From the Web to the Printing Press

In the early days of the web, converting printed marketing material into web material was a big concern for many companies. They had plenty of traditional print oriented marketing pieces ... but to their chagrin, they often found that their wonderful looking CMYK Illustrator-created graphics, customized fonts and Photoshop EPS files didn't exactly convert well to the web. Web-unsafe colors, browser compatibility issues and a host of other problems cropped up, and were eventually solved by these Internet pioneers.

Ten years later, the process has become reversed as many web-only businesses are discovering that traditional printing has a place in their marketing plans.

Business cards, brochures and print ads can provide a spectacular boost to an Internet venture. Hybrid marketing (using both electronic and traditional print) is being used effectively by many companies that were previously online only.

Which brings up the problem of converting a web based document into a print based one. It can be done, but it isn't always a simple matter of throwing all your graphics into a Word file and sending it to the local print shop.

The following information may not make the job easier, but it will help ensure that the final printed piece looks as good on paper as your website does on screen.

Web to Print Tips

Color. The color on your screen is not necessarily the color that will end up on your printed material. The whole process is very complicated, but in a nutshell, print and the web use two very different color schemes ... and converting the two is not always simple. If you have a web-safe color used consistently throughout your site (your corporate color, as it were), the print equivalent will be a Pantone (PMS) color, or spot-color. Ask your printer to lend you a PMS swatch book, and compare it to the color on your screen. It will not be dead on, but it should give you a close match between indexed color and Pantone. Note the PMS color, and use it in your print pieces. Similarly, RGB on screen is converted to CMYK on the printing press. If you are sending any scanned photos, make sure that they have been converted. If you are using RGB colors in your document, convert them to CMYK. They will not be exact matches, but they will be usable by your printer or service bureau.

Type. Type that works well on the web may not work as well for your print piece. Verdana, for example, is a web-font. It can be used in print, but it was originally designed as a font that is easy to read on the screen. It may look good on your site, but a different sans-serif may be more appropriate for your printed material. The same goes for Times. On the web, it is a safe bet due to the different browsers in use (and the different fonts on various systems) ... almost everyone has a Times equivalent on their machine, so you know that using it will ensure a level of consistency, no matter who is viewing your page. In print, however, using Times can convey a lack of originality and professionalism. Check out different serif font choices, and choose one that is suitable (better yet, get professional advice from your printer or designer). Don't use more than two font families. As well, ask your printer if they prefer TrueType or Postscript fonts, and how to tell the two apart. Choose one or the other - don't mix them or you may have problems when the job goes to film.

Graphic size. Dots-per-inch (dpi) and lines-per-inch (lpi) are often misunderstood concepts. A graphic on your screen only needs to be 75 dpi ... any more and you are wasting bandwidth. The same resolution graphic on paper looks fuzzy and bitmapped. That's because print requires graphics that are 200 to 300 dpi. The exact resolution depends on the lines-per-inch specs your offset printer is using. A rule of thumb is to take the lpi and multiply it by 2 to get the required dpi. If your printer is running the job at 133 lpi (standard for newsletters, brochures and business cards), your graphics should be scanned at 266 dpi. You can often get away with a resolution as low as 200 dpi (depending on the photo). On the other hand, some printers ask for a minimum of 300 dpi. How do you get your 75 dpi web graphic up to 266 dpi? Don't sample it upwards (that is, take your photo or logo into a graphics program and simply change the dpi setting) ... the results is often a bigger, fuzzier version of your original. Instead, you should rescan the original graphic, or resize the original stock photo. If you can't do either of these, make the printed version smaller. A 5-inch by 5-inch photo at 72 dpi will safely print at around 1 1/2 by 1 1/2, give or take a few fractions of an inch. Not an ideal solution, but sometimes you do what you have to do.

Inkjet printer vs. Offset printing. Don't assume that because a job printed with no problems on your inkjet printer that there will be no problems when you send it to the local print shop. In order to run a job on an offset press, film is generated from a computer file . The process by which this film is created is, to put it bluntly, something best left to professionals. Font conflicts, type flow problems, corrupted graphics, trapping, overprinting and a dozen other issues can turn your perfect document into a nightmare in the prepress stage. Always confer with your printer before you send your files (or before you even create your files). Listen to what they tell you. They are not trying to make your life difficult ... a properly formatted file will go a very long way towards ensuring a smooth print job.

In the end, a little bit of planning can prevent some major headaches when your files leave the cyber world of the web and enter the realm of ink and paper. Plan ahead, know the differences between the two processes, and you'll end up with great printed marketing material to supplement your Internet efforts.