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At Printsmart Graphics you can either submit your artwork to us or you can get one of our talented graphic designers to design for you.

 

If you or your graphic designers are supplying your own artwork please check our requirements so that we can get the best possible print outcome with the minimum of fuss.

 

Templates and sizing details of all the banners can be supplied by email

 

Our Requirements are:

1. All Artwork must be one of the following formats. ( .eps, .ai, .pdf, .psd)

2. Images inside these documents should be over 150 pixels per inch.

This is so when they are printed they are not pixelated or distorted.

3. Correct dimensions for your chosen banner.

4. Files should be supplied in CMYK format

 

Articles, Descriptions and Design Info

 

Create your design with clean design elements

 

Too many designers feel that in order to appear serious and professional they must create a visually complex design. Others create complex design layouts to show that they have the technical prowess necessary to implement such designs. While I am impressed by the amount of work that went into creating these complex graphic laden pages, that's not why I'm there. My focus is on the content. I want it to be easy to read. I am a proponent of the virtues of simplicity. I believe that a design can appear professional without being weighted down by a lot of bells and whistles.

 

1. Use plenty of white space.

You don't want your manager to skip over your progress report because she doesn't want to wade through dense text to find the important information. Leave lots of white space for easy reading.
Balance between the amount of text and the white space around it is important. Do print enough content to be credible, however. Leaving too much white space, particularly in combination with a large font, can make your document look childish and makes you look amateur.

 

2. Remember the Z-pattern.

Readers of languages that are read left to right read in a z-pattern. (Reverse the following information for languages that are read right to left.) Their eyes first focus on the upper left hand corner of a page, so capture their attention there (think about where headlines are placed in newspapers and advertisements).
Next, their eyes travel toward the right, then move down the page diagonally to the lower left hand corner. Good document design will help the readers' eyes travel the page easily and naturally. Finally, they read the last line of the page and end in the lower right corner, and the z- pattern is complete. From there, your design should direct the reader to flip to the next page, if there is one, for the most visually attractive impact.

 

3. Use graphics to enhance the message, not detract from it.

Regarding the above z-pattern, don't place your graphic elements in the upper right or lower left corners of the page. Use them to direct readers into your document instead. You don't want your readers to look at your photos or graphs without reading the words! Too many graphics and poorly placed graphics will both scatter your readers' attention, taking it away from the text. You'll simply lose them if your graphics detract from your document. When it's so easy to place them properly, why risk it?

 

4. Create visual partitions with typography.

Combined with white space, graphics and the z-pattern, your choice of font can also help readers scan your document and focus their attention. White space begins to create distinction; you can create even more distinction by adjusting the size and weight of your font. Remember to use bold and italics sparingly, preferably only in the headings and not in your text. You can also vary the actual font or text style you choose for headings. But stick to one serif font (like Times or Courier) and one sans serif font (like Arial or Helvetica). Mixing too many font faces and styles looks garish and amateur. Today, those who write documents must also design them. Just because you're not a designer doesn't mean you have an excuse for poorly designed documents. So follow the above advice and create eye-catching designs that make it easier for your reader to understand your message.

 

Full Bleed Printing – A new print feature

Have you ever heard of a printing feature called full bleed? Well, if you're looking for a new way to print your pictures, brochures, business cards or any other projects you might be working on, you might be interested in this. Full bleed printing is basically a print setting that prints your items from one edge of the paper to the other, without any standard borders that most printers require.
Full bleed printing allows the ink to flow all the way to the edges of the paper so no extra white space or any blank area is showing. Most printers are not set up to do this type of printing, so you usually have to to carry what you're printing 1/8" outside of the regular format. This may still leave some extra border space, so you will have to trim the very edges off to get a complete full bleed image.
If you're planning on doing a big project with this type of printing, there are companies who specialize in full bleed printing. You can find these places by doing a search online at Google or whatever your favorite search engine is. Of course, this will cost you some money, but if you have a brochure or a poster or something similar that you need printed, going through a company and getting it done with full bleed would definitely be the way to go.

PrintSmart Graphics provides excellent print solutions.

 

How do I design a custom printed poster or Banner

A well-designed poster or banner is eye-catching, attractive, and communicates information effectively and economically. Make it easy for your viewer to read and react to your poster or banner by clearly labeling your product, service, or event causing your advertising dollars to stretch further.

