Everything's gone jagged

[steve_canuck]

Hi,

I'm having some trouble creating a flyer (to be printed) for my business. I had previously created a PSD with my logo, for web use. I dragged that logo into my flyer and now the lines on the logo don't look smooth. When I add text to the flyer, it also looks very jagged and several letters can't be differentiated (eg: l and i), using Arial. I'm not sure if I'm missing something obvious.

I've posted an early draft of the flyer here:

http://www.sanyaltech.com/images/flyer.psd

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
Steve

[artd]

Hi Steve,

I think small text is harder to work with in Photoshop. But anyway, when you have the Type tool selected, you'll see a pop-up menu in the options bar marked with two small a's (anti-alias). You now have that set to "None". Try one of the other settings to see if you like any of them better.

Hope this helps.

[djtonic]

hi steve,

first off, for print resolution must be at least 300 p/i and yours is set at 72 which is great for web use but "jaggy" for print.

AA settings may help but AA as i understand is more a rendering concern and you shouldnt HAVE to change from default for print purposes

change the resolution and start from scratch(ie..create that image from scratch using 300 p/i. Don't worry about how it looks on the monitor, print a test copy at home you will see a major difference

Tim

[steve_canuck]

Thanks a bunch. Yeah the image resolution made all the difference.

If I am planning to print this as a 4.25" x 5.5" flyer, is it best practice to create the document at that size, or should I consider making it at 8.5" x 11 and then downscaling it if needed?

[jerryb]

hi tim,
thank you for that info about the 300 ... that always drove me nuts


on some images the small text look pixalated and crumy and yet sometimes it didn't ... i never corelated the ppi of the different images
might be the issue...

in fact a lot of time ended up using my printshop
to add text... smiling... which never have a issue with small text .

hi steve,

first off, for print resolution must be at least 300 p/i and yours is set at 72 which is great for web use but "jaggy" for print.

AA settings may help but AA as i understand is more a rendering concern and you shouldnt HAVE to change from default for print purposes

change the resolution and start from scratch(ie..create that image from scratch using 300 p/i. Don't worry about how it looks on the monitor, print a test copy at home you will see a major difference

Tim

[djtonic]

"down scaling" can be funky and will distort your image.
Create the file in the size you want to output. leave room for "bleed and cut" for the printer so your text/image doesnt get cut off.
I think PS or illustrator may have visual guides for this.(ie, don't put any content right up to the border of the page, just have background color there or border color)

Yeah, ppi makes all the difference Jerry

Glad to be helpful.