Missing images cause over 50% of all print jobs in the U.S. to get bounced back to the customer. Some people don’t realize that when they send a QuarkXPress document, for instance, that they also need to send all images that are linked to that document. If you place an image in Quark it does not mean the image is a part of the Quark document.

Even experienced designers loose track of an image once in a while. Some documents can have hundreds of linked images, and it takes discipline to keep track of everything. Doing a double check before you send us your files (see Money Saving Tips) can help to reduce this problem.

Fonts can be a tricky area when it comes to printing. However, just including both the printer fonts and screen fonts used in your document solves a huge number of font-related print problems.

When copying the required fonts from your fonts folder, check for multiple copies of the same font. Just because two folders in your font folder are called Garamond does not mean they contain exactly the same font. There can often be only subtle differences in how two versions of a font display, yet in certain cases this can be enough to throw off the design when it gets printed.

The Collect for Output feature now found in the latest versions of QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign is a godsend for reducing font problems. If you have it, use it!

Flightcheck by Markzware is also inexpensive software that collects both fonts and images.

RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue, the three colors your monitor uses to create imagery. All design done for the internet is in RGB color, Adobe Photoshop’s default color mode is RGB, and some small inkjet printers now claim to print in RGB, so what’s the problem with RGB? Why shouldn’t you be able to use RGB for your print design?

The truth is that RGB color is a color spectrum that was designed for what a computer or television monitor can produce, and not what a printer can produce using ink on paper. The monitor on your computer emits colored light that is RGB color.

CMYK is a color spectrum that is more limited in its color range, yet more realistically mimics what can be produced by conventional 4-color printing. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, the 4 colors used in conventional offset printing. Most professional design applications have both CMYK and RGB as color modes to work and save in.

If you get in the habit of working and saving in *CMYK for print jobs, you quickly find that this ceases to be an issue at all.

* One exception to this rule is “Wide Format Printing”. Our HP 5500 Wide Format inkjet printer actually matches RGB color better than CMYK. So if you’re printing wide format banners or posters, save in RGB please.

It is very common for a print job to arrive with far less than the minimum required bleed (1/8 inch) or no bleed at all even though the design requires it. Please go to the Help Center section on Bleeds for more detailed information.

There are a number of reasons why the way what you see on your monitor may look different from your printed piece. Understanding these possibilities will help you avoid potential problems:

1. Sizing, margins and line thickness are just a few things that will automatically look slightly different in print than on screen. This is partly because of magnification on your screen and partly because these are different media. The solution---print out a hard copy from laser or inkjet printer and review how your design “sits” on paper.
2. If the resolution of your printed piece is too low (see Images > Image Resolution) you may not notice on your screen or on a printout from your office printer. This is because offset printing will show any roughness or faults in your images much more sharply than your inkjet or laser printer will. The solution is to follow the guidelines for correct image resolution in our Help Center.
3. Color does vary from monitor to monitor, and monitors are always slightly different from ink on paper in terms of how color looks. If you need to be very exact with color in your printed piece, then we highly recommend calling us to order a color match print. There will be a charge for this, but it will eliminate any color surprises in your final product. Please call: 1-800-555-4885

Despite the convenience of the internet, one aggravation can be corruption of your files. Uncompressed files uploaded to our site or emailed over the internet are susceptible to corruption. To avoid this please use WinZip if you are on a PC or Stuffit if you are on a Mac. You can then compress an entire folder with the document, fonts and images and upload it as one file from our shopping cart.

Especially on large multi-page documents it is common to print a whole job and then discover typos too late. This can be acceptable or it can completely ruin the print job, depending where and how many mistakes there are. For more information on how to avoid this problem please go to the Money Saving Tips section of our Help Center.