Need to know some technicals and specifics around branding and design? Here are some of the top FAQs that we receive.
The top branding and design FAQs and need-to-knows
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) is for print and based on ink, RGB (Red Green Blue) is for digital and based on light. CMYK would come out ‘duller’ in print vs the same colour combination in RGB would look ‘brighter’ online.
The HEX code is a way of formatting an RGB colour for web development. HEX and RGB are essentially the same, just 2 different ways of presenting the same colour.
In simple terms – yes they are the same, they can both be used in code, however you can use a variation of the RBG code to provide transparency to a colour via the use of an Alpha channel (i.e. opacity channel).
An alpha channel is a way of defining a level of opacity over an image / colour within design & website development.
Pantone, or PMS (Pantone Matching System) colours are a range of colours used in printing which make use of special inks. They’re often brighter and more vivid than standard CMYK printed colours.
Brand consistency (visual and messaging / tone of voice), employee/team and on-boarding & engagement.
When you print the cutting process is not 100% accurate, so you need the desired image/content to ‘bleed’ i.e. go 3mm over the edge of the page to allow for inaccuracies of cutting.
They are the little marks that guide a cutter/ (the people or machine) on where to cut on the page exactly.
It means a high pixel density, measured in DPI = dots per inch or PPI = pixels per inch. So a high resolution image is sometimes referred to as a ‘high quality’ image.
300dpi (dots per inch – a density of pixels) is the optimal resolution. You can always downsize an image, but you can’t upsize. So the higher the resolution the better.
Yes, absolutely! They look far more professional.
Preparation and content to hand! When content is fully prepared and ready, this is a huge way to save money on designers time & budget allocation – whether it’s print or online/websites. We help our clients prepare by providing systemised ways of collating and organising their content so we can make sure their budget is going on our design, technical and creative skillsets.
A web font is a font specially created for use on websites using the CSS declaration.
The type of paper used will impact the cost and quality of your final piece, it will provide the first impression for your customer. Before they turn a page they will make a decision based on their perceived quality of your chosen paper. Paper weight is measured in GSM.
Folding is commonly done after printing and cutting, there are many different ways from a simple half fold to a multiple map fold.
The term “GSM” stands for “grams per square meter”. For this standard, the weight of various types of paper is measured from a sample sheet cut to one square meter in size. In general the higher the GSM rating, the heavier and thicker the paper will be.
Silk has a slight sheen to the surface. Matt is typically used where the page has a lot of copy and information, whereas silk is used to enhance imagery for brochures and leaflets.
Perfect binding is a process used by bookmakers and printers where groups of pages are bound together using adhesive down the spine to create a clean, crisp finish. Stapled binding is purely where the pages are folded, creased and stapled together.
It is important when developing direct mail marketing to take into account postage sizes and weight limits. An oversight in page/brochure weight or sizing could mean paying a higher price for postage when it could have been easily avoided.
Social media image sizes are constantly changing but as a good rule, create at 1080x1080px for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds, which they then resize. Facebook cover photos:1920x1080px.
See it as pixels vs shapes. A vector is essentially ‘lines & shapes’ so it’s scalable – you can resize it to be larger and it won’t reduced in quality. Essentially, a vector is a mathematical image and is the best version of an image/logo to send to designers and printers. Whereas other images like JPEG etc are not mathematical, they are size-limited, if you try to scale it up the quality is massively impacted/reduced. For example, you can’t scale up a JPEG or PNG to the size of a van from a letterhead. You can with a Vector image (.ai or .eps. or .svg for website)
Portable Network Graphic. The most common use of a PNG is to have an image (i.e. logo) with ‘no white background’ (i.e. a transparent background).
A PNG is better because JPEG are compressed slightly differently, so PNG is a better quality in general. PNG also allows your logo to have a transparent background.
