Posters are a great way to promote your business and can be used to generate interest for your special promotions, events or campaigns. A graphic designer can help you come up with a poster design that is just right for your brand.
But whether your business chooses to use a designer or decides to go it alone, it is always useful to be across design terminology. Check out these tips for creating posters to help you get the best end result.
Your Guide to Creating Posters
Poster Size
Decide on the right size for the posters you want to display. The most common poster printing sizes are A2 (594mm x 420mm), A3 (420mm x 297mm) and A4 (297mm x 210mm).
Poster Colour
It’s important to work in CMYK to give you a more accurate representation of how your colours will print. If you’re working producing your own design and working in Photoshop then switch to CMYK via the Image>mode>CMYK colour menu command.
Poster Resolution
To avoid a blurry poster you need to set the right resolution. This means getting your Dpi (Dots per Inch) just right – which for posters is 300dpi. To achieve this in Photoshop create a new document File>new and enter 300 in the Resolution box.
Poster Bleed
Bleed is an intentional design element where you extend the ink past the crop marks around the edge of your poster design (usually 3-5mm). By doing this you can avoid any errors and ensure there is no white line on the edges of your printed poster.
Poster Trim
Trim size refers to the actual size of your poster. Your crop marks indicate where to cut at the edges of the paper but these are then trimmed after printing. Any text, images or logos should be placed at least 3-4mm away from the trim edge to make sure they’re not chopped off in the final process.
If your business has handled the design side of things, you can supply your files to your printer as PDFs or tiffs with no compression. They can also advise you on the right paper stock to print your poster on.
Kwik Kopy can design and print high quality posters that suit your budget and business needs. For more information, speak to the team at your local Kwik Kopy today.
