: Preparing Print Docs — Recommended Reading Although I've been working as a designer for a number of years, I feel a little inexperienced in preparing documents for print (a lot of my past

@Gloria351

Forms folds and Sizes by Poppy Evans is an excellent book and it's relatively inexpensive.

I read it back to back and I also come back to it whenever I need something specific.

A bit about what the book chapters:


Copyright and proofreading
Color and Imaging
Type
Paper
Grid design
Binding and folds
Envelopes and folders
Packaging
Postar standars, Bar code standars
Printing and finishing
Green design
Online design (not the best... but who cares?)
Core design jobs


Very recommended!

Vote Up Vote Down

@Eichhorn212

Great question by the way. First off we're fortunate to live in an age where a properly built PDF will get you perfect prints (or near perfect) most of the time with most printers. Meaning the tools and processes are getting to a point where the designer typically does not need to worry (much) about the finer details of print production. So that out of the way...

The number one resource is a printer - talk with them and you can glean a ton of insight into the terminology, technology and processes of modern-day printing.

The next best resource is any online forums where printers might congregate. Back in the news-net days (NNTP - before forums) there was a great place called... comp.print I think. Anyway, tons of professional printers congregating there and talking shop. It was a fun place to hang out and learn. Probably where I picked up a good 80% of my print best practices knowledge.

And as you specifically asked for a book recommendation: I like Alan Pipe's Production for Graphic Designers which provides a good overview of... well, pretty much anything a graphic designer is likely to run into production-wise.

Vote Up Vote Down