Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the vast majority of my work is in the  digital realm, I love making real, tangible things—books, cards, posters, anything that can be printed and adorn my space or given to others. Real stuff has a value, a presence, a weight that digital doesn’t. But there’s one uniquely wonderful benefit of producing digital work: the ability to undo your mistakes. Embarrassing errors and subpar images can be erased and replaced almost instantly so everyone can just go about their day.

That luxury doesn’t exist when you’re printing hundreds or thousands of copies of a document. You have one shot to get it right, on time, and on budget. Delays and errors can cost you opportunities, money, clients, and more. To ensure success, you must understand the printing process and your role in delivering exactly what your print service provider needs. In short, you need to know everything your printer wishes you knew. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a mind reader. All you have to do is read this month’s feature article by Claudia McCue and James Wamser. Between the two of them, they’ve seen it all—the good, the bad, and the inky.

One key to a successful print workflow is to start with a great template. Often, we think of templates for InDesign documents, but they can be equally important for some Illustrator projects. Katja Bjerrum has made a business out of improving and automating Illustrator workflows, so her advice on making great Illustrator templates is second to none.

Next, we lean back into digital deliverables with a look at animating and scheduling content with Adobe Express by Nicte Cuevas. Folks at Adobe have been working hard to build Express into a robust tool for quickly creating and deploying beautifully branded content anywhere. In the article, Nicte shows how to set up a brand kit and use it effectively.

Regardless of whether your job is going to print, digital, or both, you must have images with adequate resolution. Steve Caplin shows how to use Upscayl to get all the pixels you need.

Our Resource of the Month is a set of amazing product backgrounds generated with Adobe Firefly.

Enjoy!