If you are involved in creating the artwork that needs to be printed, then in order to help you get a better outcome you will need a new understanding the basics of the image resolution. There is nothing to worry about, as this is often based on the simple concepts. This is also not so complex that people use to assume about it. So, stick to the basics, and things will appear less painful for you.

What is the resolution?

Whenever you are looking at the images in the computer, you are exactly looking at the grid of several tiny dots that are also known as the pixels. In the same way, when the photographs are printed, they also comprise of several small dots of the ink that is used for the printing purpose. Well, the resolution of the image often refers to these small dots or known as the pixels which are often squeezed into just one area. In case of smaller dots, you can fit them easily into the horizontal inch and this will make the image look really sharper before you.

If you zoom into any photo, which appears on a computer screen, then you can see these dots or the pixels easily that often creates the whole image. This is even more noticeable if you look closely at a newspaper, even better if you look at it through a magnifying glass.

It’s the resolution for an image can be measured trough the dots appearing per inch and it is known as the dpi (dots per inch). It is also known as the pixels per inch or the ppi, Although dots per inch is still the most common terminology. Well, the ppi and the dpi often refer to the same sort of thing. However, it’s simply the dots and the pixels and the amount of them when combined to create an image are measured.

The images we are viewing on the computer screen should have the dpi of 72 so that they can appear as sharper as well as clear, this is the same resolution used for TV screens and Mobile phones as it is deemed to be a goo resolution for viewing images. The images loaded with low resolution often results into the bigger pixels or the dots. This sort of pixel or dot is often detected with naked eye. This may generate a fuzzy type of image. If the same sort of image is taken in order to reproduce it on the paper while using a printing process that is used for commercial purposes, then the resolution should be 300 dpi. This can only produce a quality image and better outcome.

As far as the printed image is concerned, it often requires higher resolution with comparison to the on screen image. So, if you are having an image that appears to be sharp and clear on screen, it doesn’t mean that it can be reproduced perfectly when it will be printed!

This image was given above has the resolution of 72dpi.
That’s why it is looking sharp as well as crisp on-screen.

Now the image you are looking at is the reproduction of the above image after printing. This has been done through commercial printing methods. This appears to be fuzzy with comparison to the first one.

The only way to make it look sharp and clear is to increase its resolution. Reducing its size to the level at which this has been reproduced can offer better outcome.

Can I improve the image’s resolution?

As per the basic, the resolution of the image is often determined when it has been created for the first time. You cannot really enhance the resolution of the image that exists. In case you are trying to enhance the resolution for an existing image with the help of the computer, it may generate new pixels and these new pixels will acquire the color of the old pixels that surrounds them. This will further result into the blurry image and the ugly color blocks will appear on the image.

If you can reduce the size of the image and make it small on the computer, then the resolution of the image can be enhanced. Keep in mind that for an image the resolution as well as its size is inversely proportional. So, while trying to enhance the size of the image, its resolution will go down and when you will make it smaller in size, the resolution will go up. You might have seen it while zooming the images on computer in and out. If you have an image of 300dpi that measure it in this way – 100m x 100m, then the resolution of the image will drop to 150dpi if you are trying to reproduce it with 200m x 200m.

There are image editing tools and software that people are using which are enough capable of showing you the size as well as the resolution of the image. Well, as a user you can use this sort of information in order to measure how much you can enlarge or you can reduce the size of the image in order to achieve a proper resolution that is of 300dpi.

Here is an example of an image set-up for A5 landscape printing. The width is 210mm wide x 148.5mm high, and the resolution is set to 300dpi.

With this you can view as well as adjust the size of the image. This also helps in adjusting the resolution of the image. While using Photoshop, you can perform all these operations elegantly. Most of the image editing tools will exhibit the same sort of functionality.

Without printing at 300dpi, the end result will only be compromised, so getting as close as possible to this goal is very important, a resolution lower than 200dpi is likely to print poorly unless you are using it as an effect or background then you will need to try and get your resolution between 240 and 300dpi.

Full colour printing is achieved is a mixture of dots in order to create any colour. The percentage of CMYK colours used within this mixture then determines the colour which is printed. This technique works perfectly well until its used on thin lines or thin fonts.

Lets say you want to create a grey which is 33% black. This is formed by using a percentage of black and white dots. So for every solid black dot there is also 67% of white intermittent dots used to visually create the appearance of grey.

