I just ordered birth announcements from WHCC and its the first time I've ordered their press printed products.....the text on the cards is fuzzy around the edges (almost like artifacts). Has anyone encountered this before? I did everything that the instructions said to do so I'm not sure if it's my fault but my files don't look that way! I'm gonna try to call them about it tomorrow but I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice if they've seen this before. Thanks!

I've had this happen, but not with press-printed products. It was some wallets I printed with my logo that I use when I'm packaging my loose prints for my clients. I never really resolved the situation, but I thought that I most likely "rasterized" (right word?, sp?) the image with too low of a resolution. Basically, I do all of my designing in InDesign and then create a PDF which I open in Photoshop and create a jpeg from. Not sure if that's the best method, but I'm self taught there. At times, for some strange reason my Photoshop defaults to opening (or cropping) at 72 dpi, and every once in a while I get a doozie back.

Just a thought...I know that WHCC will be able to nail this down for you...hopefully you can get them fixed and to your client in time!

-Jess

I send them eps w text as outlines and works fine. I would try to stay away from using any raster format for those

Were the cards textured? Like linen or watercolor finish?
Also, did you sharpen the file before uploading. I find that when I sharpen my annoucements before sending and then viewing the before and after at 100%, there definately is a fuzzy edge on the text before sharp.

Sometimes text does not render well in Photoshop. Indesign is the better choice when placing text on photos. It has to do with all the stuff Kawter said.

I am sorry I missed this thread so long ago. I hope that you got a resolve that you are happy with.

Being in the print industry, i can probably explain what is happening.

If you do your work in Photoshop, save it as a JPEG or whatever and it has text included with your images, you are going to get some "rasterization" or fuzzy edges. This is because of the way the software treats the data. Photoshop is after all a tool for working on photos. Adobe InDesign & Illustrator are used for handling text. This is because an image is "raster" data or essentially pixels. Text is created through computer algorithms known as Vector-based work. This allows the computer to scale, shear, rotate the text with no quality loss, because it hasn't been converted to a pixel.

Now the programs and hardware that handle this stuff when it is printed, they essentially "RIP" the data into an algorithm the platemaking software can read. Plates go on the presses and so forth. At this point, the "RIP" starts looking at the resolution of the file. This is where the big misconception lies: images (or RASTER data) are ripped at 300dpi. That's why you are always asked to save your images at 100% at 300dpi. But a RIP normally processes TEXT at 2400dpi to ensure the crisp edges we are all so used to. If you flatted your text in with your image and save it as a JPEG, then it will be processed at 300dpi, hence the fuzzy edges.

So, "Dead Duck" had it right, drop your image into Illustrator or InDesign, add your text, convert it to outlines, and save out an .eps. The Vector data of of the text is retained and your words look all crispy, just the way you like it!

I hope this wasn't too over the top and that it helps some of you with your printing woes!

Cheers!
trevor