Common Printing Mistakes

Mistakes happen. That’s a fact of being human. Mistakes happen for many reasons: lack of understanding, inadequate time or timeframe, not paying attention, or hundreds of other things. When it comes to mistakes, the most you can hope for is to learn from the ones you’ve made and to try not to make them again.

Since we’re in the printing business, we thought it would be helpful to share some of the most common printing mistakes we’ve seen and how you can avoid them when you start a new print job or project.

1. Poor image resolution. We see this issue come up a lot. Just because an image looks crisp and clear on your desktop or printout in the office doesn’t necessarily mean it will be crisp and clear on a large printed item. To ensure your images do look their best, make sure you are using the highest resolution possible. We recommend 300 ppi or higher, at minimum.
2. Spelling errors. Typos and misspellings are easy to miss and expensive to fix. If a type of misspelling is found after your print run is complete, the printer will need to do an entire new run, which can double your costs. Ensure you have at least two people read through the project before sending it the printer. Once you receive a proof, have two more people look it over before approving to print.
3. Designing in RGB. RGB colors are only good for things viewed on a screen. If you’re designing something to print, make sure you design with CMYK colors. You can check the colors in any program that’s used to edit or create graphics, like Photoshop.
4. Not having a bleed. Having a bleed means your image extends to the edge of a document, leaving no white margin. This ensures that once an item is printed and cut, no edge will be unprinted. If you send an item to the printer with no bleed, you could end up with a poster or card with white edges – something you didn’t design for. We recommend having a 1/8” – 1/4” inch bleed on all projects.

These are just a few of the common printing mistakes we see here at BPC. While working with you on your projects, we’ll ensure we do absolutely everything we can to avoid these and any other common printing mistakes we see.