Gokai Blue's Guide to MAXIMIZE PROFIT on Print Productions

Hey guys, this thread will give you advices and directions on how to NOT GET RIPPED OFF and maximizing profit from printing posters etc. for events like SupaNova or casual.

File format is probably the most important thing on this list, simply because it saves you a lot of time and cash should you encounter an irresponsible printer (as in the person at the print shop who's working on printing your stuff).

1. Pixels Per Inch:
Pictures should be scanned or created in 300dpi. You don't need to learn what 'dpi' stands for or what it is, but just remember this: Onscreen = 72dpi for viewing, Printing = 300dpi preferably.
For those who wish to be more savvy, dpi is pixels per inch, the higher the dpi, the more detail you get but the larger the file will be. Commercially printing we (professionals) almost always print in 300dpi, some magazines may get away with 240dpi (simply because the amount of pages in a magazine is very high, so there needs to be a reduction in file size).
TLDR; Version: Set/convert your images to 300dpi for printing for highest amount of details and lowest chance of pixelating.

2. Color Format
If you're doing a lot of digital artworks and whatnot, you would've undoubtedly ran across the term 'RGB'. Sometimes when you're printing straight off the computer, the actual printed image comes out with weird colors. Nownow, the problem here lies in the fact that you're printing straight off RGB format, which is MADE FOR SCREEN VIEWING. RGB is not only red+green+blue, but it also includes the monitor's backlit/brightness.

Because of that, when you print in RGB, because the paper is obviously not backlit, you get the weird dark colors and whatnot. To make sure you print out the right colors, there are a few simple steps that you have to make:
a/ With the file open in Photoshop or GIMP, flatten the entire image. Aka merge all layers into one.
b/ Look under Edit or Image, and look for a place where it has this list: RGB (tick), CMYK, LAB, thingamagik. (May be different in GIMP, since i use PS only.)
c/ Now all you have to do is to click on that CMYK option, and accept any default prompts, and voila, you have yourself a CMYK image!
d/ 99% of the time the converted CMYK image should look exactly the same as the RGB one, other times the CMYK one may look darker simply because it can't print the backlit screen onto paper.

TLDR; Version: Convert RGB image to CMYK format to ensure printed colors don't come out wacky.

3. Bleed/Paper Trimming
Bleed is a term that we use for parts of the layout/image that 'bleeds' off the page, aka extending over your intended page. We do this intentionally.
Here's why: if you have tried printing a full color image with your home printer, you would've noticed that it never prints to the edges. Fact: NO PRINTER IN THIS WORLD CAN PRINT TO THE PAPERS' EDGES, IF THERE IS ONE YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT.
So in order to us to 'print' to the edges, say we want to print a jetblack background onto an A4 sheet of white paper, we print on a piece of paper that is slightly larger than A4, and then we trim off the extra area and we end up with an A4 sheet of jetblack printed paper.
When we're doing our artworks, we add roughly 3~5mm to our intended size, e.g. instead of A4 297x210mm, we make it 300x213mm, and we create our artwork to that, extending any background colors and whatnot all the way over the bleed area. This way, when we print it out on the larger paper, and we trim it down, we make sure that all the colors extend to the edges of the paper, instead of having little white edges because we didn't add bleed.

TLDR; Version: Add 3~5mm to your artwork's dimensions and extend colors and graphics over it.

4. Making your file Printer-friendly
Since this thread's mostly about printing commercially for sale, e.g. at SupaNova or your own online website, i'm going to assume you're printing at an actual printshop, instead of from home. So in order to make sure there are no problems and that your file is ready to print (one of my friends got ripped off a tonne because her printer person had to mess around with her file in order to print it properly), we have a few simple steps:

a/ We export/save the image/artwork as PDF. JPEG is acceptable, but will suffer lower quality.
In order to save it as PDF, if you're using Photoshop, there should be an 'Export' or 'Export as PDF' option under 'File', you choose 'Export' > "High Quality Print' and voila. Once the prompt menu comes up, look on the left side for a tab named cropmarks/bleed (3rd one down iirc), and you tick 'Crop Marks' and 'Document Bleed Settings', and save the PDF as is.
The advantage with saving as PDF is that it'll automatically convert your image colors and everything for actual printing, so if you open up the saved PDF version, what you see onscreen is what you'll print.

b/ When you bring your file (on a USB or whatnot) to the Printer person, they'll open the PDF and take a look, if crop marks and bleed is there, and file is of the right format, voila, he can print it straight away and trim it for you, so you end up with your pretty A3 poster of Horikita Maki in bikinis; if there's a problem then you probably haven't followed the previous steps right.

