Answer in brief
A screen and a press share nothing but the picture: colour is built differently, paper is cut with tolerance, and the file has to carry properties invisible on screen. Here are bleed, resolution, colour, fonts and the checklist before sending.
Why a file that looks good on screen does not print
A screen and a press have nothing in common except the picture. A screen emits light and builds colour out of light; print reflects light and builds colour out of ink on a particular paper.
Because of that, some of what you see on a monitor is physically unreproducible. Saturated blue, bright green and neon always look duller on paper, and that is not the printer's mistake.
The second reason is tolerance. Paper is cut in a stack and the blade wanders by fractions of a millimetre. Artwork made exactly to size either trims with a white sliver or cuts into the text.
The third is the file. A printer accepts not "a picture" but a document with a specific set of properties, and if the properties are missing, the operator either rebuilds the artwork their own way or stops the job.
Bleed and safety margins
Bleed is image extending past the trim line, usually 3–5 mm. It exists so the background still reaches the edge when the blade shifts. Without it a white edge appears.
The safety margin is the opposite quantity: an inset that nothing important crosses. Text, logo and phone number should sit no closer than 3–5 mm to the edge, or they get trimmed.
Both values are set by the printer, not by the designer: they depend on the machine and the cutting method. They have to be asked for before the artwork starts, not at delivery.
A separate case is anything folded or die-cut. There a creasing tolerance is added to the bleed, and elements sitting hard against a fold shift noticeably more once it is folded.
Resolution and raster elements
Print usually asks for around 300 dots per inch at final size. The key words are "at final size": an image at 300 dots per inch, scaled up twice, becomes 150.
The most common mistake is a picture downloaded from a website. It was made for a screen, and on paper it shows squares along the edges of contrasting objects and mush in fine detail.
For large formats the rule differs. A banner viewed from ten metres is printed at lower resolution because the eye cannot resolve the detail anyway. The requirement comes from the printer.
The logo and the text should not be raster at all. They live in vector, and that is exactly why the vector source is the most important file in a mark's handover.
Colour: why blue drifts to purple
A screen mixes colour from three glowing components, print from four inks. Their ranges differ, and some screen colours simply do not exist in ink.
The most visible example is saturated blue: in print it almost always drifts towards purple. The second is bright orange-red, which dulls. This is predictable and gets handled in advance.
The practical conclusion: brand colours are chosen not "by eye off a monitor" but from a swatch book where the printed and the screen version of one colour lie side by side.
If the colour is critical — the colour of packaging, say — a single ready-mixed ink is used instead of a four-ink blend. That costs more and behaves more predictably, and it is decided before the artwork.
Black: why there is more than one
Black in print is not one thing. There is single-ink black, which looks greyish over large areas, and rich black, mixed from several inks, which comes out deeper.
The rule is simple: small text is set in a single ink, because rich black on thin letters produces a coloured halo at the slightest misregistration.
Large solid areas are the reverse: they are made rich, or a black field next to a photograph looks faded. The exact mix is best asked of the printer, since it depends on the paper.
A trap of its own is black copied from a screen layout. It is often nearly black rather than black, and in print it becomes a muddy brown patch.
Fonts: outlines, embedding and substitution
The most expensive handover error is a file with the fonts not embedded. The operator does not have them, the software substitutes something similar, and the layout falls apart without warning.
There are two reliable answers. The first is embedding the fonts in the file, where the licence allows it. The second is converting the text to outlines, after which it stops being text and becomes shapes.
Outlines have a cost: a typo cannot be corrected in such a file. So two versions are kept — a working one with live text and a sent one with outlines — and never the other way round.
And check the licence. Some font licences permit passing the file to a supplier, some require the printer to hold their own copy. That is settled before sending, not after.
Transparency and effects
Shadows, glows and blending modes are computed on the fly on screen. In print they have to be flattened into a single image, and the result depends on exactly how the flattening was done.
The typical symptom is thin light lines appearing where transparent objects were, or a block of text turning raster and losing its crispness.
The safest approach is minimising effects in print artwork. What makes a page interesting on screen is usually achieved on paper by ink, stock and finishing.
If effects are needed, the flattening is done in advance at high resolution, and the result is checked by zooming in wherever transparency touches text.
