Prepare your files for the best printing results!
'You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear!' Truer words have never been spoken when related to printing posters.The opposite is also true, great files print great posters. PosterBox wants to help you create the best poster printing files so we can print you high quality posters that'll make you go wow!
Handy tips on getting your posters looking great:
Page Size/Setup
Set your document to the correct poster size
One of the more overlooked aspects of poster design is correct poster/pager size. Setting your document to the correct poster/page size will help you while designing and eliminates size confusion when printing. In most programs, such as Word, Publisher, Powerpoint etc, the Page Size can be set in Page Setup usually located in the File menu. Take your time and explore your options and set your page to the poster size you want. You can use standard sizes such as A2, A1 and A0 or it is sometimes possible to create a custom poster size. Non standard but common poster sizes include 750 x 1000 for shopping centre display and 600 x 900mm for sidewalk stands.
Now that you have your poster set at the correct size when you place/import your images you will see their 'true' size. The more you enlarge your images the lower the print quality of your images. Try to avoid enlarging your images by more than 300%.
If your poster has not been designed at the correct size, don't panic, PosterBox can still print your posters. When ordering just ask us to enlarge your poster to the correct size. We can only enlarge your poster proportionally.
Poster Sizes/Dimensions
- A2 Posters - 594mm x 420mm
- A1 Posters - 840mm x 594mm
- A0 Posters - 1,188mm x 840mm
- B1 Posters - 1,000mm x 707mm
- B2 Posters - 707mm x 500mm
Colour
Colours to be CMYK and process
Your monitor, unless it is well calibrated, is unlikely to be able to produce a 100% accurate representation of the colours you have used in your poster design when printed. A quick overview of Colour Theory well help to explain why.
The colour that you see on a monitor is created using light projected, or additive colour model; whereas the colour created by a printed document is reflected light–the subtractive model.
When designing a poster you use a monitor which uses the additive colour model (Red Green Blue) to create the colour you see on screen. When printing the subtractive colour model (Cyan Magenta Yellow K Black) is used. The difference in the two models is highlighted by these images. When pure red, green and blue are added together in equal strength, white is created. Conversely when Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are mixed black is created–well a dark grey–and this is why printers use K (black) in printing. Colour can easily be taken for granted but if you were to investigate colour you would find countless years/decades of research and development, and that's just in the printing industry, all to make sure colours print consistently
So while the colour you have chosen looks great on the screen, eg a bright blue, it may not print as bright as you see it on your screen. It will still print blue but maybe just a little different to the blue you see on screen. Use your monitor as a guide only.
Graphic designers and clients who use software such as InDesign, Illustrator, Quark etc, colours in CMYK with all colours converted to process. If you have designed your entire poster in Photoshop, or require photos to be enlarged you may leave the file(s) in RGB.
Interested in more information on Colour Theory?
PosterBox uses the latest in poster printing technology to produce the best possible results from the files you supply.
Images and Graphics
PosterBox recommends a minimum of 150dpi at print size for all images.
A great image can make your poster design leap out at your audience. An image that looks great on screen though may not print as well as you hoped if it isn't the right resolution. Print resolution is referred to as DPI - Dots Per Inch. There are 2 factors to consider when checking the resolution of your images:
- the measurements of the image; that is, if printed at 100%, what size is the image?
- the DPI of the image
Why is this is important?
If you have an image who's measurements are 10 x 15cm at 300dpi, if you were to use this image and then enlarge it your design to 30 x 45cm the image when printed would be at 100dpi. Conversely, if you have an image at 72dpi (which is far too low for printing) which measured 1mtr x 60cm and you reduced the size of the image to 50 x 30cm the print resolution would be 144dpi. So you can see you need to know both the dpi and measurements of your image to make an informed decision about your images.
The ideal printing resolution for images is 300dpi at the size they are being printed, however with continued improvement in prepress processing images at 150dpi print nearly as well. PosterBox recommends minimum 150dpi at print size. Where possible images should be converted to CMYK.
If you are able to know both the dimensions and print resolution you will have a better idea of how well your images will print. Adobe Photoshop and similar programs can tell you your image's size and dpi. Want more info on image quality?
PDFs
For the best possible poster prints, we need you to supply your design files as a PDF.
If you don't have your artwork in PDF, see our handy creating print ready PDFs guide.