Branding work

yeah pdfs are pretty much the format of choice now, i have supplied a number of printers pdfs and no probs, very flexible format.

best to do logos and line art graphics in illustrator (vector) for crispness, in my early days i did a fre id's using pshop for the logos etc and even at 300dpi your text will look blurry so i recommend you dont do text with pshop, unless its styled into photography or something.

size wise in illustrator you work in 1:1 so you set up the doc the actual size you want it.

What is this bleed you talk of, and how do you set this up?

Why would they prefer pdf also?

A bleed is the area out of the actual print area. Basically any backgrounds you should also make 5mm over the actual page size because then when its being printed there will be no white edges if the print page doesnt line up. Similarly there should be a 3mm internal bleed for text (place it 3mm inside the artwork area) so that it is not accidently chopped off in the printing and cropping process. I hope that better explains it.

bleed is printing the ink over the edge of a page, to set this up you just basically extend the artwork around 5mm over the edge of the document in what ever app you use.

not sure exactly why pdfs technically (but mabye something with the adobe colour system matching with other gfx apps?????). practically i guess because its viewable on most pc, macs, and is outputted from a huge range of apps, and is also good for web.

PDFS are just generally easier for them to handle, it doesnt matter what program the file came from if they donot have that version its still no problems.

We have been using Adobe InDesign since its first release and long before the rest of the design world picked it up - so a lot of printers didnt have it - much easier to do a press ready pdf and they can still print without having the software.

haha beat me these aussies are quik

naa, great minds think alike

When you print something to edge of the paper, without a border, it's known as a bleed. Like you'd see in a full page magazine advert.

Typically, if you were going to set up a print job that had 'bleeds' on all sides (known as a full bleed) you'd have guides for the following:

1. The page size itself, like 8.5" x 11". In Illustrator, I use the 'artboard' for this.

2. On the outside of the page, you'd have the extra 1/8" on all sides for the bleed. You would run all your artwork out to these lines.

3. Inside of your page, another 1/8" as a 'safe margin' You want to make sure that ALL of your content falls inside these lines to ensure that nothing gets trimmed away.

4. You'd also provide crop marks at the actual page size.

So the page gets printed beyond the bleed lines, then the printer (the person, not the machine) would come behind and trim the paper to the crop marks.

Does that make sense?

geeeez, four posts since I started writing my reply.

LOL.

hahahaa

yes......great minds...um......yeah

so is there any real technical reasons printers like/prefer pdfs???

My understanding is that PDF tend to make for smaller, more manageable files. I still work with print shops that prefer EPS.

not really, as long as they are in the list I posted previously on the other page (same thread) they dont care. it depends on the job really and who set it up, if they know what they are doing printer only needs a PDF to print from but sometimes it can be helpful to have the AI file etc so they can tweak things if need be. Ive been working with printers for years and have seen some strange things happen to proofs when there was nothing like that on the original PDF sent

^ I'd accept musik's word as the gospel on the subject. I loath print media

yeah sounds like she knows here stuff, i came out of print many years ago, but i do little bits here and there now.

pdfs can be edited with illustrator if the printer wishes, without changing the format