Frequently Asked Questions of Mystic Design and Print Clients

Color Wheel to answer Frequently Asked Question at Mystic Design and Print


High Resolution	Low Resolution

What is the difference between CMYK and RGB color?
RGB color space is used for monitors and TVs. When Red, Green, and Blue overlap they create cyan, magenta, yellow and white. The RGB color mode is capable of producing many more colors on screen than the Process (CMYK) color mode. This can pose a problem because many of the bright RGB images you may see on your computer simply can’t be reproduced on a press.
RGB color mode is converted to CMYK for printing because that is how printers output color.

CMYK Is the four process colors used for printing. Black is added as a key for the other colors and is referred to as K - hence CMYK. When screens of the four CMYK “process” colors are combined in a dot pattern on paper, the human eye merges them into one color.

What is Image Resolution and why does it matter?
Image Resolution is referring to the quality and size of the image, or DPI (Dots Per Inch). Images for the web are compressed and are not reccomended for use with print. High quality design demands high quality images. A low quality image is 72 DPI or less and a high resolution image is 300 DPI or more.

What is the Difference Between 72 DPI and 300 DPI?
Low Resolution images include 72 DPI (or Dots Per Inch) graphics captured from the internet,
or images taken on cameras not set to the highest quality. They will look fuzzy and pixellated.
NOTE: Enlarging small images reduces overall print qualiy.

High Resolution images should be 300 DPI for greyscale and CMYK images, 1200 DPI for line art. Line art or vector art is high resolution.

What is a Vector Illustration or Graphic?
Vector graphics produce an image scalable to any size and detail, the quality of the image is limited only by the resolution of the display. Printing the image to paper will usually give a sharper, higher resolution output than printing it to the screen but can use exactly the same vector data file.

Can I See What Fonts You Have Available?
We have hundreds of fonts. You are welcome to let us know what kind of font you’re looking for (simple, funky, bold, elegant, handwritten, old school, eroded, scary, etc.) or supply a sample of
a font that you like. We may not have the exact font, but we’ll have something close.

What is Safety Margin, Bleed, and Crop Marks?
Bleed is extending any color, photo, or design elements past the cut line. Bleed gives the print shop a margin of error when trimming, so that if the cut is a little off, the white of the paper won’t show along the edge.

Crop marks show the print shop where to make the cuts for your project, to finished size.
(bleed is removed)

Safety margin shows the outermost edge of where we can place important elements. If you put important information such as a song title or an important part of a photo right up against the crop line, some of it may get cut off. For that reason we keep verbiage and other important elements within the safety, 1/8” inside the crop marks.

What Kind of Proofs Will I Receive?
You will receive PDF proofs of your project, unless requested otherwise. If you do not have the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader you can Download Here. If you would like physical proofs there will be an additional fee (minimal depending on project request).

What Kind of File Types Are OK For Submission?
The preferred file type for submission of artwork is PDF. Native file types are ok, just please outline or package fonts and images before submission. Native Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop are acceptable. If you are just submitting images, jpgs are preferred, but we can take tif, eps, psd, and word files.

Missing Fonts
By far, this is the most common reason a job gets delayed at the start. It is recommended that
all fonts are outlined.

Missing linked images
Make sure you’re including all linked images. Each application has a different way to check this.
In QuarkXPress, use the Collect For Output feature. In InDesign, use the Package command. Illustrator has a Links menu, which will list all placed images in the document.

Image resolution is too low or supplied in RGB instead of CMYK
See explanation at the top of the page on Image Resolution.

Insufficient bleed or safety margins
See explanation at the top of the page on Safety Margins.

Failure to supply all parts of the job
Including but not limited to any verbiage, photos, etc. needed for the content of the project.