The graphic production arena can be a land mine of daunting terminology whether you are a trade show industry veteran or a novice. To help you avoid blunders before you embark on your next event, we will demystify some common graphic vocabulary from printed collateral to tradeshow booth graphics .
One of the first steps in pre event registration process is submitting your company profile (usually 500 words) along with your company logo. An EPS is always preferred for the optimum resolution of your logo.
EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) – One of the most versatile file formats that can contain any combination of text and vector graphics.
EPS must knows:
Company logos and line art are commonly compressed to EPS’s in Adobe Illustrator because it allows for them to be: enlarged, reformatted and printed without jeopardizing the integrity of the image.
Submission of an EPS file, all though quite large in size, will allow tradeshow services to place your logo into print collateral (such as the tradeshow directory) while maintaining the complexity of your graphic throughout the printing process.
It is important to note: unless you have Adobe Illustrator on your desktop, you cannot preview an EPS file. If you are working with a creative vendor and want to ensure that the file they have supplied you is correct, ask them to simply convert the EPS to a PDF and resend it.
DPI (Dots per Inch) – Another acronym that is frequently confused as a type of file extension (Jpeg,Gif,Tif, Pdf). DPI directly relates to the resolution of an image. Similar to the EPS, DPI settings can directly affect your printed collateral as well as booth graphics.
Whether you are working with your in-house creative staff on trade show collateral or submitting graphics for your next tradeshow display , resolution is key to unlocking high quality images and creating a “visual speed bump” at your next event.
DPI must knows:
The standard for print images sent to press is 100 - 300 dpi at full size. As a general rule, the higher the resolution (DPI) the better the quality of your finished product. An image set at 300dpi at full size can be scaled up to three times without noticeably losing quality. If your image is grainy and pixilated, the dpi is too low.
However, the calibration for trade show display graphics is slightly different. Photographic images intended for booth graphics need to have an original dpi of 100 at full size (100% scale). Booth graphics are set at a lower resolution because they are being scaled and viewed from a distance.
At trade shows, the higher quality and more vibrant your graphics - the more you will stand out; poor image quality can drastically hinder your overall event performance.
To find out more about how you can transform your tradeshow graphics download our free white paper, All Eyes on You: Graphics That Work
Fantastic blog I had to design a trade show for Hearing Aids which was a boring subject but the design work was fantastic.
Posted by: Simon Baker | Friday, April 01, 2011 at 04:21 PM