Graphic Design

paddyc

Folks

I am currently making a few brochures / business cards for a mate, I am doing it in fire works.. okay now saving/exporting it as a jpeg and then printing it.....

now the problem is that the text always looks faded/edgy/jagged.... does this happen in Quark ?? and therefore is it beneficial to learn quark... or is it simply the printer we are using to print them.... thanks

Doc

Id say its your printer

DadaKopf

Ok, if you're doing the whole brochure in Fireworks, then just stop now. First of all, you should be using Photoshop for images and quark for the actual layout.

Text will always appear blurry if you do it through images unless you turn off the anti-alias. Then it just looks ****e.

With Quark on the other hand, the text will come out just the way you want it, sharp and clear. Just plonk it over the image.

So: for images, use Photoshop. For text and layout, do it all in Quark - unless you're doing some arty **** type stuff to the text itself.

If the text is still blurry when you print it out through Quark, it's your printer.

Figment

Check your resolution as well. Minimum of 300dpi for print.

A vector program is also good for page layouts and sharp text. Illustrator or freehand. Freehand has multi page support as well.

But for me the ultimate setup is Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign {which is just the dogs dangly bits as far as im concerned) to lay it all out .
Talk to your printer to see what he requires then output as pdf/or what ever the printer said but if he is good he would support pdf.
Also dont forget printing is a 4 colour process. Im sure you know this already but for anyone else reading this who is interested...

p

Yea, it's almost definitely the resolution.
300dpi is good as figment said.

That'll fix it.

Also, giving it a printer as a jpeg isn't teh best idea.

eps (for vector) or tiff (for raster) are probably your best bets.

g'luck,

- Kevin

beaver

It's almost certainly the fact that you're using Fireworks for text. Use Quark Xpress.

p

It's almost certainly the fact that you're using Fireworks for text. Use Quark Xpress.

I'm not too sure about that.

Ive seen print stuff done in fireworks where the text looked fine.

- Kevin

beaver

I see 25,000 copies of our newspaper every week If we drop Photoshop TIFFs into the final Quark docs that have small text it comes out fairly unreadable. In fairness, it's definitly a problem we've encountered with printers before.

If the text is large it's not much of an issue; on a business card you're talking about maybe 8pt - 12pt text. Too small.

DadaKopf

If the .TIF is extremely high resolution, then the text will come our fine, but that's in a large image, like an advertisement. However, advertisers worth their salt will do it up as a QuarkXpress file and include all images and fonts used.

Use Quark, for the love of God .