According to some research, in the United States, one million books are published each year.
If you’re trying to print your book and make it stand out in the middle of all the other published books, you should make sure that the book is as perfect as possible!
In order to do that, keep reading to find out what common art book printing mistakes to avoid!
1. Not Having an Editor
You should never publish a book without an editor because no matter how many times you review it, there are probably some things that you haven’t noticed.
Before you start working on the art book printing stage, find a professional editor who can look over the copy of your book. They’ll be able to make suggestions on the book cover, any grammar you have, and how the pictures look.
Since they’re looking at it with fresh eyes, they’ll be able to easily catch mistakes that you might miss. Editing the cover is even more important because this is what will cause people to pick up your book or walk right past it.
2. Not Paying Attention to Your Color Values
Even if you set up your artbook perfectly the way you want it in print preview, doesn’t mean that that’s what it will actually look like when you send it to the printer.
That’s because sometimes the printers will have different color values. If you have images that use a lot of yellow, black, magenta, or cyan, your images might be oversaturated and the colors will muddy and run together.
This could result in your images printing out darker than you expect. To make sure it’s exactly how you want, send a few test prints first (if you’re self-publishing). This way you can figure out which images need edits in order to print properly.
3. Not Having Any Quality Check
In addition to having an editor, you should have someone run a quality check on your book. This is more than just checking the grammar. It’s checking for things like:
- The images are printed in the right order and on the right pages
- None of the images are cut off
- The material is fine and can handle the images
- The colors are accurate
- There are small typos or mistakes
- Pages aren’t glued together
All kinds of mistakes can happen during the printing process, so someone should go through every copy before it goes out. They should also check the print samples and ensure that those are the way you want.
With most publishers, they’ll ask you to approve the print sample, so make sure you check it carefully.
4. Not Focusing on Just One Book
Some artists also tend to focus on more than one book at a time because they have so much material to work with.
However, it can take years to put together just one perfect art book. If you split up that work, you will take even longer to just finish one book.
Plus, with your attention divided, you may end up making a mistake in the one that you’re currently trying to publish.
5. Not Using the Right Resolution
The resolution on your computer screen will determine how big images look. However, when you look at print resolution, it’ll determine how crisp and sharp your images are.
For example, the standard resolution for web images is about 72ppi. But in printing, the standard is 300ppi. This means that there are more dots per inch in the image, making it stand out more.
When you’re printing your artwork, make sure that it’s at least 300ppi. If you have anything less than that, it’ll look blurry and out of focus.
6. Not Making the Font Large Enough
You’ve probably checked to make sure that your images are large enough to see, but have you checked the font size as well?
The printing presses normally don’t do a great job at distributing the ink evenly for the fonts. They just use a system of low-density dots, so if your text is too small, it might not be readable.
You’ll need a font size of at least 6 points, but depending on the font you choose, it may need to be bigger.
For example, if you choose Helvetica Ultra Light font, you probably won’t even be able to see it because of how fine the lines are. You should always try and do a test print of different fonts to see how they will look in your finished product.
7. Not Looking at Small Publishers
Many people also just look at larger publishers to get their art books printed. However, you don’t always have to go that route. In fact, if you only look at larger publishers, you may even limit your chances of being published.
The bigger publishers have more resources at their disposal, but they also take in books from all kinds of people, so you may find it harder to get a good deal where you actually make some money.
When you work with a smaller publisher, they won’t have as many people to work with, so you have a larger chance at actually scoring a good deal.
Discover More Mistakes to Avoid for Art Book Printing
These are only a few art book printing tips, but there are many more of them out there that can help you!
We know that art books can be difficult to work on, but we’re here to help you out!
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