A Novice Guide in Poster Design and Printing

I am blessed that I have many friends who I consider "tech-savvy." When I was tasked suddenly by my company to design and print posters for a project I immediately turned to them for help. I am a creative person, and more or less I know my way around a computer. But poster design, poster printing, file formats, resolutions, "dpi's" and other terms like that make me look like an idiot. So from my experience, I have gathered the little packets of knowledge I gained from my friends and I am sharing them here with you. This is a novice's guide on designing and printing posters, just for you.

DESIGNING The first thing to consider in designing your poster is its dimensions. It will determine how much "space" you are going to be working with. Publishing or image editing software usually have default sizes that can really help you out. You should recognize some as "letter" or "legal" sizes. Fiddle with the settings and templates and you should see other dimensions like "A4" and "A5" sizes. Some applications even have a "poster size" which is really convenient. Usually you can see how big this is as determined by the length and width stated sometimes in inches, meters or in pixels. I use Inches since I am comfortable with that. Choose the size that best fits your purposes.

Next of course is the design itself. This is solely the realm of your imagination. Of course full color posters garner more attention than subdued ones. Try not to have too much text. Use short and direct words to convey your meaning. If you have images make sure that it contrasts with the background, and the text. Having everything the same color is a bad idea. Also, don't use templates. Custom posters are better and unique.

If you are lacking in the art and imagination department, hire someone else to do it. It might cost a bit, but it would probably better and faster if you let an expert do it. Simply communicate what you want to see clearly.

PRINTING Here is where I made mistakes. In color poster printing, I never really thought about the resolution of the design I was making. It took several days corresponding with the poster printing company before I discovered that my problem was because the image files I sent had very low resolutions. This causes "pixels" or squares to appear or to be glaringly obvious once it is printed.

Along comes "DPI" or dots per inch. After discussing poster prices with your printing company try and ask what value of resolution they usually deal with. For my poster printing purposes I discovered that a value of 300 dpi for the resolution is a safe bet. Be warned though that the file size for images on that resolution will tend to get big. Some may say you can get by on smaller resolutions, but I think it is better to have a large image that needs to be shrunk than a smaller image that will be stretched.

After that, just choose the paper that fits your purposes. Glossy paper is always a good choice for posters with images. If you are just dealing with color posters with text though, I guess lesser quality paper will do. Once you have chosen, you are all set to print posters. Finally, do not be afraid to ask questions. Do not be scared of all the techno-jargon being tossed around. The more you know, the better decisions you make. Better decisions save time and money.

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