Posters and banners are a very flexible advertising tool that is intended for viewers on the move. Sizes range anywhere from A4 to A0 or complete wall size, depending on the printing company.

 

When designing your poster or banner follow a design technique called symmetry, which is combining graphics and text to create balance in the design. This balance allows the viewers eyes to flow from one point to another on the poster causing movement. A good design will contribute balance and movement in order to direct the viewer subconsciously to read and react to the poster.
Tip: Sketching a rough layout or design will help for the final design of your poster or banner . Consult your poster or banner printing company for dimension and format guidelines.

When it comes to the design of your poster or banner think of the old saying An Image is worth a thousand words Since a poster or banner is meant for viewers who are on the go, try to keep text to a minimum by using an image or graphic. Text on a poster or banner should be used for descriptions, or labeling of the product, service, or event.

Tip: Your poster or banner background should be a relatively uniform, neutral color so that it does not detract from your graphics and text.
Text size and font type are a very important aspects when designing a poster or banner . They will determine whether your audience will be able to read your poster or banner with ease. Everyone loves those fonts that are dynamic or interesting, but are they easy to read? The text should be set in a large easily read font -- 16 pt minimum, 30 to 60 pt preferred.

Create a hierarchy, or a system of levels, when it comes to your fonts. The most important piece of information be it the title, or event name, or product should be clearly defined by giving it the most impact: largest font, bold, or maybe even a different color. Follow down the hierarchy with the less important information not as emphasized.

 

Graphic design basically is visual problem solving using text and/or graphical elements. Your aim is to create something that is pleasing to the eye, and gets the attention of the viewer. But things can't just look cool. They have to work as well.

How effective is a great looking restaurant menu if you can't for the life of you find beverages, or it's hard to tell which price is for what?

So what do graphic designers actually do? I'm sure most people can name at least a few things, but the graphic design spectrum is perhaps broader than you think.

 

Designs can include: brochures, banners ,display banners ,vinyl banners , roll up or pull up display banners , retractable display banners , trade show displays , exhibition displays , pop up wall displays , promotional counters , wall posters , hanging banners , posters, magazine covers, magazine layout, business cards, signs, logos, book layout (typesetting), importing advertisements into a newspaper, websites, cd covers, dvd interactivity elements, Internet banners, flash animation, web interfaces, Powerpoint presentations, and more.

 

Follow the steps given below to become a professional Graphic Designer

 

Step 1

Take drawing courses while you're in high school.

 

Step2

Be prepared to receive a college degree in fine arts or advertising with concentrations in graphic art and computer graphics. Although it's sometimes possible to work as a graphic designer without having a degree, much of your competition are now graduates from college.

 

Step3

Visit the National Association of Schools of Art and Design Web site (nasad.arts-accredit.org) to compare the offerings of schools in which you have an interest. Make certain they offer training in current graphics-related computer technology and that their electives include business and finance courses.

 

Step4

Contact your top school choices to see if they require samples of your artwork along with an application. Be prepared for a possible interview.

 

Step5

Get an internship in the design department of a company near your college. It will look good on your resume, and you might make valuable career contacts.

 

Step6

Do freelance work whenever you can so that you will have a solid portfolio to show prospective employers when you graduate.

 

Step7

Pay attention to packaging designs and advertising trends in all forms of media

 

InDesign CS4 – Top 5 new features

 

1) More Informative Links Panel: You probably think your CS2/CS3 Links panel is pretty good, what with its quick Relink, Update Link, and Edit Original buttons. How much more could Adobe improve such a simple thing? Plenty.
The new CS4 Links panel has all the features of its predecessors as well as a ton of new information and ability. Its fully customizable to show, among numerous other attributes, each linked asset’s status, size, color space, layer overrides, actual PPI, effective PPI, transparency, scale, and much, much more. The list of linked assets can also be sorted by any column—file name, status, size, and so on—and automatically groups multiple instances of the same asset under a single heading; updating all instances of the same image is as simple as updating just one.

The coolest new feature, the one that really pushes this feature way up on my Top 5 list, is the fact that the Links panel now shows thumbnails of linked images. No more scratching your head, guessing which esoteric filename is the image you need to replace. Now you can see linked images, directly in the links panel. Even better, a new Link Info pane affixed to the bottom of the panel shows a larger thumbnail and complete details of the asset.

