Print Ready Output

Print-ready output

Print is unforgiving in ways screens are not: colour shifts, edges trim, and low-resolution images that looked acceptable on a monitor look obviously wrong on paper. The requirements are specific and mostly mechanical.

Method

1. Work in the printer's colour space. Screen colour does not reproduce directly in print, and bright screen colours are the ones that shift most.
2. Add bleed and keep content inside the safe area. Anything meant to reach the edge extends beyond the trim line, since cutting is not exact.
3. Use adequate resolution for print. Images sized for the web are visibly poor on paper, and upscaling does not recover detail (see image-optimization).
4. Embed or outline all fonts. A missing font at the printer means substitution or failure, and outlining removes the risk entirely.
5. Check the printer's specification first. Trim size, bleed, binding allowance, and file format differ between printers and are not negotiable at the last minute.
6. Proof before the full run. A physical proof catches colour and trim problems that no screen preview shows.
7. Keep an editable source alongside the print file. The flattened output cannot be revised, and reprints always need revision.

Boundaries

Print output is fixed once produced, so errors are expensive rather than patchable. Colour matching between devices is approximate at best. Accessibility considerations differ in print, where text size and contrast cannot be adjusted by the reader (see color-contrast).