Questions about Illustrators' Print Production Responsibilities

[BEAR JR]

Hello all! I've been doing some reading about going into business as a freelance illustrator, and have come up with some confusion about how much of the prep work for printing is the illustrator's responsibility (I'm thinking of color trapping, etc.). I have very little knowledge of how the printing world works (something I am working on), and wanted to know what is expected of illustrators when it comes to readying a work for print. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks!

[J Wilson]

Generally, if you are dealing with digital files it's no more complicated than knowing the size and resolution they require (if you give them a file that is larger that is rarely a problem either). You should be awere enough to not put important elements near too near the edges in case they need to trim, but that is fine because important elements shouldn't be too close to edges anyways because that tends to be compositionally weak.

They may have a particular color space that they ask that you use. Or they may not. I've usually had no problem submitting files as sRGB and letting them convert the file how they needed to.

Each printer or publisher can be a little different (printing on different machines etc), so it's usually something they deal with on their end to get everything optimized. At least that's been my experience.

[BEAR JR]

Thanks for the help! I'd read that sometimes illustrators need to be part designer, and know how to do color separations, etc, to prep the image for a printer or service bureau. If you're scanning in and digitally editing/refining a traditional painting, all you need is to be sure you've got the right color space and resolution, correct?

[J Wilson]

It depends on the situation really. Very small clients are more clueless a lot of times, and may be themselves confused, or they may ask you to handle more than is normal for an illustration job. Don't be surprised if at times you need to talk to their printer to make sense of a job, because the clients themselves didn't understand what the printer was asking for.

If you are scanning traditional work all you need to do is make sure it's the right resolution and in the color mode they ask for (I find usually rgb because they'd prefer to have more color information and their software is better suited to make conversions for their machines). Printers handle 99% of pre-press stuff, and will usually be pretty clear on what they need.

[Qitsune]

Also, if the client wants you to do more than that (like a brochure layout or whatever) that is a different task and it should be agreed upon before you start the work. I always put in my quote/work order the format and restrictions of the image I am to do.

[BEAR JR]

Good to know. Thanks again for the info!