2) Smart Guides: Smart Guides will hit you as one of those how-did-I-ever-work-without-these features. Instead of littering your document with ruler guides and grids and constantly referring to the Transform or Control panel to position, rotate, and size objects, smart guides appear like magic when needed and wink out when not. Object dimensions and rotation data appear in tool tip-like pop ups while vertical, horizontal, and even rotational guides appear while drawing, moving, or rotating objects to facilitate precise object sizing and positioning; once the object is deselected, guides and tool tips disappear, leaving the workspace uncluttered.

3) Smart Alignment and Spacing: Hand-in-glove with Smart Guides is on-the-fly alignment and spacing of objects without the Align panel. Drag an object near another and smart guides appear along their common planes. Move an object near the vertical or horizontal center of the page and a new smart guide appears enabling instant centering of the object on the page. Even better, enhanced snap-to options make quick work of aligning objects to one another or the page, and even of spacing out multiple objects relative one another—again, without even opening the Align panel.
More than any other new feature Smart Guides, Smart Alignment, and Smart Spacing combine to be the biggest improvement you’ll enjoy in your everyday work. By relegating the Transform and Align panels to occasional instead of constant use, these new features will undoubtedly save the average InDesign user cumulative hours of tedious positioning and alignment per week. Unlike CS3, InDesign CS4 doesn’t introduce any major creative enhancements for the average user, therefore the massive productivity enhancement inherent in Smart Guides, Smart Alignment, and Smart Spacing become the CS4 Killer Feature, and my number one favorite feature. I think they’ll become your favorite as well.

4) Smart Text Reflow: Finally you won’t have to worry overly much about manually adding or removing pages as text reflows. InDesign CS4 can do it for you—even when reflow occurs because of hiding or showing copy through the new Conditional Text feature.

5) Flash Interactivity and Export: A genuine surprise to most everyone was the success of Flash content creation in InDesign rival QuarkXPress. Not to be outdone for long with its own technology, Adobe has now brought Flash creation into InDesign. InDesign content can be exported directly to Flash SWF for immediate use online or on CD, or it can be exported into the new XFL interchange file format for import and refinement in Adobe Flash Professional CS4. Either way, the layout is faithfully preserved, including object and text editability (in XFL), hyperlinks, interactive buttons, and page transitions, another new feature.

 

The 5-Minute Guide on How to Prepare Your Artwork for Printing.

When designing and preparing your custom artwork for printing on a t-shirt, sticker, or vinyl banner, you must take a few things into consideration in order to ensure it will print properly. While this may seem like a daunting task, here we aim to simplify the process for our customers with this quick intro.

 

Fonts

The most common problem with PDF artwork seems to be that users do not embed their fonts into the document.  It is essential that you supply the font if it is an unusual one.
If you are using PDF documents, please ensure that all of your fonts are embedded before uploading.

 

Print resolution

Computer screen resolution refers to the size of your pixels, whereas print resolution is measured as the number of printed dots per inch (dpi).
For proper printing artwork, a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) is required.
If you edit your artwork in a bitmap-type environment (i.e. GIF, TIFF, JPEG, BMP etc) then you should consider this in terms of pixels, using 300 pixels per inch (ppi).  The artwork may appear unusually large on your computer screen, but it will be printed at the proper size.

 

Artwork bleed

Bleed is the term used to describe where artwork overlaps the print area's edge.  It is necessary to include bleed whenever you want your artwork to reach the very edge of your prints.
With the correct bleed, once we chop the prints to the required size, every print will reach the edge as expected.
You should allow three millimetres (3mm) bleed for most print sizes and allow two millimetres (2mm) for small print sizes such as business cards and compliment slips.

 

The new interface and design experience QuarkXPress 8 brings is already receiving positive reviews from industry experts. Analyst and consultant Andreas Pfeiffer is the author of many productivity reports for the design and publishing industry and specializes in benchmarking creative software. He notes, “QuarkXPress 8 manages one of the most difficult tasks in software development: to rethink the user interface to make it more efficient, more productive, and more enjoyable, without alienating the experienced user. The potential productivity gains of the new release should be considerable.”

