By signcraft
Posted on Monday, August 7th, 2023
Digital printing goes smoothly when you create your own files, but that can change when you have to deal with a file that the customer provides. To do a successful digital print, you need a file in JPG, PDF, TIFF or EPS format in an acceptable resolution for the dimensions of the finished print. Many, if not most, customers don’t understand those two facts.
If you’re lucky, the customer will give you a PDF that was exported from a design program like CorelDRAW with the fonts converted to curves. The resulting file will be a vector file that you can open in your design program and enlarge as needed for their sign. That’s seldom the case.
Many customers don’t understand the relationship between resolution of the original file and the size of the printed output. If they send you a PNG or JPG that is 600 pixels wide, they don’t realize that it can only be printed at two to four inches wide and still appear sharp.
The image on the screen looks great to them, so they think it should work for their sign. But often it’s up to the sign person to make their file into something that will be usable at the size needed for their sign or vehicle graphics. Doug Downey, The Image Factory, Stratford, Ontario, Canada, deals with this almost daily.
“We’re getting more and more calls from customers who say they have a file of some sort of layout or design and they want us to print it,” says Doug. “When they send the file, it is often a PNG format file. I can export that as a TIFF or EPS and do the print as long as the resolution works for the size of the print that they want. But if I have to alter it in anyway, I can’t do that to a PNG file.
“Many of these customers are getting a design from online sources like VistaPrint or Canva. They feel they’ve paid for a ‘logo’ that should work everywhere from business cards to billboards. They don’t realize that the file they receive is not usable on a sign because the resolution is too low. I usually have to recreate it in a format that can be modified and resized for their sign.”
When this happens, Doug usually emails them back, explaining that he needs a file format that he can work with in CorelDRAW, Illustrator or Photoshop to print the design at the large size required. Often the customer will simply save the PNG or JPG as a PDF and send it back to him—unaware that the resolution is still too low. The only solution is for Doug to recreate their design in CorelDRAW so that it can be successfully printed.
If it’s a simple logo, like the stairs on the Sheerer Stair Co. trailer graphics, he imports their file into CorelDRAW and redraws the design over the old design. If the logo is just text and a graphic, Doug says a PNG is easier to deal with than a JPG because he can often trace the PNG in CorelDRAW. At that point, he has an image that needs just a little cleaning up. A JPG might take more cleanup.
A complex graphic, though, will take more time to recreate as a vector file. And if there’s a photo involved, though, this approach won’t work because you can’t enlarge a photo very much before the image quality deteriorates. The photo will need replaced with one that has adequate resolution for the size that it will be printed.
Recreating a customer’s logo takes time
Even the simplest graphic will take time to recreate. Just explaining what needs done and why will take time with most customers. Redrawing a complex graphic can be tedious. You may also have to search for the typestyle used on the design. All this takes time and should be charged for accordingly.
“Years ago, I seldom charged to recreate a logo like this,” Doug says, “but then I realized that had to stop. I started charging for all the time it takes to recreate a file that can be used for printing.”
This process of recreating a design takes considerable skill and it can be very time consuming, depending on the complexity of the design. Graphic design firms charge for the time it takes, usually at a considerably higher rate than sign shops charge. It’s not something a sign maker should “throw in” just to sell the sign project.
Customer as designer
Computers and software have made it possible for customers to type in text and add clip art or photos to create their own layout—without any real understanding of effective sign design or production methods. Doug noticed this years ago when Microsoft Paint came out. A few customers started playing around with it and making “designs.”
More design software became available, and then came websites that let them create their own design online. Others now buy logo designs online and receive PNG or JPG files at resolutions that are only acceptable for web pages or stationery. They don’t understand that resolution determines the size at which something can be printed successfully. Any larger and the graphic loses sharpness.
“It can be challenging to deal with customers who now see themselves as designers,” says Doug. “Some will treat you as if you have never done a design in your life. They have done something online and think it came out perfect, but the design may have loads of problems. You see ineffective designs like that on signs everywhere today.”
“This customer first sent their logo as a PNG,” says Doug, “but the resolution was too low to use on their trailer. They sent it as a JPG, then saved the PNG as a PDF, but none of them were usable because their original PNG was low resolution. I brought their PNG image into CorelDRAW. I redrew the design over it and created a vector image that I could print or cut.
“When I sent the proof of the trailer graphics layout, they unfortunately added more copy.”
“They also decided they wanted a photo on the back doors of the trailer,” he says, “so I added a gray-tone image to the right of the copy. They thought the photo should be in color, but I explained that it would overpower the copy, which was the important message. I think the original layout would have been more effective, but you often have to work with what the client wants.”
Fortunately Doug is able to guide most customers to design solutions. When that happens, they get graphics that give them more value, like the other examples in this article.
