136

A FEW MORE POINTERS THAT JUST HAPPEN TO BE.. .ESSENTIAL!

NOT WORKING to SCALE

RANDOM TIPS

The way we designed layouts in the past was to block out sections of a piece of design in the same way. We block out a design within a page size, create borders

paper, as below from Artistic Signs (1924), to incorporate all the various sizes of and then try to design the type to fit. I maintain that in the computer design age, all

needed text and graphic material. The next step was to sketch the letters space is relative and that it wastes time to work to a size—at least at first. After our

themselves, starting as pencil skeletons, and pray they all fit within their designated designs are finished, we can then adjust stroke weights, for instance, according to

sections before we ran out of room. Nowadays, some of us still approach computer the actual size our work will be used.

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Get art together and set

type, any size, any proportion, at
first. Then scale, stretch, squash
everything to size. Curve type with
OBJECT>Envelope Distort>Make
With Warp. Finally, scale all the
parts as a group to about the size
the work will be used.

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PREPARING ART for CLIENTS

Avoid disaster. Clients sometimes feel they have the right to make changes to our work since
they paid for it. Unforeseen computer errors also can result in altering our work in ways that may
later embarrass or infuriate us. By learning to properly prepare art, we can reduce later frustration.

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The fact is, any client with Illustrator or Photoshop skills can change our
work, but we can make it a bit harder for them to do so, and at the same time try
to prevent accidental mishaps. For example, the logo above at a, got scaled way
down, b, but the Scale Strokes & Effects box wasn't checked, so strokes didn't
scale. Plus, we forgot to Create Outlines of all fonts. The bottom type was sub¬
stituted with Helvetica. Yikes! If flawed files are our mistake, we may actually be
held liable by the client for reprinting or prepress correction costs. Yes, it's
happened to me, and to others! A few ways to avoid such situations in Illustrator
files are: Create Outlines of any fonts used, Outline Strokes, and unite all objects

with the same fill/stroke attributes that also share the same level or layer. These
processes simplify our files, sometimes bringing our own "construction" errors to
light. Above right at c, single outline type looks simple, but is actually four levels
of different stroke weights. At d, all strokes have been outlined and united by
level. It looks complicated, eh? That's the point! Clients will find it harder to
change art like this. And when we Outline Strokes, we can fine-tune funny stroke
problems that often show up. When possible, Paste Illustrator art into harder-to-
change Photoshop files to send to the client. Photoshop files are more WYSIWYG
than Illustrator, so you may discover errors and protect yourself, as well.

LOGO, FONT AND LETTERING BIBLE 1 37

PREPARING WORK for PRINT

OVERPRINT DUERPRIMT OUERPBl^ 1

VV (100%kX77%Y^10%M^38%C)

100% black (also called "solid" black) type or
art that will print on top of another color is best
designated to Overprint. (In Illustrator's menu bar,
go to WINDOW>Show Attributes). Now, instead of
just black ink on white paper, the black becomes
enriched by the underlying halftone color tints. Above
at a, black type set to Overprint should look richer
than at b, kept at the default setting to "K.O."
(knock out) all colors on lower levels beneath it.

Blacker blacks! In addition to making the
black ink seem richer or "blacker," overprinting
ensures that misregistration (when all press plates
containing different colors of ink are not printed in
precise alignment with one another) won't ruin the
appearance of our job. Above, a simulated example of
bad registration in which the black printing plate has
slipped downwards, leaving slivers of white paper
showing between colors.

Enriching solid black is usually done by
adding 40% cyan. Sometimes, 30% magenta is also
added. This is thought to be sufficient to avoid most
overprinting problems such as "show-through,"
which will be discussed next. Since printing regis¬
tration is rarely absolutely perfect, it is not advisable
to enrich smaller point-size black text type. Slightly
off-the-mark registration, which might go unnoticed
in larger type, a, can cause smaller type, b, to appear
unnecessarily muddy and blurry.

Show-through is when unenriched solid black
overprints other colors, therefore becoming undes¬
irably and unevenly "enriched," as seen above at a.
Any color that overprints others, such as the magenta
ring, also at a, may suffer from show-through. At b,
none of the colors were set to overprint. The black
type has a fill of 40C/30M/0Y/100K. Our monitors
and ink-jet printers don't reveal overprinting and
show-through issues to us. We must anticipate
printing problems and plan our work accordingly.

Instead of overprinting, we can enrich
the black type itself by including in its fill the same
tints as contained in the underlying art. Some de¬
signers, however, go for the kill, assuming the boldest
black will result from mixing 100% of cyan, magenta
and yellow with 100% black. Some printers say this is
too much ink coverage and that it muddies the black
and delays drying. Though it is not neces-sary to do
this, I think it's OK to do in small areas.

Without trapping With overprinted trap stroke

Trapping involves making a color slightly over¬
lap its neighbor to provide leeway if print registration
is poor. Adobe Illustrator can trap objects using
Pathfinder pallet options. Or trap manually by adding
to a filled object a 0.25-point stroke of the same color
and setting the stroke to Overprint in the Attributes
pallet. Trapping is more important when using PMS
spot colors, which usually are not mixed together as
tints, than with CMYK, where well-planned fills may
obviate traps.

Spread the lighter color, rather than
the dark, by adding an overprinting stroke. The
impact of misregistration will be less noticeable if the
lighter color encroaches upon the darker. When
assigning a stroke for trapping and setting it to over¬
print, remember that only half the stroke counts. The
other half falls within the object area. So if a 0.25-
point trap stroke is suggested by your printshop,
assign 0.5-point strokes. Many printshops will auto¬
matically add trapping "in-line," so we don't have to.

Avoid traps by mixing each four-color halftone
tint with a little bit of the adjacent neighbor's colors,
a. For example, when both background and fore¬
ground objects contain some percentage of magenta
halftone, if registration goes awry, a sliver of less
obtrusive magenta, rather than white paper, b, will
show. Approach a is felt to be preferable to b, but the
best approach may be to choose a better printshop. I
usually make traps only for PMS-color jobs or any job
where I, not my client, deal with the printer.

RGB for web, CMYK for print. Be

sure your Illustrator files designed for print do not
contain any RGB colors, or that the Document Color
mode is not RGB. When negs are made by a service
bureau or printshop, art in RGB—unless it's
discovered and fixed—can come out looking like
gray scale. Also avoid PMS colors and spot colors in
four-color CMYK jobs, because they indicate to a
service bureau output device that we want additional
ink plates to be used for that job.

This is only a test. At a, how dense must a halftone screen tint be
for the press to hold the image? At b, what is the finest point size of line
that can be printed without dropping out? At c, for your edification and
mine, a comparison of blacks with and without enrichment. Results of this
test will vary according to size of screen, paper stock and press used. This
book uses a 200-line screen. Screens of 100—150 lines are most common.

5%

4%

3%

2%

1%

b .02.05 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6

100% S black 40C-SK

40C-30M-SK SC-SM-SY-SK