David Carson, world-renowned designer who’s first book, The End of Print, is the top-selling graphic design book of all time, said, “In QuarkXPress 8 you can see Quark has really paid attention to how designers work. The new user interface is fluid and uncluttered, which is exactly the environment I like to design in. I love the new picture box features that enable mouse-driven manipulation of the images to scale, rotate and especially the live cropping previews. It means I no longer have to spend time switching tools or typing in numbers and the new drag and drop capabilities should make working between applications and my desktop even easier.”

Designer-driven Typography
QuarkXPress has always had a reputation for precise typographic control, and QuarkXPress 8 delivers powerful and advanced text features in a way that puts even more control in the hands of the designer. It is the first page-layout application to offer hanging characters with paragraph-by-paragraph control, multiple and easy-to-use presets, and the freedom for users to create and share their own hanging character settings. QuarkXPress 8 also offers unprecedented control over baseline grid settings, the ability to apply unique grid settings to individual boxes, and a Grid Styles feature that can keep even complex documents consistent.

Design Across Media
QuarkXPress 8 allows for synchronized and simultaneous design across print, Web, and Flash. Users can incorporate sound, video, animation, and interactivity into their layouts through a built-in, designer-friendly interactive layout tool that was previously available as Quark Interactive Designer. Without any programming skills, designers and creative professionals can share print content on the Web and in Flash format without purchasing multiple applications or learning code. This functionality enables QuarkXPress users to create fully integrated print, Web, and Flash campaigns with shared images, text, styles, and more.

Global Publishing
With QuarkXPress 8, one global file format supports advanced eastern and western typography for more than 30 languages. All editions of QuarkXPress 8 share the same dictionaries, include hyphenation functionality, and support the import, formatting, and output of East Asian text. American and European users can switch the language of their user interface to fit their needs and all users can open and print a file created in any edition of QuarkXPress 8 without experiencing reflow.

 

QuarkXPress or Adobe's InDesign – which is better? Both of these programs are powerful and professional software. Some designers and printers prefer to work with one, some with the other. Here are some comments local designers and printers have about each program; you may want to consider these opinions when deciding which one to choose. Why choose QuarkXPress over InDesign? Although InDesign is a newer product offers several great design features, some of those features are difficult for printers to work with. For example, they have a difficult time getting the "transparency" option to work correctly unless the file has been converted to pdf. In addition, each time the program is opened it automatically tries to improve the kerning (horizontal space between the letters of the text); this makes registration harder to achieve when the printer changes from the offset plate for one color to the plate for another color, since the type may move slightly from output to output. Why choose InDesign over QuarkXPpress? It's much less expensive than QuarkXPress, and it's easy to make pdfs with it. (Since QuarkXPress isn't an Adobe product, it has a few more hurdles to jump through to achieve this.) Here's what a local designer has to say about InDesign "For the record, InDesign is great. It works pretty seamlessly in OSX [the new Macintosh operating system] and just about everybody on the UCDA [University and College Designers' Association] listserv has agreed. Most were former Quark users that said they wouldn't go back. Customer service has also been quite accommodating." Here's what a local printer has to say about Quark vs. InDesign QuarkXPpress "We like Quark because it forces users into an older and more secure workflow --- layout text and simple artwork in a desktop publishing application, with complex graphics designed in external applications, which are then imported in Quark as eps or tiff files. "This workflow rarely causes trouble during RIPing and color separating, which eases our burden as printers, reduces prepress costs to the customer, and increases reliability of design by the customer (i.e., what the designer sees on-screen and on a mock-up is more likely to look like the final color-separated output from the printing press). "Because of Quark's venerable status in the publishing industry, there is a cottage industry of helpful applications and Xtensions to supplement its utility." However, "we don't like Quark because it offers a few features which have historically created unexpected output at the prepress, including but not limited to garbage masks, imported clipping paths from Photoshop, poor default trapping values, and the dreaded Quark-a-tone (our term for Quark-generated duotone, a feature that allows the user to apply a color to a grayscale image and box the image)." InDesign "We like InDesign for these reasons: it preceded Quark to OSX; its ability to control type far exceeds Quark (we find most users are unaware of the ramifications of this, but it benefits them nonetheless); pdfs are easy to make; designers can place native formats such as Illustrator and Photoshop, as long as their service bureau or printer knows to fully embed the graphics into InDesign for proper output; and, since native formats can be used, the on-screen presentation of the design can be truer to the designer's vision, as opposed to the compromise that occurs when tiffs and eps are imported." On the other hand, "we don't like InDesign for a number of reasons as well. Users can make drop shadows and feathered edges which cause patches of rasterization when presented to a RIP; trapping then becomes an adventure into the unknown. "Transparency usage can also fall into the above problem category, especially when a raster object transparently shows through a vector object. When spot colors are involved with transparency, drop shadows, and feathered edges, the results are often forced into CMYK color space, and have to be adjusted prior to color separation. "Updating links can be error-prone and laborious compared with Quark's Picture Usage. Also, the boundary box of imported Illustrator eps or native Illustrator files is sometimes misinterpreted enough that the image will be clipped when run to a PostScript device. We don't completely understand why this happens, but it has caused several cost enhancements lately."

