For this next stage of the blog I will return to the assignment, having concluded my initial ideas in Blog Post 7. Now that I have concluded these I am now in a position to start the Photoshop file, however before I commence my design ideas I will set up the Photoshop file. This file will be in regards to guides and setting the correct sizes up for the amaray style cases.
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| New File Option Screen |
To do this, firstly I opened the Adobe Photoshop software, and navigated to File -> New...
Then I was presented with the "New file option screen" as seen here.
From here I was able to change a whole host of options in regards to the new file that I was about to create including the name, dimensions, resolution, colour mode and background contents. For the name, DVDAmarayCover was used as a sensible choice for the project however you can choose whatever sensible name you would like. In the drop down list for the "Preset" settings there are a large range of sizes which are very helpful (eg International Paper, A5/A4 sizes) however in this case I opted for the custom option which would allow me to create the exact canvas size that I was looking for. This was because I was planned to incorporate specific printing "extras" such as bleed areas and safety areas.
There are three terms in the printing world which are used all the time, and these are Bleed, Trim and Safety. The term of bleed area is very important in the world of printing as this is an area which gives flexibility and allows for slight misalignment when the production is occurring. This is due to in the printing industry printing does not occur right to the edges of a piece of paper as this is not possible. Instead, a larger piece of paper is used and then trimmed down to the size required however as you might imagine on a large scale there can be slight variations to the size of end result which is where the bleed area comes in. When designing a file, the bleed area is the area which you should expect to be removed and cut off in the printing process. However, due to slight variation the main "background" of the file should continue into this bleed area but no details or specific areas should be included - these should be included in the main "Safety Area" of the file whereby they will not run the risk of being cut off in the printing production. Another aspect to the Bleed area is so that there are no white edges to the final production piece.
The size of the canvas that I decided on was a width of 279 Millimetres and a height of 189 Millimetres. This is because the width of the front and rear panels are 129.5mm and the width of the spine is 14mm. Coupled with the 183mm heigh of the case and taking into consideration the bleed and trim areas (6mm) this gives the dimensions of 279mm x 189mm.
The resolution for this file was set to 300 Pixels per Inch, and this is because at this resolution a crisp and clear end result will be produced and it is recommended in the printing industry to go for around the 300 Pixels per Inch area for a professional quality end result. In comparison, the average resolution for would be around 70 Pixels per Inch for an average file not for printing.
I personally chose to keep the Colour Mode to RGB even though the file will end up being printed and therefore CMYK would be the preferred option (further explanations regarding RGB and CMYK are in Blog Post 8), and this was because as the file is being created on the computer and therefore an RGB monitor then this is the better option - also, when professional printers are being used on a large scale these companies often have software that will transfer the file from RGB to CMYK for printing. RGB for set to 8 Bit in this case as this amount of colours will be more than adequate, however if needed then up to 32 bit can be selected for the largest range of colours available.
Finally, the background was set to be transparent which I personally felt was the best option for me in regards to the ease of designing and creating the file as you can see what there is and also isn't on the background. Once all of these options were selected, clicking OK created the file which is visible on the screen print labelled "New File Created". The next stage was to set up the guides.
In Photoshop the use of printing guidelines are very helpful indeed help with the creation of your file. These guidelines can be placed anywhere on the canvas and do not get printed when you have finished your design. It is very important that at this stage care is taken to set up the guidelines correctly and at the right areas to ensure that the file is "correct" with the bleed areas being clearly visible. On the screen print labelled "Print Guidelines" you can see the guidelines have been added to the file which will aid me when designing and creating the cover.
To the right, you can see another screen print whereby I have shown the areas of the Bleed, Trim and Safety Areas and Lines. As per the screen print, the bleed, trim and safety lines have been specified by the arrows, and the colour indicate the areas which are in a traffic light formation of green (safety), amber (trim) and bleed (red) due to the nature of the lines. As is visible, the bleed lines goes to the edge of the canvas, the Trim line is the next line (3mm in) and finally the Safety Line is another 3mm in on the next line. You may also notice that there are trim and bleed areas on the spine area however these do not feature any edges. However, due to the variations that could occur to the edges of the paper in printing, there could also be variations were the paper is folded along these edges so once again the same principle of using bleed, trim and safety areas had to be used for the spine too.
Having now completed the layout template for the DVD Case, I am now in the position to start designing the cover. However, before starting the design it is important to consider different design ideas and the inspiration for this will come from the Initial Ideas posts.
There are three terms in the printing world which are used all the time, and these are Bleed, Trim and Safety. The term of bleed area is very important in the world of printing as this is an area which gives flexibility and allows for slight misalignment when the production is occurring. This is due to in the printing industry printing does not occur right to the edges of a piece of paper as this is not possible. Instead, a larger piece of paper is used and then trimmed down to the size required however as you might imagine on a large scale there can be slight variations to the size of end result which is where the bleed area comes in. When designing a file, the bleed area is the area which you should expect to be removed and cut off in the printing process. However, due to slight variation the main "background" of the file should continue into this bleed area but no details or specific areas should be included - these should be included in the main "Safety Area" of the file whereby they will not run the risk of being cut off in the printing production. Another aspect to the Bleed area is so that there are no white edges to the final production piece.
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| New File Created |
The resolution for this file was set to 300 Pixels per Inch, and this is because at this resolution a crisp and clear end result will be produced and it is recommended in the printing industry to go for around the 300 Pixels per Inch area for a professional quality end result. In comparison, the average resolution for would be around 70 Pixels per Inch for an average file not for printing.
I personally chose to keep the Colour Mode to RGB even though the file will end up being printed and therefore CMYK would be the preferred option (further explanations regarding RGB and CMYK are in Blog Post 8), and this was because as the file is being created on the computer and therefore an RGB monitor then this is the better option - also, when professional printers are being used on a large scale these companies often have software that will transfer the file from RGB to CMYK for printing. RGB for set to 8 Bit in this case as this amount of colours will be more than adequate, however if needed then up to 32 bit can be selected for the largest range of colours available.
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| Print Guidelines |
In Photoshop the use of printing guidelines are very helpful indeed help with the creation of your file. These guidelines can be placed anywhere on the canvas and do not get printed when you have finished your design. It is very important that at this stage care is taken to set up the guidelines correctly and at the right areas to ensure that the file is "correct" with the bleed areas being clearly visible. On the screen print labelled "Print Guidelines" you can see the guidelines have been added to the file which will aid me when designing and creating the cover.
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| Bleed, Trim and Safety Areas & Lines |
Having now completed the layout template for the DVD Case, I am now in the position to start designing the cover. However, before starting the design it is important to consider different design ideas and the inspiration for this will come from the Initial Ideas posts.
