Are you about to design a birth announcement, poster, business card or other print product?
Then you are probably curious how to make a design that delivers the best print result. You may want to consider a decent printer for this task, such as an HP printer (you can get help with the HP printer installation here).
In this article, you can read various tips about, among other things, the file format, the cutting margin and the safe zone. Prefer to get started right away? Download print-ready Photoshop templates with which you can get started right away.
At certain done-for-you printing webshops, you can order print products by delivering a ready-made file, but we are also happy to help you where possible with the realization of your design.
With online print products, you usually find a direct link to a Photoshop template and working drawing of the relevant product.
What should you pay attention to when designing a print product?
Gross file format
The gross file format of a design is the net size: the format after it has been cut clean + the cutting margin. Always upload a design with the gross size.
Cutting margin
In order to be able to cut a design clean after printing, a cutting margin is assigned to the net size. This is an area of 2 mm on each side in which the design continues.
Safe zone
Prevent texts, logos or images from being partially lost or resulting in a sloppy end result and place them at least 4 millimeters inwards in your design.
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The Photoshop templates
With Photoshop templates, you can immediately get started to create a print-ready file.
Finished designing? Then save it as a PDF in which all layers are merged. You do this by choosing options in the export options to disable the editing options.
The Photoshop files that you already downloaded can help you create a print-ready file.
Some features of these PSD files are:
- Files with the right dimensions
- Marking of cutting margins and safe zone*
- Standard 300 DPI
- Files are in CMYK mode
PDF Working drawings
Perhaps you do not need a Photoshop template because your design is in Adobe Indesign or for another reason.
Are you curious about the dimensions of a certain product or the cutting margins that are usually used in the printing industry? Then you might want to take a look at some PDF working drawings online.