Web Banner Creating tips

An effective banner design can make the difference between an unsuccessful and successful banner ad campaign.  We have found that the following banner design tips can increase CTRs (click through ratios) and resulting sales. We hope these tips help you.

 

Web Banner Tip #1 - Nothing beats a good eye-catching punch line

When thinking of the copy for a banner; you need to spend a lot of time in creating a catchy phrase, something that will arouse the interest of the viewers and entice them to click on the banner. The punch line should be a small phrase, just a few words and should be visually appealing (correct usage of colors and fonts).

 

Web Banner Tip #2 - Good copy

A successful banner has excellent copy. Be sure to spend ample time thinking about what would interest the surfer. Another rule of thumb for good copy is to keep it short and simple. The text should support the banner punch line and should be informative and practical, making the viewer curious or bringing out a smile. Preferably, the copy should end with the same catchy phrase as on your web site unless the banner punch line is the same.

 

Web Banner Tip #3 - Relevant content in banners - not XXX

Make sure that the pictures displayed in the banner are relevant to the products/services you are offering on your site. A woman in a skimpy bikini would surely attract the attention of male surfers and get a click but, if your site sells electronic goods, the visitor is sure to leave your site before making a purchase. You, thus, end up with high-click thrus and negligible sales.

 

Web Banner Tip #4 - Including logo and web site URL in banners

If your ad campaign is a brand building exercise, it is advisable to include BOTH the logo and the web site address in the banner. For other types of banners, you might like to include the two, but make sure that they don't dilute the banner punch line or the copy. In such cases, it's best to keep the logo and the URL together either on the right or the left side of the banner. The logo should be made small and the URL can be displayed in a very small font size.

 

Web Banner Tip #5 - Clichés work!

Statistics show that the best call to action on a web banner is the trite phrase "Click here". Its very presence increases the click-thru rate. The phrase should be displayed long enough (2-3 seconds), preferably in the last frame of an animated banner and can itself be animated - made to blink or change color.

 

Web Banner Tip #6 - Banner file sizes

You can have the best looking banner in the world, but if it's too "heavy", nobody is going to hang around to watch it load. Try to keep it to around 25kb, but less is better. Ensure that you put a file size cap on your design specs if you are getting someone else to design banners for you. It's been my experience that there are thousands of great graphic designers out there, but few who understand that this aspect of banner development is a critical element.

 

Web Banner Tip #7- Flash banners

Very pretty indeed - but effective? Probably not - in my experience anyway. I guess it boils down to your target audience. If your target is the "young, hip and happening" sector and you are promoting entertainment related products, then perhaps the complex animations that Flash offers may be useful, but as a general rule, steer clear of Flash generated banner designs. The other reason I suggest avoiding Flash banners is they can be rather kilobyte heavy and some sites aren't able to run them.

 

Web Banner Tip # 8 - Consider "alert" banner designs

We've all seen them; those banners that look like a standard Windows alert. Do they work? Yes, most definitely. I've seen clickthrough rates of up to 24% on these kinds of banners - and considering the "standard" click rate is around .5 - 1.5% across the board, this is excellent. There is a big *but* with using these kinds of banners -they are only highly effective to a relatively non-savvy audience and should only be used for promoting products that have a very broad appeal. Niche products should be promoted using relevant text or graphics.

 

Web Banner Tip # 9 - Keep your banner design simple

You have very little time to convince people to click on your banner, so the more complex it is in terms of text and general design, the less chance of people clicking - make your point, make it quickly.