GCU Forum - New Print / Margin Preview

Cherie_131661 Senior Member artist Posts: 464	Re: New Print / Margin Preview Reply #45 - Feb 24^th, 2011, 5:43am Great idea, it's a nice addition to our helpful tools. This really comes in handy and gives a better perspective of how our cards are actually printed. Thanks! Cherie
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Jannina_152182 Junior Member artist Posts: 59	Re: New Print / Margin Preview Reply #46 - Apr 13^th, 2011, 2:19pm One thing that can help everyone is to use guides while creating your image. I use Gimp 2.6 and it allows me to drag guides onto the canvas. I set them each at 1/4 inch. This way, anything I create has all the important portions within the safety zone. This will help with having to constantly re-upload images. Jannina
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Doreen_137017

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Re: New Print / Margin Preview
Reply #47 - Apr 13^th, 2011, 2:46pm

Quote from Jannina_152182 on Apr 13^th, 2011, 2:19pm:

One thing that can help everyone is to use guides while creating your image. I use Gimp 2.6 and it allows me to drag guides onto the canvas. I set them each at 1/4 inch. This way, anything I create has all the important portions within the safety zone. This will help with having to constantly re-upload images.

Jannina

Good idea Jannina and Photoshop has those same guides. GCU offers templates which you'll find at the Wiki and even on the upload page which can be downloaded and used as well. After a 1000 cards or so, you can eyeball it and know you're good Grin

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Jannina_152182

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Re: New Print / Margin Preview
Reply #48 - Apr 13^th, 2011, 6:05pm

One thing that I noticed: on the templates that we can download, it is an even 1/4" all the way around. On the preview tool, it only has three sides with the guidelines. For example, a vertical card has the top, right and bottom margins with the guidelines. If we follow that, then anything we make "centered" has to shift to the left by at least 1/16th of an inch. Does anyone have any ideas on this? Should I make my designs slightly off-centered? In the final cutting it would look fine, but on the previews in the store, it might not. That could potentially cause me to lose customers.

I create cards with mandalas. I like them to be centered (balanced), so this does affect the feeling that I try to invoke. I wish I could show you what I mean, but most of my cards are in "approval limbo."

Thanks,

Jannina

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Websprinter_148078

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Re: New Print / Margin Preview
Reply #49 - Apr 14^th, 2011, 12:23am

Quote from Jannina_152182 on Apr 13^th, 2011, 6:05pm:

One thing that I noticed: on the templates that we can download, it is an even 1/4" all the way around. On the preview tool, it only has three sides with the guidelines. For example, a vertical card has the top, right and bottom margins with the guidelines. If we follow that, then anything we make "centered" has to shift to the left by at least 1/16th of an inch. Does anyone have any ideas on this? Should I make my designs slightly off-centered? In the final cutting it would look fine, but on the previews in the store, it might not. That could potentially cause me to lose customers.

I create cards with mandalas. I like them to be centered (balanced), so this does affect the feeling that I try to invoke. I wish I could show you what I mean, but most of my cards are in "approval limbo."

Thanks,

Jannina

Hi Jannina,

You'll have to test your mandalas to see if it is noticeable.

I've been shifting my new images 1/4 inch to the left on the lateral cards and 1/4 inch up on the horizontal cards. I think they look centered on the card displays. It is far better than having that bit chopped off in production. Shocked

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Ernestine_131365

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Re: New Print / Margin Preview
Reply #50 - Apr 14^th, 2011, 5:17am

Quote from Websprinter_148078 on Apr 14^th, 2011, 12:23am:

. . . I've been shifting my new images 1/4 inch to the left on the lateral cards and 1/4 inch up on the horizontal cards. I think they look centered on the card displays. It is far better than having that bit chopped off in production. Shocked

Have you ordered any of the cards you've shifted a full 1/4 inch? It seems to me that it would be too much for the card to remain centered. Just speaking from experience. 'e'

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Kathleen_137290

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Re: New Print / Margin Preview
Reply #51 - Apr 14^th, 2011, 8:49am

Websprinter, Shifting the image may not work well because if you look at the print/margin preview, the part of the card that is over the center line is very close to the same part of the card that is trimmed from the opposite side (about 1/8 inch). As Ernestine suggests, you may want to order two cards, one where you have shifted the image and one where you have not. I believe you will find that the card that was shifted will be off center.

Jannina, From my experience the printing process can always be off a smidgen so it is very hard to get the image to be perfectly centered. With your mandalas something you might try is to be sure that the mandala image edge (that you do not want cut off) is at least 1/4 inch from the edge of the card all the way around (centered on a 5x7) and add a background color (behind the mandala image) that matches or blends with the prominent color in the mandala design. That way if it is off a little bit when printed and trimmed, it will not be as noticeable.
On your cute little geisha card where you have planned for the design image to be cut off, be sure that you use those guides you mentioned and visualize that every part of the image that is between the guideline and the edge of the card may be trimmed.

Just sharing my experience so far in this fantastic world of card design.
Kati

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