Design for printers

[garyscottadamson]

I've designed some things in fireworks that are for print, however after sending them to the printers they've come out fuzzy around the edges despite looking fine on the screen.

I believe that this is happening because fireworks has rendered them for Web rather than print. I've tried using the original PNG file along with a 100% quality [exported] JPG. I've had the same fuzzy results.

Does anybody have any sugesstions? Would I have to re-design the things again in a program designed for print.

Thankyou, Gary

[Toon]

I would start again in Indesign. There's no way anything rendered at web level will be high enough for print quality

[Nawairi]

Hello my name is Ron.
I have never used fireworks. But i know it is a bitmap software. and printing with bitmaps can be a pain was wondering if you rasterized the images or graphics you used if so that will cause a fuzzy border. In the software it will give you the option to vectorize your graphics i highly suggest doing this. Vectored images print perfectly every time. If you do not understand the difference of bitmap or vector let me know. And if the option is availible try saving your file in TIFF format it has a higher file size but prints better. Do some research on these and if you can get CorelDraw10 or higher it is an amzing software for designing work for print. Oh ya one more thing try boosting the resolution before printing a good start point is 300dpi and higher the image will look bigger but it will print to the image size specified and will reduce any fuzzy edges.

[rick22]

easy way out... just take a screen shot and then print man... :D

[garyscottadamson]

thanks for your advice. I ended up vecotrising everything in Corel. Then I had the pain of transfering everything from RGB to CYMK.

The lesson that I've learnt from this is that designing for print is COMPLETELY different to designing for web.

[Toon]

Originally Posted by garyscottadamson

The lesson that I've learnt from this is that designing for print is COMPLETELY different to designing for web.

No better lessons to learn

[flick]

Originally Posted by Nawairi

Hello my name is Ron.
I have never used fireworks. But i know it is a bitmap software. and printing with bitmaps can be a pain was wondering if you rasterized the images or graphics you used if so that will cause a fuzzy border. In the software it will give you the option to vectorize your graphics i highly suggest doing this. Vectored images print perfectly every time. If you do not understand the difference of bitmap or vector let me know. And if the option is availible try saving your file in TIFF format it has a higher file size but prints better. Do some research on these and if you can get CorelDraw10 or higher it is an amzing software for designing work for print. Oh ya one more thing try boosting the resolution before printing a good start point is 300dpi and higher the image will look bigger but it will print to the image size specified and will reduce any fuzzy edges.

fireworks does both vector and bitmap actually :)

[zumojuice]

Originally Posted by Toon

No better lessons to learn

Very true. As a general rule, work to higher quality with images/vectors/work because you can always drop the quality but never up it.

[tommylogic]

Originally Posted by flick

fireworks does both vector and bitmap actually :)

Yes..thank you! I was going to say the same thing. Fireworks is actually very good about vectors. In general though, it should be reserved for the web. I do a lot of work in Fireworks, but for print Illy is probably the best bet. The great thing is that Fireworks CS3 now supports Illustrator and Photoshop, natively. It also supports importing and editing gradient fills, pattern strokes, and pattern fills. It preserves the appearance of RGB colors, opacity and transparency settings, the number and position of Bezier anchor points on vector paths, and linked images.