column. This was then duplicated across the page with the width progressively increasing by 1 column width. The first occupies 1 column, the second, 2 and so on. 

The first body of text is hard to read due to the pauses in speech it creates when read aloud - this is due to each line consisting of just 2 or 3 words. The last body of text is also harder to read as your eyes are required to span across a larger space. Collectively, we decided the 3rd column was the easiest to read due to its fluidity when spoken out loud.

1st - N/A

2nd - Newspaper - Smaller articles

3rd - Magazine

4th - N/A

5-6 words per line (on average, 36 characters) is the absolute minimum; any less will hinder the readability. The maximum is 11-12 characters (on average, 72 characters). A novel tends to be around 11 words a line - 8 or 9pt. A book is defined by the reading.

A few small tasks where we were required to alter the font, weight and alignment using the second body of text from the earlier task. I used Arial, Georgia, Helvetica and Gill Sans for the first task, Helvetica for the second (due to the array of weights) and Arial for the change in alignment - ragged right/left align, justified, ragged left and centered. 

Part 2 - Paragraphs

Fitting a body of text (with pargraphs) into one column - 9/11.38pt

If a larger point size is required, the lines between paragraphs can be removed to create more space. Indents are used when there is no indication to paragraph breaks. Although millimetres are used as the indent units, 3 characters is the standard indent size. Anything over 3 characters may lead to widows. Never use an indent and a line space.

With a larger body of text, we were required to fit an A4 page with the content without any specifications. I initially started with a 2 column layout but noticed the text span a large amount of space therefore hindering the readability. I used a 3 column layout, with Lucida Grande at 9pt with a 14pt leading. I altered the gutters and margins, also.

The colour of the page (or density/tonal values) affects the way we read a body of text. An increase in leading, the font we choose and the weight.

The leading should be at least 2 pts larger.

Lucida Grande - 8/12.5pt

What is design for print? Revised 'Top 10'

COLOUR
RGB, CMYK, Multitone, Pantone and more.

PAPER SIZES & FORMATS
ISO A series, bleed and more.

STOCK CONSIDERATIONS
Paper weights, coated, uncoated and so on.

FILE TYPES
What should you save your file as?

PRINT PROCESSES
What print method should I use?

IMPOSITION
The arrangement of printed products on a page.

BOOK BINDING & FOLDING
There are many ways to fold a piece of paper.

PREFLIGHT & PROOFING
Making sure your document is ready for print.

FINISHING
How to add that finishing touch.

COSTING
How much will it cost?

What is design for print? Print Manual

(still needs to be updated)

Mac Suite Workshop - InDesign

We were given an InDesign file along with all of the images and embedded fonts to then locate 8 errors within the document. This could include incorrect colour modes, image resolution, missing links and so on.

1) The first mistake we found was a missing link - 'tree silhouette.ai' was not linked correctly therefore in order to resolve this, the designer would need to relocate the image.

2) There are 7 colour separations despite there being just 5 colours - the unused spot colours would need to be removed before going to print to avoid unnecessary costs due to the need of extra printing plates.

3) The yellow background on the title page does not extend to the bleed which may result in white edges when printed and trimmed.

4) 'bird 3.tif' has the incorrect colour mode for print (RGB). A simple correction would be to covert this image to CMYK in Photoshop.

The gamut warning in Photoshop shows the blue is not in the CMYK gamut range.

5) 'bird 1.tif' has a large file size in comparison to the others. This would need to be reduced to avoid sending a larger file size than necessary to print. The designer could simply alter the image to fit the correct dimensions as it has currently been scaled down to fit.

6) 'bird 5.psd' has been set to the default Photoshop resolution - 72 dpi. The original image would need to be replaced and saved at a higher resolution but still retain the same dimensions.

7) The text on the last page is set to registration as opposed to black meaning it has exceeded the ink limit. 'Registration' uses all of the process (CMYK) colours and should only be used to ensure the CMYK separations match perfectly - if a colour is offset, there has been error during print.

8) The blue background uses an RGB colour which may differ when printed.

Preflight

File > Package

The 'package' function gathers all of the linked images and text. You can immediately see there is an error with the document by the warning symbol in the 'summary' window. It will inform you whether there is a problem with the fonts, linked images, colour modes etc. However, general proofing issues such as an image not extending to the bleed (problem 3), will not be shown in pre-flight.

If the effective ppi is larger than the actual ppi (below) it shows that the image has been reduced in size when placed into InDesign (problem 5). 

When you go to package the document, you are able to add any additional printing instructions which will be saved as a .txt file alongside your InDesign document and any relevant images and fonts. A warning dialog box will also appear with a message from Adobe regarding copyrighted fonts.

All of the files will be saved in one folder, including the instructions.

You are also able to export the document as a .pdf to be commercially printed (however, this must be discussed with the printer in advance to ensure the settings are correct). The 'smallest file size' option should be used when showing work over the web.

Window > Utilities > Background Tasks is useful when processing a large pdf as otherwise, no dialog box appears to inform you of its progress - this option allows you to monitor what is happening.

The 'preflight' option allows you to see the errors before fully packaging the document. The original logo only allows you to see the links option but this can be changed by editing the profile by going to the options menu (below).