The file format for the printer
Most printers accept a file in a dedicated print format with fonts and images embedded. It is predictable because it fixes all the content inside one document.
Within that format there are variants, and they are not equivalent: some keep transparency and layers, others flatten everything in advance. Which one is needed is the printer's call, and it is the second question after bleed.
Check separately that trim marks and bleed information made it into the file. Without them the operator cuts to their own understanding, which is the worst available scenario.
And do not send several versions "to choose from". One file goes out, with an unambiguous name, and the rest stay with you. A choice of three files almost always ends in printing the wrong one.
Proofing: when it is needed
A proof is a test print used to sign off colour before the run. It costs money and time and is not always justified, but there are cases where it cannot be skipped.
The first is packaging and anything that sits on a shelf beside itself. A shade drift between batches is noticeable precisely where two boxes lie side by side.
The second is photographs of people. Skin is the one subject where the eye notices a deviation of a few percent, and correcting it after the run is too late.
The third is a large run. The bigger it is, the cheaper a proof is relative to the risk, and the more expensive the error that has to be reprinted in full.
Material and finishing change the picture
The same ink looks different on coated and on uncoated stock: porous paper absorbs ink and dulls the colour, smooth paper keeps it saturated.
Lamination shifts colour too: matte mutes and lightens, gloss deepens. If the artwork was approved on a screen and printed under matte film, the result will be a surprise.
Finishing — foil, varnish, die-cutting — needs its own elements in the file, usually on a separate layer in a special colour. That is not the same as drawing the effect in the layout.
So the material is chosen before the design rather than after. Artwork built for gloss and printed on kraft is not "a different shade", it is a different job.
What to ask the printer before the artwork
The list is short and saves weeks. The bleed and safety margins. The required resolution for this format. The file format and its variant.
Then the colour profile for their press and paper, the permitted black mix, and the maximum total ink coverage: exceeding it causes set-off and spoiled sheets.
Separately, the time needed for approval and for printing, and what happens if the artwork is not accepted first time. A round of rework almost always eats more time than the printing itself.
And who on the printer's side reviews the file. A technologist who spent twenty minutes on the artwork saves both of you a run printed wrong.
The checklist before sending
The document size equals the finished item, bleed is added on every side, and important elements stand back from the edge by the safety margin.
Every image is at the required resolution at final size, all linked files are collected, and there is not one picture taken from a website.
Fonts are embedded or the text is converted to outlines, and the working version with live text is saved separately.
The colour mode and profile match the printer's requirements, small text is set in a single ink, trim marks are present, and there is one file with an unambiguous name.
Practical checklist
- Ask the printer for bleed, safety margins and the required resolution before starting.
- Check every image at final size rather than in a file list.
- Embed the fonts or convert text to outlines, keeping the working version separately.
- Set small text in a single ink and large solid areas in rich black.
- Agree the colour profile and the maximum total ink coverage.
- Send one file, with trim marks and an unambiguous name.
Questions and answers
How many millimetres of bleed should be left?
Usually 3–5 mm, but the exact value comes from the printer: it depends on the press and the cutting method. The same goes for the safety margin — the inset that text, logo and phone number must not cross. Both are requested before the artwork starts, not when the file is sent.
Why does print colour differ from the screen?
A screen mixes colour from three glowing components and print from four inks, and their ranges differ. Saturated blue almost always drifts to purple and bright orange-red dulls. That is why brand colours are chosen from a printed swatch book rather than off a monitor.
Do fonts have to be converted to outlines?
Embedding them in the file is enough where the licence allows it. Outlines are safer, but once converted the text is no longer text and a typo cannot be fixed. So two versions are kept: a working one with live text and a sent one with outlines.
What does artwork preparation cost at VITON13?
Design runs as packages: Brand Sprint at $120 over 1–2 working days with two revision rounds on the chosen direction; Launch Landing at $290 over 3–5 working days with two rounds after the first full layout; Product Identity System at $540 over 5–8 working days with three rounds across the system. Printed production and its artwork are the exclusion named on Product Identity System and are quoted separately.
When is a colour proof needed?
When the cost of an error exceeds the cost of the proof: packaging and anything that sits on a shelf beside itself, photographs of people where the eye notices a deviation of a few percent, and large runs that would have to be reprinted in full.