\nSo\n you\u2019ve received a proof of your brand new business card or flyer design\n from us and are not quite sure how it\u2019s meant to look when the job is \ndone. We don\u2019t blame you if you can get confused by the way things look \nfrom a pdf supplied to you from from a designer or an online design \nsoftware like our own Web to Print Design Studio. Sometimes we get \nconfused too when a designer uses some obscure settings or markings on \nthe print files. So here\u2019s a quick guide of what to expect when you get a\n proof from Copy Express.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This\n means if you print a business card proof for example and don\u2019t alter \nthe scale of it, the size you see on the page is the size it will be. It\n doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s an address label or a big banner, we set things \nup so the design is at the true size. Sometimes due to practical \nlimitations we will supply a half or quarter sized version, but we will \nmake note of that in its file name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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If\n there seems to be a lot of white space in your proof it\u2019s because there\n is white space in the design, and we show where we trim the design by \nspecial printing marks. (See below for more information about trim \nmarks.) Sometimes it\u2019s a practical limitation of the job, ie booklets \nare made up in steps of four pages and if your page count isn\u2019t in four \nwe have to add blank pages. Other times we are limited to what we can do\n in the space and end up with some of it \u2018going spare.\u2019 If you\u2019re \nunsure if there\u2019s unused space then give us a call and we will confirm \nit if we haven\u2019t already said so in the email the proof was attached \ntoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Most\n proofs are what we call \u2018print masters\u2019 as in it\u2019s the same file we use\n to print your work. If the file gets to big to send then we may send \nyou a e-proof, where the image quality is reduced to save space and \nallow it to be attached to a email. As we are printing company first and\n foremost the designs we create are for printing with, and contain a lot\n of information that printers need. If you want to use it on your \nwebsite we then have to strip out that information to ensure the best on\n screen quality for the smallest file size. That\u2019s why we have a Online \nReady PDF product on our Web to Print service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This\n can get a little confusing at times when it comes to folded items, as \nthe way the sheets are laid out aren\u2019t necessarily how they are seen \nwhen you get the folded item in your hand. We can supply physical \nsamples to make that easier, or scan it in reading order and email that \ntoo you. Our downloadable templates are also setup to show you the order\n how things in the way they are read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Our\n printer is quite skilled at dealing with multi page documents and \nlaying them out correctly to make high quality booklets that allow for \nall the quirks of printing on paper. To keep things easier for you to \nunderstand and for our system to deal with, we will always supply your \nproofs in a logical reading order. The exception to this is when we come\n to covers. In some cases it\u2019s supplied as separate document and may be a\n single flat sheet if we have to allow for the width of the spine<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Printing\n marks are, well, marks we need to have when we print your work. These \nare placed outside of the the finished document and are removed when we \ntrim the items down to their finished size. Here at Copy Express we keep\n the print marks to a minimum as most of the information needed to do \nthe job is stored with the design in our system: Other marks you may see include: \n So this is a quick rundown of what you should expect when you get \nproofs from Copy Express, or other designers and printers. If you are \nconfused by it or want more information then please do give us a call or\n email and we will be happy to answer all of your questions.<\/em><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So you\u2019ve received a proof of your brand new business card or flyer design from us and are not quite sure how it\u2019s meant to look when the job is done. We don\u2019t blame you if you can get confused by the way things look from a pdf supplied to you from from a designer … Continue reading “Understanding Designer Proofs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,75,33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":931,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Crop\/Trim Marks<\/strong>
These\n are the small pairs of lines at each corner of the file, as seen in the\n image above. These marks show where we will cut paper\/card of the \ndesign to final version of it. You will see any colour or background art\n going past where we will cut as we need to trim off the \u2018bleed\u2019 to make\n sure that you have the best looking printing you can have.
Alignment Corners<\/strong>You\n might see a blue or pink \u2018L\u2019 shape in the top corner of our template or\n proofs. These are alignment marks to help show how the front and back \nof design match up. The blue one is on the front, pink is on the back, \nand both match up on the same corner of the printed sheet.
Dotted Lines<\/strong>If\n a document is being folded or creased in any way, then often we will \nmark it with dotted lines to show where that should happen. This helps \nus make sure that the equipment we use to do the work is properly set.
Dashed Lines<\/strong>If\n there is perforation in the design, for example NCR books or gift \nvouchers, we will mark were that perforation will be with a dashed line \noutside edge like fold lines. Sometimes though to make things clearer we\n will put the line in the printing area of the design and remove it \nbefore we print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Double \u2018Crop\u2019 Marks<\/strong>If\n you see two pairs of the Crop marks on each corner of a proof, this \nmeans the designer has put on both the crop and bleed marks. Bleed marks\n show where the background art finishes and is needed if there extra \nfinishing work needed like foiling or Spot UV coating.Colour Bars<\/strong>You\n may see a line of square on one side of the design going through shades\n of grey from black to white and on the other side a line of square of \ndifferent colours. These colour bars are needed for some types of \nprinting to help the person running the printers check that the colour \nand shading stays consistent throughout the run. Modern digital printers\n don\u2019t need it as they self check the printing quality during the \nprocess using inbuilt scanners.
Registration Marks<\/strong>If\n you see on the file what looks like a scope crosshair (a set of circles\n with vertical and horizontal lines through it) these are registration \nmarks. These are used when the printer has to run the printing through \ntheir printer several times to complete the job. As no two runs of a \nprint are ever quite the same, the registration marks allow the printer \nto make sure that everything is correctly aligned. When it isn\u2019t you get\n that colour ghosting effect that make things hard to read.
Other Marks like text or barcodes<\/strong>You\n may find barcodes or text that is used to keep job information as part \nof the page as most printing companies are largely automated and these \nare used to drive the machines that do the printing and finishing. Again\n these are trimmed off or hiddened when we print and finish your work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n