Assignment
This week, you will create business card, letterhead and envelope designs for the restaurant.
Overall Specifications
- Adobe Illustrator
- All single-sided
- Full-color CMYK
- ¼" bleed
- ¼" safe zone
- Include on all three designs:
- Logo
- Consistent color palette
- Consistent design elements
Business Card Specifications
- 3½"x2" (landscape or portrait)
- include employee name and title
- include address, phone number and web address (email optional)
Letterhead Specifications
- 8½"x11" (portrait only)
- include address, phone number and web address (email optional)
Envelope Specifications
- 9½"x4-1/8" (landscape only)
- include return address
- meet US Postal Service requirements for layout
Portal
Upload the following to Week 7 Lesson:- restaurant business card (PDF)
- restaurant letterhead (PDF)
- restaurant envelope (PDF)
Student Showcase
We will take a look at any of your new work which is ready to share.For the restaurant logo project, we will discuss the following aspects of each:
- Overall strength of the design
- Degree to which:
- the logo communicates the idea of delicious food
- the logo communicates the branding message
- the file meets the specifications
Logo Implementation
Rollout: Process and Best Practices
Now that the logo is created, an identity system is designed, and everything is approved by the client, the next step is rollout. Rollout means actually putting the logo in use in real-world scenarios. In order to prepare for these various applications of the logo, designers create identity/graphic standards manuals. This allows the original designer to visualize all the information needed to implement the logo successfully. It requires thinking through every possible use of the logo, and providing specific guidelines for those uses.A comprehensive yet concise list of directions will save time, forestall bad design, and result in an effective message, even when designers new to the business are added. To paraphrase Milton Glaser, design which has been given minimal thought will have little value in the long run. Since the word design means to formulate a plan, creating a road map in the form of a standards manual is a key step in the process of designing a logo.
Standards manuals or guidelines allow identity systems to be managed properly—because they serve as the ultimate resource for consistent application of the logo throughout all communication and visual materials required by the client. Manuals function to ensure that the standards and ideas developed by the original designers are systematically and consistently reproduced in the same manner every time.
It is vital that the logo be used properly over its lifetime, not only for the first six months of a rollout when the original designer creates the first round of materials. Designers who take these extra steps are invaluable to their clients. This is one of the primary reasons that major corporate clients work repeatedly with design consultants who understand implementation and the role of identity guidelines. Informed clients, for example, understand the confusion and disorganization their brand images will suffer when something as simple as inconsistent color is used in the printing of their business cards.
Manuals must be created to be useful to the widest possible group of logo users. Often, in larger companies, there is an identity or branding coordinator who assures continuity and accurate use of the identity by following the graphic standards manual. In-house design departments are often the primary users of a graphic standards manual, but not all clients are large enough organizations to have such groups. All outsourced designers will use the manual. Other in-house departments and related consultants that need the manual include:
- advertising
- public relations
- marketing
- investor relations
- merchandising
- licensing
- printers
- package manufacturers
- signage fabricators
- vehicle and uniform supply companies
- all purchasing departments responsible for any of the above.
Prepress
- Prepress is a catch-all name for the work steps done between designing and printing.
- Sometimes the line between design and prepress is unclear and can cause communication/responsibilities confusion.
