Everything You Wanted to Know About Print Production But Were Afraid to Ask

Here’s a dirty secret: If something went wrong with your print job, it was probably something you did. Or didn’t do. Most graphic designers, even the ones who get a degree in it, don’t receive much formal training in print production.
The Print Handbook for Designers hopes to rectify that. It’s a print production reference book that eschews lengthy text explanations for short, to-the-point examples.
The Handbook was created by Andy Brown and the rest of The Media Collective, a design agency in the United Kingdom. (Don’t worry, Americans–the Handbook may spell “color” as “colour,” but most of the information works across the pond, too.)
Here are some of the topics that the Handbook covers:
• Overprinting
• The golden ratio
• Paper sizes
• Colors on different papers
• Resolution as measured in dots per inch (dpi)
• Black and its different shades
• Color reproduction when using 1, 2, 3, and 4 inks
• Monotones and duotones
• Unusual glyphs
• Type point sizes
• Text in different color tints
• Trapping
• Folding

There are also online companion files for some of the information. Visit the Notes page of the Handbook’s website to download those files.
In the UK, the Print Handbook for Designers costs £4. In the European Union, it’s £5 (about €5.68). And for the rest of the world, it’s £6 (about $9.84). All of those prices include the cost of delivery.