Posters have long been used in the business world to help promote events, market companies, and boost profits. Whether you’re selling your artwork, creating unique gifts and personal projects, or looking to expand your promotional efforts, poster printing can help. But how does your initial idea for a poster turn into a high-quality printed product you can be proud of? Follow along to see how Guru Printers turns your digital design into a physical reality.
Creating the Poster Digital Files
Before posters can be printed, you need a properly formatted digital file. Many common errors and mistakes in poster printing happen at the file formatting step. Your poster file needs to be optimized for physical printing, but most digital editing software will default to optimization for screen viewing. If you’re making the digital file on your own, you’ll need to be sure you adjust a few settings to get the perfect physical print.
Color Spectrum
When you first make your poster, your file will likely be formatted for the RGB (red, green, blue) color spectrum. This spectrum is how screens create the array of colors you see on your computers and phones. But physical printers use the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color spectrum instead.
When you switch your image to the CMYK spectrum, it’s likely that your poster may look discolored and weird. If you had sent in your poster as-is, that’s how your final print would turn out. Switching over before you send in your poster allows you to adjust the colors to ensure you get the right vibrancy and hue you’re looking for. As an extra precautionary step, you should print a quick test page on regular printer paper to make sure the colors are right before you send in your digital file.
DPI
The DPI (dots per inch) setting will dictate how crisp and clear your images and text appear. A low DPI is standard for many images because screens can easily display smaller images at a higher resolution. But if you tried to expand on that and print larger-sized images with low DPI, your poster would become blurry and out of focus. To prevent this, make sure your DPI is set to a minimum of 300 and that all images are still clear once you do so. You may need to adjust the images you use if yours are too small to display properly at a higher DPI.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Bleed Area
While machines are more precise than humans, there’s still a small margin of error that can occur at any point in the poster printing process. When cutting the posters, shifting can cause the cut to alter slightly, trimming a bit off the edge of your design. If you don’t allocate proper bleed room for this error, you could lose important information or design elements. Adding a ¼” bleed area around the main design of your poster will help keep the integrity of your digital design as it turns into a physical print.
The Poster Printing Process
Once you finalize your poster file and send it in, the Guru Printers team can get to work on turning your digital design into a physical reality. This is a multi-step process we have streamlined using advanced industry techniques and equipment. While there are slight differences in the process for low-volume and bulk poster printing orders, they both follow the same general flow.
Machine Calibration
To ensure you get a perfect print, we must first calibrate our printers and cutters to fit the size and shape of your poster. Because we offer a variety of different sizing options for posters, we need to set up our printers allocate enough space for your digital design. By using one of the standard poster sizes we offer, this process is quick and easy. But we also offer customized printing that can create a poster outside of our typical guidelines if needed.
Physical Poster Printing
With the machines ready to go, we then print your digital design on the paper of your choice. We offer a range of paper weights and finishes that allow you to create a custom poster that fits your project parameters. The physical printing process also includes lamination and special effects printing, as requested. Knowing ahead of time what kind of paper and add-ons you’d like can help expedite the poster printing process even more. During the printing process, the calibrated machines also cut each poster to be the size and shape you initially picked out.
Shipping and Delivery
Once your posters successfully print, they’re ready to journey to your home or office. While Guru Printers does offer pick-up services for local orders, we also strive to provide quick and safe delivery around the world. By being located in a central urban area, we have a variety of shipping options available to match your budget and your timeline. We use safe and secure shipping methods that keep your posters well-protected no matter how far they have to travel.
Poster Printing with Guru Printers
Posters can provide a host of benefits for your personal projects or professional ventures. Whether you’re looking to promote an event or personalize gifts for friends, let Guru Printers help. Our high-quality poster printing services can turn your digital design into a physical reality. And with the help of our in-house designers, we can provide assistance with creating your digital design as well. First, fill out our online order form. If you have any questions or need help with your order, give us a call at (213) 371-9520 or send an email to [email protected].