Preparation for the Print Runs – Test Prints

 

Before starting an important print run it is important to carry out a test print to check the colours that are on your screen are reproduced correctly on the final print.

When sending the prints to a company like D S Colour Labs, it is a good idea to make up an image of smaller versions of what you want the final prints to be to check how they will come out, before paying out for full sized A3 prints.

To do this I created an A3 document in Serif PhotoPlus X4, which had small versions of each of my final prints, and uploaded this to their site. 

One thing that I wanted to check is the auto correct feature which is supposed to correct the slight darkening that many of us have found when sending our prints to them for competitions, exhibitions and college work.

Although an expensive way, considering the standard delivery charge applied for any quantity of prints, making this print cost £5.00 (£1.05 print and £3.95 postage), I could make sure that the prints came out as I wanted them first time.

I used a similar idea at the college, using an old piece of A3, which failed to print correctly to check how the colours and saturation looked on the photograph that I was to print at college, before committing to printing the final print on a new piece of A3 paper.