Need some advice

M
Posted By
Matt
May 17, 2006
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427
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Let me start by saying that I am not in graphic design in any way at all… I’m an editor at a video production post house. I do use Photoshop quite a bit in my work and that’s what’s gotten me into this current situation.

Per the clients request I took his basic logo and added a little hand drawn cartoon character to it for a commercial. He loved the design and now wants me to provide him some artwork so that he can have t-shirts made for various events. He spoke with a t-shirt printer and relayed the specs to me… nothing too complex, just a 4 color bleed jpg. Now the 4 color bleed is where I begin to have problems…. I thought that bleed was the area beyond the border of an image off the trimmed area. Could they mean 4 colors and then various shades of these colors (and to get these shades I assume I just adjust the opacity of the color)?
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MR
Mike Russell
May 17, 2006
"Matt" wrote in message
Let me start by saying that I am not in graphic design in any way at all… I’m an editor at a video production post house. I do use Photoshop quite a bit in my work and that’s what’s gotten me into this current situation.

Per the clients request I took his basic logo and added a little hand drawn cartoon character to it for a commercial. He loved the design and now wants me to provide him some artwork so that he can have t-shirts made for various events. He spoke with a t-shirt printer and relayed the specs to me… nothing too complex, just a 4 color bleed jpg. Now the 4 color bleed is where I begin to have problems…. I thought that bleed was the area beyond the border of an image off the trimmed area. Could they mean 4 colors and then various shades of these colors (and to get these shades I assume I just adjust the opacity of the color)?

Nothing that complicated. I think in this case "bleed" means extra space around the outside of the image for them to work with, as opposed to a definite border. It can be blank, but its more important if your artwork has a colored background. For a shirt, this would to allow the silk screen some leeway to frame the logo as necessary.

You seem concerned about the four colors – if your logo does not use all four CMYK colors, or if you use spot colors, then it will be considerably cheaper to print using fewer colors. Logos almost always rely on spot colors to avoid disasters such as printing an orange or magenta logo instead of a red one.

If possible, give the printer a quick call. If you’re going to do very many of these, order a Pocket Pal – this is an inexpensive handbook published by International Paper that describes the major printing processes and terminology. When someone rattles off a term you don’t understand, you can look it up alphabetically.
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
M
Matt
May 17, 2006
"Mike Russell" wrote in message
"Matt" wrote in message
Let me start by saying that I am not in graphic design in any way at all… I’m an editor at a video production post house. I do use Photoshop quite a bit in my work and that’s what’s gotten me into this current situation.
Sorry, I had a little typo/miss quote in my description… I was trying to get the point across that he said that the "bleed" was a color and various shades of that color and I thought that a bleed was the extra space in an image for trim.

I am concerned about color,I am assuming that I just need to pick 4 pms colors and that I can adjust the tint of those colors to create additional shades as he described?

I’m just assuming at this point that the printer mentioned the word bleed to him and then went on to describe colors and he thought that bleed was the term for the colors.
MR
Mike Russell
May 17, 2006
"Matt" wrote in message

[re logo design for shirt printing]
Sorry, I had a little typo/miss quote in my description… I was trying to get the point across that he said that the "bleed" was a color and various shades of that color and I thought that a bleed was the extra space in an image for trim.

Your definition is correct.

I am concerned about color,I am assuming that I just need to pick 4 pms colors and that I can adjust the tint of those colors to create additional shades as he described?

That’s not usually how it’s done for two reasons. First, Pantone colors are not necessarily transparent, though they may be. This means that printing one on top of another will give unpredictable results. CMYK process colors are designed to be used this way, and will give predictable results. The second problem is that with a shirt design, any halftone pattern will be very coarse. For these reasons, most shirts use line art with areas of solid color.

I’m just assuming at this point that the printer mentioned the word bleed to him and then went on to describe colors and he thought that bleed was the term for the colors.

There may be other miscommunications as well. Best to talk with the printer before paint hits cloth. I suggest you post to comp.publish.prepress and see what they have to say there.
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

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