These days with modern print technology, the printing process is relatively easy. What’s complicated is the artwork from which to print from. Poorly constructed and low quality artwork severely affects the visual quality and impact of a print, no matter how good a print machine is, it really comes down to quality of artwork.
Print works visually much the same as a computer screen, if you’ve ever seen a picture that is pixelated on a computer monitor it means that the picture is too large for the amount of information it contains, it’s just making do with what it’s got and ‘stretching’ pixels to fit the size require.
All digital artwork and pictures are made up from information /data, if there isn’t enough information for the desired print or display result, then it will look low quality.
We avoid printing any low quality artwork as it is visually unappealing and makes an otherwise good quality product look cheap.
We strongly recommend vector graphics/artwork to be used wherever possible. Vector graphics are constructed in computer programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, there are also many other programs that do the same job. Vector artwork is made up from lines and nodes, a line is drawn between two nodes and is either straight or curved, a series of nodes and lines continue to create a path and a series of paths will complete a drawing. Unlike pixel based artwork/pictures (artwork created in a program like Adobe Photoshop or pictures taken with a digital camera) , vector artwork can be scaled to any size without any loss of clarity. It will always have smooth lines and solid consistent fills with colours.
Vector based computer programs are getting more complicated as computers increase in power and depending on the skill of a graphic artist some vector based drawings look like they were taken with a camera. Digital printing technology is also advancing and the print from well constructed vector artwork and high end digital cameras is truly amazing.
If you’re unsure about your artwork, send it to us and we’ll recommend you how to get good print results. We can convert low quality pixel based images into high quality scalable vector artwork at a reasonable price.