Alison Leach - File Prep (Discussion Point 4)

Discussion Point: The digital desktop shifts the responsibility of preparing artwork for reproduction to the designer. Identify an area of file preparation you need to learn more about and provide an overview (200 word max) of the process and its significance. Post your response to the Studio Blog.

There were two areas I always got confused about with file preparation and they were the difference between CMYK and RGB printing, as well as page Bleed. Although most circumstances when printing the company has provided me a template which incorporates the bleed, crop marks and the correct colour space I found it difficult to correctly prepare a file from the beginning (Setup) to the end (Print).

I always use to rely on CYMK for majority of my print works but have slowly came to realise that digital outputs and digital printers require RGB colour spaces. In particular for my major work for Visual Arts I did two propaganda posters which were created through sketches, diaries, etching and photographs. I had no knowledge or understanding of different colour spaces and really should of spoke to my printer first, but finally when it came to printing the colours used in my digital works were slightly different to the way they were printed. However in the parts which were darkened, they were completely darker and affected how you could read through the layered imagery. A long lesson learnt i created my work in RGB and when it was printed it was printed in CMYK. Was not happy but was a big learning experience for me :)