Preparing templates
Graphic templates are very useful tools because they provide a precise replica of the graphic space available on a real-world product and indicate where any folds, curves, seams and panel edges are located. This makes it easier for both the client and the production team to determine precise image and text placement.
With this in mind, many sign and graphic shops make graphic templates available for download through their websites for their clients, with each corresponding to a different display size and format. For clients who request custom displays, meanwhile, in-house designers prepare a custom template with the specific job’s needs in mind.
It is also helpful if shops can accept clients’ artwork files prepared with a wide variety of standard design software packages, from Adobe Illustrate to CorelDraw to QuarkXPress.
Inks will sink into the fibres of fabric panels.
Printing colours
A computer screen displays images in red, green and blue (RGB), which is an ‘additive’ colour space. Setting each of RGB to equal values of 100 per cent will yield white, while the complete absence of colour—i.e. black—is achieved by setting the same values to zero per cent.
Process printing, on the other hand, uses the ‘subtractive’ colour space of cyan, magenta, yellow and key/black (CMYK). In this case, setting each value to 100 per cent will yield black and reducing them to zero per cent will yield white.
This is important to understand when displaying colours in the real world. As light hits a printed substrate, it is reflected back at the viewer, who perceives the colour of the paper mixed with the colour of the illumination. Adding cyan ink to the paper, for example, will absorb or subtract other wavelengths of light, resulting in the viewer perceiving the colour of cyan. This is why the same printed graphic will look different from one substrate to another, even when the same CMYK values have been specified.
“Best practices for colour matching suggest using a physical printout of the final design to proof against,” says Kaitaz. “Keep in mind, due to variations in substrate type and colour and light source interpretation, it will not always be possible to match all colours exactly in CMYK. Ink is delivered in droplets that react to different substrates in different ways. A job may therefore also require the use of special spot colours.”
Achieving smooth images
The resolution quality of a graphic can also be affected by the nature of the substrate onto which it is printed.
Special finishing considerations for fabric panels include seams for sewing.
“With fabric graphic panels, the ink sinks into the fibres,” Kaitaz explains. “Image edges are softer and the tendency toward ‘pixelation’ at lower image resolutions is slightly reduced, due to the more forgiving nature of the fabric. Graphics printed on paper, on the other hand, will be sharply defined with crisper edges. By way of comparison, a 1 x 1-m (40 x 40-in.) image printed on fabric will have a minimum image resolution of 100 dots-per-inch (dpi), compared to paper, where the minimum recommended resolution for the same printed image at the same size will need to be at least 150 dpi to avoid the appearance of jagged edges.”
Hence the need for vector-based graphics where possible, to ensure images can be reproduced perfectly on everything from a 3-m (10-ft) wide fabric backdrop to a 3 x 6-m (10 x 20-ft) rigid display board. As vector graphics are digital images created by using mathematical points, rather than pixels, they can be scaled up from business card to billboard without any loss of quality or detail whatsoever.
Logos, for example, should always be provided in a vector-based format. So too should product names and descriptions be converted to outlines before the design files are submitted for printing.
Whether through colour matching or image adjustments, there is much sign shops can do for their clients to ensure their finished banner stands, exhibits, signs and other trade show displays meet or exceed their expectations.
Sherone Black is a freelance writer and graphic designer for Accenta, which designs and fabricates trade show displays and booths, pop-up displays and counters in Mississauga, Ont. For more information, visit www.accenta.com.
