College of Medicine

HOW-TO DECIDE BETWEEN IN-HOUSE OR PROFESSIONAL PRINTING

An important topic to consider is printing. Once you have your project completed, do you plan on printing it at the College of Medicine on your department's printer, or maybe have it printed by IT, or do you plan to hire a professional printer? There are various reasons and occasions to choose one or the other. Each option might also require a different output. There are three types of print offerings:

• In-house/ Department printing
• IT large-scale plotting services
• Local Professional Print Company

DIFFERENCES
The differences between these three options are largely based on quality, quantity, physical dimensions, and budget constraints.

In-house printing by your department printer is the cheapest, but also the lowest quality. This option is also constrained by physical dimensions and could require manual folding or preparation. Finally, this option does not allow for "edge-to-edge" or "full-bleed" printing, which means there will need to be a white border or margin around your final printed project.

To print a poster or something large, IT provides high-quality, large-scale printing via a plotter printer. However, this is restricted by quantity, as you can typically only print a few copies.

If you would like a professional print with an edge-to-edge or full-bleed design, your best option will be to contract with an outside printing vendor, such as the UPS Store, Target Print & Mail, or Durra print. These services will cost a bit more but have the highest quality. They will also handle any folding or preparation needs. This option usually requires special files and print-ready files, as described below. We are happy to work with you and interface with professional printers, as we know the language and all the ins and outs.

FILE RESOLUTION
When you send a file to your department printer, typically it can be a standard PDF, an image, or straight from a Word document. The quality does not have to be high because the printer will not pick up on as much detail. When preparing a file to be sent to a professional printer, you may have to provide a high-resolution image. This prevents the files from becoming compressed and losing their quality. If we are sending you a file that's ready for a printer, we will make sure it is a high-quality PDF. 

PRINT READY FILES
Print-ready files are the files you send to the printer once you have reviewed the project, checked for spelling/ grammar errors, and made sure it includes all the needed content. Once you have thoroughly proofed, we will send you what is called, "Print Ready Files." These files look a little different from the file you finalized because they will have what is known as bleed and/or crop marks. These marks are for the professional printer and are used to ensure that the color or image goes to the edge of the page (Our in-house printers cannot do this, due to how the paper runs through the machine). It works by printing beyond the size of the final product. After it is printed out, the printer will follow the crop marks, and cut the excess away, leaving your project with a clean crisp color to the edge.

Regarding the file type (PDF, Docx, EPS, JPG) to send to a professional printer, the best file type to send is a high-quality PDF. However, occasionally the printer might ask you for additional file types, such as an EPS. This file type is a vector-based file and is most often used for logos.

TIPS FOR PRINTING IN-HOUSE

1. Check, “print on both sides” and “flip on long side” or “flip on short side”.
Check to see if you have “Print on both sides” checked, as well as check either “Flip on long side” or “Flip on short side”. Typically, you want to flip on the long for landscape layout and "flip on short side" for portrait layouts.

2. Trifolds are sent as 1 sheet with a front and a back, not each individual panel.
If you are printing a trifold brochure in-house, the file will come to you as one sheet with a front and a back, 3 of the trifold panels on the front, and the 3 inside panels on the back. This way you can fold it with each panel in the correct location.

TIPS FOR IT LARGE SCALE PLOTTING
med.fsu.edu/oit > Submit Ticket > Popular Services> Poster Printing > Submit Your Poster

1. Plan at least 1 week ahead
IT is very busy and the printer is in high demand, so be sure to give them at least 1-2 weeks to print your poster or large format print.

TIPS FOR IT PROFESSIONAL PRINTING

1. Divisible by 4
A good rule of thumb is to make your page count divisible by four. If you are printing out a program, magazine, or multi-page document, then the page count must be divisible by four. Fliers, posters, and brochures usually don’t have to follow this rule.

2. Provide a High-Quality PDF
If we are helping you, we will make sure the printer gets a high-quality PDF. However, make sure your photos and content are of a high resolution. Professional printing machines pick up more details than desktop printers. Using high-resolution and quality photos and graphics ensures your project will come out looking great!

3. Spelling, grammar, and content checking
Once it's printed, it's printed. Spelling and grammar checks are always important to do BEFORE the file is sent to the printer. It's important to thoroughly check the entire document including often overlooked items such as phone numbers, email addresses, and web addresses. We are human and occasionally make mistakes or unintentionally introduce typos, so always be sure to CHECK BEFORE YOU PRINT