5. Paper Matters!
Now don't think your job is done yet! You want to MAXIMIZE your profits right? Then follow these advices. Paper stock, aka what kind of paper you're going to print on, is very important.
Since you're printing posters, you can simply ask the Printer person what 'stock' they usually use, and they'll usually offer you the standard, which may be good or bad depending on the printshop. Usually they're 'good enough', but if you really want to appeal to your customers, then take the extra steps.
Normal printshops usually have papers that are matte or gloss; matte is flat, gloss is shiny. Either is nice for everyday stuff, but nothing fancy. If you want your artwork to shine, you print on coated stock. Coated stock is basically paper that has been coated with special glazes, the end result is a piece of paper that is shiny and almost metallic. If your artwork has any metallic objects and/or shiny stuff, you'd want to print on this paper because it makes a real punch with the end result. If your artwork is more earthy and pastelly colors, you can print on uncoated stock, which makes your colors more flat, but the paper feels more classy.
If you're wondering about the price, metallic and coated stock will obviously cost you more, sometimes a few dollars over depending on the quantity. But the amount of difference it'll make to artwork (if you choose the right paper) is phenomenal. You end up attracting more buyers, more sales = more profit.

TLDR; Version: Don't be cheap, fork out the extra bucks to have your artwork printed professionally so it will appeal more to your market.


CONCLUSION:
Following these steps will not only save you a lot of headaches, but a lot of cash too depending on the situation.
You DO NOT want to pay the printshop extra money because you bring them the wrong file format and they have to spend half an hour (paid) messing with it to make it work.
You DO NOT want to be cheap with your precious artworks and posters and print them on crappy paper or from home printer.

You DO want to fork out a few extra dollars to attract MORE customers which will offset the extra production cost, and possibly earning you more customers because your posters are metallic shiny and the other stalls' are not.

EDIT: oh and on the note of pricing, i usually get my posters printed at less than $5 each A3 size including trimming, but remind you i print one-offs. So if you're printing in bulk, say 10+, you can easily get them WAY CHEAPER each depending on where you go.

And i think that's about it to cover, i typed this up in like 20mins at night, so there's bound to be stuff missing.
If you find this guide even remotely useful, please leave a comment and e-cookie.
If you find it boring/useless, please leave a constructive comment and e-cookie.

Gokai Out.

Oh wow thank you so much for these tips Gokai :3 I found it really useful!
Who knew RBG was so misleading...

Hmm didn't know about the bleed thing, this is usefull, but I don't know if anyone is printing stuff....

Glad you guys find it useful. =)

I had to let these tips loose because this friend got TOTALLY ripped off because her local printer exploited her stupidity, so i hope no one here will have to fork over $50 for no apparent reason in the future should you print.

[EDIT]

BADGES
Pretty much 70% of the people i ask, the first thing they want to sell are badges. Now badges may seem very simple, just print on A4, cut out the little circle and then create the badge with the machine.

BUT the thing is that EVERYONE is doing the same thing, so how can you give YOUR badges the EXTRA KICK it needs?



See these sexy beasts? Look how shiny and awesome they look; badges like these sell like hotcakes.
Since most of us are probably printing from home, chances are you get the really plasticky filmed badges. No matter how hard you try to PHOTOSHOP a metallic texture onto the image, it always looks subpar.

The best thing we can do in this case is to simulate the metallicness, since none of us here probably has a printer that can print on metal badges. To do this, we only have to take two simple steps:
a/ Make sure your images are sharp and probably 'leveled'.



We can make sure the image is properly exposed by changing its 'levels', either via 'Image' tab at the top, or you can make an 'adjustment layer' for 'level's which you can delete if it doesn't look nice. See those two arrows? You want to make sure that each END arrow points to the bottom peak of each side. If you see an extremely thin horizon on your histogram on either side, ignore the thin parts and move the arrow to the first bump. Doing this will make sure that the shadows are dark, the highlights are light, and in general will give your image a very nice contrast and makes it pop.

b/ The second part is the easiest, but somewhat costly. Remember how i talked to you about printers not being able to print RGB? Guess what, PHOTOLABS can print RGB. Obviously Photolabs are for printing photos, but in our case (badges), we can afford to print this way because we're only printing few copies. Being able to print RGB means you get the extra light, the extra 'pop' for your images, but not only that, we can specify that we want the file to be printed on METALLIC photographic stock.

From experience, a 10x12inch (aka roughly A4) will cost you roughly $5 as a student, for an RGB file to be printed in metallic photopaper. But trust me, once you print one out, you would be AMAZED at how tearjerking awesome the quality of the photo comes out. Not only does the entire thing shine like there's no tomorrow and metallic, because of its characteristics all your images will 'come out at you' like it's 3-dimensional.

Obviously, since you're printing from home or uni, you're probably spending $0 on image printing, but think about this, one $5 A4 will probably fetch you at least 10 badges, so that equates to roughly 50 cents extra per badge, but you can offset this cost by upping the badge price by a dollar. You may think this will decrease your sales, but to be honest not many people out there will care about a dollar extra for a badge, especially when it's probably the best looking and most professional looking one at SupaNova. The key to increasing profit is by increasing your production/advertising, those 30second domino pizza ads cost $3000 per second to produce, but the revenue they get is over 50 fold.

Note of CAUTION: This metallic effect works best if you have images with good contrast and pattern. If you're printing a sketch of your Sasuke in pencil lines, it probably won't make much of a difference. What you need is a badge image with good contrast and overall good composition, but then again that's already a given, but make sure your image has good colors.

Great work! XD This is indeed the most comprehensive and informative thread on the forum! (still haven't been able to read all of it)

Wow this is definitely a stand-out from the competition! (the badges)
>.< We have yet to invest for a badgemaker... but I read it! Thanks for all the info!