Article sent by Bithika Trivedi from Camerareadyart.co.uk.
The article’s main aim is to bring forth clarity on Artwork redraw. In the following lines I give brief introduction about Artwork Redraw its various formats & printing process, this will then be followed by a detailed article on each of these to help you know everything about Artwork.
Having the best promotional product campaign in hand is not enough. An eminent part of it is getting the right artwork for the product. There is a dizzying array or details surrounding the preparation of artwork. For instance if you have chosen a t-shirt as your promotional product; what will be best artwork which will come out well on it depends on numerous factors:
– Artwork design
– Material on which the artwork will be printed
– Mono job, process job, spot colour job or process with spot colours
– Type of printing process
The first question that came to me when I started my journey of understanding Artwork was how do you know if the Artwork is ready for printing? You can check it yourself.
1) Check the format of the file
a. If it is jpeg, gif & bmp then it cannot be used for printing.
b. If it is ai, cdr, eps, cmx, dxf, wmf/emf, it can be used in printing depending on the printing method/process.
2) Secondly you can also open the Artwork file in any image application like Paint, Photoshop & zoom the image by say 100/200 times. If you see the edges of the image breaking up & it appears pixilated, then you need to get the image Redrawn. Such images are ‘Raster form of image’. However if you see the edges remain fine on zooming; it is a Vector image.
Now it is the printer who needs to check the file for you. Based on the printing method the file format more suitable is requested from you.
There were also times when the color of the art on my laptop and the one printed used to look different. And I used to tell my printer that you have used the wrong color tone, it was later I understood the difference.
The laptop uses the RGB color mode whereas printing on paper is done thru CMYK or PMS printing. So there is a difference in what you see on the laptop and the paper.
Red, Green, and Blue are “additive colors”. If we combine red, green and blue light you will get white light. This is the principal behind the T.V. set in your living room and the monitor you are staring at now.
Additive color, or RGB mode, is optimized for display on computer monitors and peripherals, most notably scanning devices.
Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are “subtractive colours”. If we print cyan, magenta and yellow inks on white paper, they absorb the light shining on the page. Since our eyes receive no reflected light from the paper, we perceive black… in a perfect world!
The printing world operates in subtractive colour, or CMYK mode.
In practice, printing subtractive inks may contain impurities that prevent them from absorbing light perfectly. They do a pretty good job with light colours, but when we add them all together, they produce a murky brown rather than black. In order to get decent dark colours, black ink is added in increasing proportions, as the colour gets darker and darker. This is the “K” component in CMYK printing. “K” is used to indicate black instead of a “B” to avoid possible confusion over Blue ink.
If you have any questions on these topics, feel free to write to me at bithika@camerareadyart.co.uk
In the next article we will discuss about printing methods and the file formats required for it.
CameraReadyArt.co.uk specializes in converting any image/graphics into vector art (logo redraw services). CRA pioneered the online vector art concept and we are the first company to offer this service outside of vendor art departments. With its in-depth industry know-how & 9500+ customers, CRA is a preferred art developer for promotional product industry.
Visit us www.camerareadyart.co.uk for more details.