- For our purposes, prepress refers to:
- Creation of high-resolution PDF files
- Making images and documents print-ready
- Controlling imposition
- Controlling screen frequency
- Creation of contract proofs
- A large part of prepress work is done digitally at the printing house
- Some parts of prepress are done by designers in the layout or image production stages
Postscript
- Page description language (PDL): a graphic programming language that describes the layout and appearance of a page
- Before printing can be done, the native file (i.e. Illustrator) must be converted into a format that the Raster Image Processor (RIP) software can understand
- PDLs describes the layout in a way that allows the RIP to translate the page into halftone screens on a plate
- Many PDLs exist, but the industry standard is Postscript from Adobe
- Other companies besides Adobe can use Postscript (it is open-source), making it manufacturer-independent; this is vital to graphic print production
- Postscript has three main functions:
- Translation of files into Postscript code
- Transfer of Postscript code
- Processing (rasterizing) of Postscript code
- There are three versions:
- Postscript Level 1
- Postscript Level 2
- Postscript Level 3, which has enhanced capabilities
- Different programs are good in different ways in creating Postscript files, but it is best to use Adobe design applications
- PDFs are the standard for submitting layouts to a printer, and at their heart is the engine that is Postscript
- All objects in a layout—fonts, lines, curves, patterns, etc.—are described in Postscript with mathematical (Bezier) curves
- Pixel-based images are stored in Postscript as a bitmap with a Postscript header
- Every time you output a document to a Postscript-compatible printer, a Postscript file is created
- Postscript files can be created independent of an output device, but cannot be edited directly
- Since most design programs can save to PDF directly, we often don’t realize that Postscript is being created first automatically
- If you are using a non-Postscript program like Microsoft Word, the computer’s own printout functions must be used to create Postscript; this requires the following be installed:
- A Postscript-based printer
- A Postscript Printer Description (PPD)
- The simplest way to create Postscript files from Microsoft Office is to have Adobe Acrobat installed—this adds PDF functionality to Office applications
- RIP consists of two parts:
- A Postscript interpreter
- A processor translating the pages into raster images (bitmaps)
- Sometimes the RIP is integrated into the printer itself
- When printing separated films, each page of a layout is calculated four times, one for each color
- The bitmaps created by RIP let the plate imagesetter know which exposure dots should be exposed for each plate
- Complex page designs require a great deal of calculations for RIP to do, which can take a lot of time
- PDF stands for Portable Document Format, and it was created by Adobe to move advanced contents between computers in a simple manner
- PDF files can contain:
- Text
- Images
- Video
- Sound
- 3-D graphics
- interactive software for filling out forms
- PDF files can be opened without access to the program that created the contents
- Adobe Reader is free and is used to view PDFs
- Adobe Acrobat is not free and is used to create PDFs
- There are different versions of Adobe Acrobat available for simpler or more complex PDF-creation needs
- PDF is today the basis of all graphic design work flow and for submitting designs to printing houses
- You can create PDFs:
- Through a built-in support in the application you are working in
- Through Adobe Acrobat directly
- Through online tools such as http://www.freepdfconvert.com/
- PDFs are generated with a tool called Acrobat Distiller, which is often an invisible part of the process
- The Job Options offered by PDF are a collection of predefined settings for different types of destinations
- Job Options has settings for:
- Resolution
- Compression
- Font handling
- Color handling
- A screen version of a PDF can use lower resolution and higher compression
- A press version of a PDF needs a higher resolution and lower (or no) compression
- You can convert RGB images into CMYK on-the-fly when exporting from InDesign to PDF (In the Print dialog, go to the Output tab and select the Convert to Destination option, then select the CMYK destination profile.)
- Adobe Acrobat allows you to save low-resolution copies from press-ready PDFs: Advanced > PDF Optimizer
- You can create security settings within a PDF to protect the file in different ways (File > Document Properties > Security):
- Password-protect a file for reading and/or editing
- Prevention of editing some areas while allowing it in other areas
- Allow or prevent printing of the PDF
- If you allow printing, a user can “print” it as a new PDF, which would remove the security settings
- If you send a PDF to a printing house for printing, make sure that it allows them to make last-minute changes if necessary; on the other hand, if the PDF is for proof purposes, you may want to only allow them to add notes and copy text
- You can create your own PDF settings within a preset; this is desirable is you use the same sorts of settings over and over in your work flow
- PDFs files should be proofed both by the person creating the PDF and by the person receiving the PDF at the printer’s
- Proofing consists of:
- Content check
- Inspect the file and print it out
- Look for flaws such as dropped lines, spelling errors, or missing elements/parts
- Technical check
- Advanced > Preflight
- Image resolution
- Color layers
- Maximum amount of ink permitted
- Occurrence of spot colors
- No text smaller than 8 points
- Advanced > Output Preview > Preview Separations
- Each color channel can be proofed separately
- You can check for knockouts or deep black printin
Adjusting for Printing
- An ad campaign may use the same image for different types of displays: magazine, newspaper, billboard, etc.