This high percentage of white dots means that a lightweight or small font or even a thin line can affect the overall finished result, and can cause the font to look weak or or broken up.

The only way to counteract this problem, is to print the grey as a special ’spot colour’ or to
increase the font thickness so when the white dots are used to create the grey it doesn’t
end up eating away at the font. So tinted fonts which are either thin, small or very ornate will always struggle to look good, and are probably best avoided.

Another way of avoiding this line breakup would be to alter the resolution and use use finer dot with the screen ruling on the plates. Smaller, finer dots would visually help this problem to not look too bad. But that’s another story, maybe we’ll write a blog to explain it another day.

UCR and GCR are the two industry standard black ink methods used for CMYK or full colour printing. UCR is short for Under Colour Removal. UCR separations use the K (or key colour black) ink only for neutral or near-neutral colours.

This is generally the method used by most newspapers and printed magazines. The K channel (or black) is ramped up to ensure clean, dark black especially for text. This high level of black ink deletes any GCR separation.

UCR is used for printing of large catalogs when colours that are both dark and have a high saturation. GCR is an abbreviation for Gray Component Replacement. The black ‘K’ is used in colours which are further from the neutral axis. There are some benefits to using GCR colour split separations, making them the most popular for non-newsprint work. First, because most of the lesser colours will be controlled by the black plate, this allows the greys to be kept balanced. Plus as more of the CMY inks are swopped by K, this covers any small errors for the registration. Finally, and is usually the case – black ink is cheap use more black than the CMY works out more cost effectively and some large cost savings can be made over a 12 month period.

If you’re creating artwork for print, you’ll only get decent results if you’ve got a basic understanding of image resolution.

Don’t worry, it’s actually quite a simple concept – nowhere near as complex as some people seem to think. So stick with me here, I’m going to try to make this as painless as possible…

What is resolution?

As you probably know, when you view a photograph on your computer monitor you’re actually looking at a grid of tiny dots or ‘pixels’. Similarly, when a photograph is reproduced in print, it is made up of thousands of small dots of ink. Resolution refers to the number of these dots (or pixels) which are squeezed into a given area.

The smaller the dot, the more dots you can fit into a horizontal inch, and the sharper an image will appear to the human eye (up to a point)

If you zoom into a photograph on your PC monitor you will be able to see the grid of pixels which make up the image.

The grid of dots which make up a printed photograph can be seen using a magnifying glass

The resolution of an image is usually measured in dots per inch (dpi). Essentially dpi is simply the number of dots or pixels which make up an image.

 If you view an image on your computer monitor its resolution will need to be at least 72dpi to appear sharp and clear. A lower resolution will result in large pixels which will be detected by your eye, resulting in a fuzzy or ‘pixelated’ image. However, if the same image were reproduced on paper using a commercial printing process it would need a resolution of around 300dpi to achieve a sharp result. 

A printed image requires a much higher resolution than an on-screen image (4 times greater to be precise). Therefore, just because your image looks sharp and crisp when viewed on-screen, it doesn’t mean it will reproduce correctly when printed.

The image at the top of this article has a resolution of 72dpi. It looks sharp and crisp when viewed on screen.

If the same 72dpi image were reproduced in print using a commercial printing press, (see left) it would appear fuzzy and pixielated. The only way to improve its appearance and increase its resolution would be to reduce the size at which it is reproduced

If your document has the correct 3mm bleed then it will show as it is seen past the crop marks. With a minimum of 3mm bleed allows us to ‘trim to colour which avoids any white ’slithers’ which may appear when the items are guillotined after printing. See here how the document looks with ‘crop marks’ but without any bleed.

Then see here (indicated in green) where the background colour or image must exceed the bleed edge in order to allow for it to be trimmed off. Also notice that the crop marks are offset, i.e. they don’t join, they need to be like this so they don’t print. If they joined together then its likely that they would been seen on the final printed article as they would print inside the bleed area. Please allow at least 3mm offset for the crop marks.

When you need to supply your artwork in pagination or printers pairs. The most simple way to work these out is to make a mock up of your intended booklet using blank paper and simply write the numbers on the pages. Start with Page 1 being the front cover and then continue numbering until the last page or back cover is the last number. Nearly all booklets are constructed out of 4 pages, or multiples of 4 pages.
For example, a four page booklet is one piece of paper folded in half, the outside pages when viewed as a flat sheet would have Page one is the front cover, Page 2 is the inside left hand page, Page 3 is the inside right hand page, and Page 4 is the back cover or last page.
Please refer to the example below.

