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Top 10 tips for getting the best printing results
Convert text to curves
There are literally thousands of possible fonts and your printer company may not have all the same fonts that you do. Also, many fonts are licensed so you may not be able to share your chosen fonts with your printer without incurring an extra license fee. By converting all your fonts to curves (i.e. vector format), you will not have to worry about licensing or font compatibility. Also, the curves option allows the entire file to be enlarged without causing any distortion or rough edges on the characters.
Use Vector format instead of bit mapped
Bit mapped image file types such as .jpg, .gif or .bmp or .tif are very common and are great for photos and other images. However, when you need to enlarge an image (say from a screen saver size to a large poster or mural), the bit mapped images will get reduced in resolution. For example, an 800x600 .jpg image when enlarged to a 2' x 3' poster will end up being printed at around 22dpi. Up close, this will look quite pixelated. Even older laser printers print at 300dpi, which can produce very good quality images and smooth edges, so 22dpi would be considered very low resolution. Fortunately, most good RIPs and other image software can do a pretty good job of "resampling" to increase the apparent resolution. They can't create image detail that isn't there but they can smooth out any rough edges.
By using a vector image format, you will be able to scale your file to any size and not loose any resolution, since the image is made up out of a series of line segment commands that are not impacted by the actual length of the lines being printed.
Keep the viewing distance in mind when setting resolution
You may be able to print an image at a very low resolution and still get good results, if the printed image will be viewed from far enough away. So, the rule of thumb is that the closer the typical viewer is expected to be to the image, the higher the resolution should be. For high end and close up work, resolutions of 720dpi or 1440dpi would be considered very good. If you're doing a large billboard that will be viewed from vehicles more than 20ft. away, you may be able to go to 60 or even 20 dpi and still have it look quite good.
a good way to check to see what the final product will look like when it's enlarged is to pick a small section of your image (e.g. someone's face) and zoom in on the screen until that section is physically as large on your monitor as it will be on the final print. Then stand back from your screen as far as a typical viewer would be when looking at the print and you will have a pretty good idea of what the actual results will be.
Use a common format
There are many good design or illustration programs that can be used to create posters, signs, cards etc. but some of these programs use a proprietary file format (by default). Not all print shops will be able to read all file formats. Especially when these formats can change from program version to version. So, try to save your files in a format that most print shops would have easy access to (e.g. .pdf, .tif, .cdr, .psd). Better yet, save it as several different versions so they can choose which one works best for them.
Include all images and fonts with your file
As an alternative to converting fonts to curves (see tip #1), you may want to consider including all the fonts you have used on the disk you send to your print shop. Also, include any embedded images as separate files on the CD in case the software the print shop is using is a different version than yours (which can cause problems finding embedded or linked files). Including a description of the files and fonts as they are used in your particular document would be helpful as well just so there is no confusion.
Flatten all layers
Some programs, such as PhotoShop, have the ability to create masks and layers to make complex image creation much simpler. The problems is that not all software will interpret this layer information in the exact same way. Some may put a layer in front of another or make images on one layer block out images on another layer. The best way to reduce this problem is to "flatten" the image before saving it. Save it to a different file name though so you still have a copy of the original format with the layers still intact.
Keep files as small as possible (compression etc.)
The latest computer technology makes it quite easy to create very high resolution files that will end up being very large. Even after .jpg compression, newer digital cameras can create files that are many Megabytes in size. Putting dozens of these images in to let's say a PowerPoint presentation, can result in a file that is many hundreds of Megabytes in size. The problem is that this will result in files that will either take a very long time to send to your print shop (which can result in retransmission errors etc.) or files that will take your print shop a long time to load, open, save, RIP, enhance etc. This can cause deadlines to be missed, or image quality that is not as good as it could be. Whenever possible, try to make your files as small as you can while still retaining adequate resolution (see other tips). You can do this by cropping your photos as much as possible, using compressed formats (such as .jpg or LZW compression on .tif files) and reducing the resolution (usually through "resampling") to the lowest acceptable detail.
Include printed proof
The file you have created may look very good on your screen but it may end up looking quite different on someone else's machine, for a variety of reasons. Print out a hard copy of your file, even to an inexpensive inkjet printer or whatever you have access to. Your printed copy may not look exactly like the image on your screen (colour variations, contrast differences etc.) but if it is pretty close to what you would like the final product to look like, include that with the files you send to your printer. This way they will at least have some idea of what type of result would be acceptable to you and they will have something to go by.
Do not put text or important image info near the edge of the margin
Due to variations in paper feeding in different machines or cutting/trimming of the final print (often done by hand) you may want to include a sufficient area of "bleed" in all your images. This is simply an extension of the background of your image beyond the borders where you would want the page to be cut. This will prevent any white space from showing at the sides of the print in case the media is not cut perfectly on the margin lines or cut marks. Also, keep the text and other important image detail as far away from your borders for the same reasons.
Be aware of colour conversions
There are a number of common colour "spaces" that are used by different types of equipment. For instance, RGB is very common on PC screens (CRT or LCD) and CMYK is very common on laser and inkjet printers (LAB is another colour space that is gaining in popularity). SRGB is often used for webdesign. All of these color methods have their pros and cons. RGB has a pretty wide colour "gamut" or possible range and variety of colours. CMYK does not have as many different colours that can be created so the printing software has to translate from one colour space to another. This sometimes results in some colours that look quite a bit different than in the original file so an exact match for all colours in a file is sometimes just not possible.
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