- Each time, the image must be adjusted for the printing needs of that particular destination
- Color reproduction in printing is principally affected by three factors:
- Ink
- Paper
- The printing process used
- The higher the quality of paper, the more ink you can lay down on it, and the higher the color quality
- The shade of paper, its surface structure, and it response to printing affect color reproduction to a large degree
- Few types of paper are completely white; most have a light coloration
- Misregistration of printing plates can vary between different printing techniques and on the material you are printing on
- If you printing on an uncommon material, the adjustments you need to make will be more elaborate
Gray Balance
- If you print with equal amounts of cyan, magenta, and yellow in a given area, this will not result in a neutral gray as one would theoretically expect (there will be a color cast)
- This is a result of:
- The paper not being pure white
- Variations in the order in which the printing inks are applied
- The difference in dot gain among inks
- If the gray balance is off, natural reference colors like skin and sky will look “off”
- A mix of 40% cyan, 29% magenta and 30% yellow is a common value for gray balance
GCR and Maximum Ink Coverage
- Each component color of CMYK at full tone achieves a tonal value of 100%
- With each color at full value you could theoretically achieve a total ink coverage of 400%; this is impossible to achieve in practice
- Too much ink can result in smudging and smearing
- One method for avoiding such heavy ink coverage is Gray Component Removal (GCR)
- With GCR, equal portions of cyan, magenta and yellow are removed and replaced with a corresponding screen of black ink
- You can specify a maximum ink coverage ("total ink limit") in Photoshop for a given image
- Start with an RGB image and do all of your editing in RGB first
- Edit > Color Settings...
- From the CMYK dropdown, choose Custom CMYK...
- In the dialog that opens, set the Total Ink Limit according to your press operator's recommendations
- Click OK twice, then convert the image to CMYK
Dot Gain
- Dot gain is a technical phenomena wherein the size of the halftone dots increases during the printing process
- Dot gain typically occurs when the ink is applied to paper and the ink spreads into the paper fibers
- An image that has not been adjusted to account for dot gain will appear too dark when printed and obscure details
- Compensating for dot gain can occur during conversion to CMYK:
- Start with an RGB image and do all of your editing in RGB first
- Edit > Color Settings...
- Set the Gray and Spot Dot Gain percentages according to your press operator's recommendations
- Click OK, then convert the image to CMYK
Minimum Highlight Dot
- Minimum highlight dot refers to the smallest percentage point at which a given printing process can achieve.
- This can also differ according to the screen frequency or type of paper.
- Most normal printing situations can reproduce very light tones so that you can create a tonal transition that disappears into white without a big jump in tone (with a corresponding jagged edge.)
- In some printing process such as flexography or screenprinting, sometimes you lose any detail where tones dip beneath 10%.
- To compensate for this, sometimes a designer will manually darken the lightest areas of the image.
Sharpening Images
- Digital images are usually sharpened to make them look good when printed.
- Screen frequency, misregistration, and wet ink on paper can sometimes blur the image.
- Unsharpened images can be perceived as out-of-focus.
- Images should be sharpened to varying degrees, depending on the printing process used.
- Images printed with a high screen frequency and good paper on a sheet-fed offset printer don't need much sharpening.
- Images printed on newsprint with a web-fed printer need a lot more sharpening.
Knocking Out, Trapping, and Overprinting
- When one object is placed over another (for example, text over a color field,) you can choose:
- overprinting: print the one directly on top of the other, or
- knocking out: knock out a hole in the color block in the exact shape of the object being placed over it
- By default, design programs tend to use the knocking out method to avoid:
- overwetting the paper
- ending up with the wrong color for the top-most object
- Knocking out can result in misregistration, where a white edge appears between the top object and the one underneath.
- It is best to overprint small text to avoid misregistration.
- Trapping can help over misregistration for larger objects and text: one object is increase in size slightly to overlap the other object.
- Trapping includes two methods:
- Spreading is when the overlying object is increased in size to overlap the hole that is knocked out.
- Choking is when the knocked-out hole is reduced in size a bit to overlap the overlying object.
- Trapping can result in the appearance of a darker outline around the overlying object, which can be distracting.
- Usually the lighter ob the two objects is either spread or choked to reduce this discolored outline effect.
- With black text, overprinting is always recommended.
- Trapping adjustments are no longer done in design programs such as InDesign; they are usually done at the printing house, often in the RIP software.