You’ll see I have worked out an 8 page and a 12 page booklet for you, you can work out bigger booklets Eg: 16 page, 20 page etc by simply doing as I suggest and make one up with blank paper and write the page numbers on, lay the sheets flat to see your printers pairs.

Solid areas of colour in particular solid black, can pose a problem if its not been set up correctly.

Most artwork we see is set up with full colour black, which means that the black is made up from within the full colour set, there will be a percentage of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

This is fine if the whole colour make up is less than 200%, Eg 50% or less of all C,M,Y,K colours.

If 200% colour density is exceeded, then the paper its being printed onto will become saturated that its unlikely that the ink will dry properly. Should this be the case then this will cause 'set-off', which is where the ink transfers from one print to another, which is a huge problem.

With regards to solid black areas, the crucial colour is obviously black, more often than not solid black areas have the black set to less 100%  which means it will never achieve full 100% black.

If a black solid area only consists of black ink only then the result can be quite dull and becomes a matt black, even on gloss paper.

So other colours can be added into the mixture can help to ‘deepen’ the black, this is whats known in the trade as ‘Rich Black’ and needs to be made up of the following.

For a deep black, 100% Black (K), 50% Cyan (C), there is some room for a small percentage of magenta here too but never any yellow!. Yellow can make the black appear grey as it lightens it. On screen this will look fine, but if any percentage of yellow is added then this will water down the black, similar to adding white to it, so try to avoid yellow being present if at all possible

Well this is a strange one, the name indicates a leaflet which folds ‘tri’ or 3 times doesn’t it?, well no not exactly. This term is usually used to describe an A4 leaflet which folds twice to 1/3 A4. It can also be called an 6pp DL, this means a leaflet with 6 panels, for example if you fold down an a4 leaflet to a 3rd of an A4, then you will have six panels in order to add your design. This kind of works a min brochure, a very cost effective way of having a multi-page mini booklet printed out of one sheet.

There are two ways of folding a tri-fold leaflet, either a 'Z' fold or a ‘Roll Fold. The 'Z Fold' is when the document folds back on its self like a concertina effect, and the ‘Roll Fold’ is when the panels are folded over each other, and then folded inwards.

The most common paper type for this kind of leaflet is around the 150gsm or 160gsm, as this thickness doesn’t need to be scored before folding. Scoring is done as a precaution like a pre-fold,  which stops thicker material form cracking when it goes through the folding machine.

For a roll folded leaflets the In order to create artwork for a A4 folded to DL, or 6pp DL leaflets you need to divide up the 6 panels, creating 3 vertical panels each side. Imagine the document is flat A4 landscape, and you are looking at the outer cover side, so what you see is document which is 297mm wide x 210mm high (without bleed). Measured from the left to right, the left hand panel is 97mm wide, the centre panel (back cover) is 100mm wide and the right hand panel (front cover) is also 100mm wide.

The opposite is then the case on the other inside spread. Again reading from left to right. The Leaflet hand panel (inside front cover) is 100mm wide, the centre panel (inside of back cover) is also 100mm, then the right hand panel is 97mm. By having the flap panel slightly shorter on its width allows it to slide within the fold neatly without obstruction. The term ‘roll folded leaflets‘ is trying to describe the way in its its folded, the ‘flap panel’ is rolled over the next panel and then the next panel before its flat folded.

Don’t forget to add ‘bleed‘ to these measurements.

When artwork is created and made ‘print ready’, in almost all cases bleed is required. This is an additional area added (normally 3mm on all edges) to the finished size of your document. It allows either the finishers or even the guy who guillotines the final job down to size when its completed, a little room for maneuver.

If you have ever seen a finished printed item with a very fine white line on one of the edges, this usually means that bleed was not allowed for and when the final job was cut, it left a white strip along the edge. This doesn’t mean that the guillotine is not accurate, but when several hundred items are being cut at any one time – the guillotine only has to be out by a fraction of a millimetre and the white edge will appear.

So it’s best to add a 3mm edge to your artwork on all edges. Every image or background colour which reaches the final cut size of your document, needs to bleed over the edge, so that when its cut no white areas are showing.

If you are experiencing problems with bleed edge with your artwork, give our studio a call and we can give you advice or maybe even add bleed for you.

For other information and paper sizes see our Artwork Specifications page on the website.