Print & Graphic Design Production: Resolution, Bleed, Imposition, Paper & Type Scales

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• Turn pixel dimensions and placed sizes into effective PPI for six catalogue images, flag the ones below the minimum, find how wide each image may print at the target PPI and how many pixels a poster needs.
• Add bleed to five products, find the safe area for text, convert a document width to inches and set up a US-size flyer in millimetres.
• Count how many items fit on a press sheet upright and rotated, keep the better layout and work out how many press sheets each job needs including overs.
• Turn paper grammage and sheet sizes into grams, weigh a complete mailing piece with its envelope, look up the postage band and work out the total weight of the mailing.
• Round content page counts up to what a stapled booklet and a bound book can actually have, count the blank pages that adds and calculate the spine width of a perfect-bound cookbook.
• Build a modular type scale from a base size and a ratio, set the leading for each level, count the characters that fit on a line of the catalogue column and size a column for a comfortable line length.
• Calculate column widths for five grids on an A4 page, the width of a two-column span on the 6-column grid, the baseline grid step in mm and how many baselines fit in the text area.
• Compare a digital and an offset quote for six run lengths, name the cheaper process for each, find the quantity where offset starts to pay off and chart both cost lines.