need graphics guru help

Ok... a few questions...


1. Regarding photoshop: when printing a PS document with text in it... why does the text appear so blurry? can you actually use photoshop to make a business card that will print out nicely? or do you need to use a few programs to make it come out right?

2. what is ideal for designing logos... photoshop cs3 or illustrator cs3? I have both... but not much experience with Illustrator.

3. back to business cards... what resolution would you recommend when creating a design for a business card?

thats all for now, thanks in advance!

 

1. Text will blurry because youre output is a bitmap, and you can't expect to look like a vector. Best way to do it, specially if you are working a business card with fonts around 9-12pts for content, is to do it in Illustrator.

2. This will depend the final output of the logo; these days a lot are comfortable working just in Photoshop since they are working for web graphics. But if your work is going to be display on print material, web and/or other medias, then do it on Illustrator. Just in case you forgot, you can always bring your psd directly on Illustrator and edit it in real time mixing techniques.

3. If you know who's going to do the print job, ask for their resolution's requirement. If not, then work your design at 300 dpi; this way you can be sure to have in hand a file suitable to be print by a traditional print job and/or a digital online service.

 

re 2: You should always design logos in vector format, this is a common good practice. They're resolution independent then and you can easily make a website logo in any size you need.
I had 100+ clients asking me for their logo to be vectorized only because the original logo designer did not prepare it in vectors.

 

1) keep resolution up and around 200 - 300 dpi
2) there is option "character" in you window menu in photoshop >> u wil have option like sharp, strong crisp n strong - better chose none
3) once design is done done export web but save as jpg or (photoshop DCS 1 or 2.0) .EPS formate

 

I can recommend PS3 for graphics design

 

The blurry text:

In the text edit box, you can choose from the "sharp", "soft", "crisp", "none" options. Also make sure that little box above it where the character formats i.e. T T TT tt ... The bolded T is annoying b/c it actually strengthens your text.

 

1. Regarding photoshop: when printing a PS document with text in it... why does the text appear so blurry? can you actually use photoshop to make a business card that will print out nicely? or do you need to use a few programs to make it come out right?

Yes, you can use Photoshop to produce crisp print results. However, you need to adjust your working habits. This means using a proper DPI (300 is enough for most print materials) and using CMYK colors rather than RGB.​

2. what is ideal for designing logos... photoshop cs3 or illustrator cs3? I have both... but not much experience with Illustrator.

Illustrator is usually better since it allows you to scale everything in vector rather than bitmap, but Photoshop will do fine in most cases.​

3. back to business cards... what resolution would you recommend when creating a design for a business card?

That varies from one place to the next. Where are you located? From what I've seen, business card sizes vary in Europe, East, America, etc.​

 

I design my business cards in Photoshop and print them out using Freehand, I design in 300DPI and the size of the card is 9 x 5.5cm, fits nicely in a wallet

Offset printing is alot better than digital print for printing business cards but this comes at a price... fortunate for me my standard digital printer can feed the card and prints alright.

 

If you want to get exact specs for a good business card, go to vista print. I've ordered bulk cards from them and never had a problem. They have a handy PDF on thier site that explains all the setup that you need to do in Photoshop, with .psd templates as well!

 

Try changing the font type to "Sharp" and ensure the image is 300 dpi or higher ... it might be set to 72dpi which is good if you are creating an image for the web. But, changing the font to "Sharp" will definitely help you a lot.