what size to design in?

[...Gav]

Hi all,

I have just won a little contract to design a magazine advertisement. It will be leaflet size (which i believe is A6) but i have no idea what size to design it in in photoshop and what DPI to set it as.

Any help will be very much appreciated.

Gav

[zumojuice]

Well I'd design in InDesign if you can, but if not an A6 , 300dpi at least should see you right.

I'd ring up the magazine and get the actual dimensions and how they want it submitted. It might be they do soemthing odd and the size is slightly different to A6, therefore when they produce your advert, they'll just plonk it and squish it in or stretch it. Of course some magazines are shit and will do this anyway, but it helps to reduce it, if you know. Make sure you know if it's landscape/portrait too.

[ianm]

certainly wouldn't design ANYTHING in photoshop - use in design, illustrator or freehand for print material design, photoshop is a tool to work with photographs mate.

Are you sure the leaflet is A6? make sure with the people you'd be designing it for, there is no such thing as "leaflet size" as leaflets come in a ll manner of shapes and sizes A5, A6, 3rd A4, Tri fold A4, double fold A4 and then custom sizes.

[drewbie_wan]

agreed with what they said... indesign would be your best tool for the job... it will give you more control over your bleed sizes and margins and should by default be set at 300 dpi. just make sure any artwork you use is converted to cmyk. get in touch with the magazine, they usually have a spec sheet for all size ads they take.