Tutorial: A Few Words About Using Web
Graphics For Your Print Product
A lot of people who are trying to save money or
don't have the funds available for a professional
graphic design often will grab images off the
internet for use with their print job. There are
often problems associated with this practice that
we feel is important to share with our customers. The
first and foremost issue is in regards to copyright
law. Here are a couple of important guidelines:
Q.
If it doesn't have a copyright notice, it's not
copyrighted, right?
A.
Wrong. This was true in the past, but
today practically all major nations follow the
Berne copyright convention. In the United States
for example, almost everything created privately
and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted
and protected whether it has a notice or not.
You should assume for other people's works is
that they are copyrighted and may not be copied
unless you know otherwise. This includes any web
graphics you pull off the internet for use with
your print product.
Q.
If I don't charge for it, it's not a violation,
correct?
A.
Incorrect. Whether you charge can affect
the damages awarded in court, but that's main
difference under the law. It's still a violation
either way and there can still be financial damages
awarded against you or your company if you hurt
the commercial value of the property.
This
said, now it is important to note that web graphics
use a significantly lower image resolution than
that of print graphics. The general rule of thumb
is web graphics are set at 72 dpi, or dots-per-inch.
Print graphics on the other hand are at least
300 dpi. Since the image resolution of web graphics
matches the resolution of your computer screen
(which is also 72 dpi), you might not notice any
low image quality just by viewing on your computer
monitor. If you send a print job to press using
web graphics then there is a good chance you will
see the resolution difference after the job is
printed and your print job will look pixelated
and generally low-resolution.
We
recommend you print out a proof on your personal
inkjet or laser printer if applicable to see if
you find the resolution acceptable. Another option
we recommend is to zoom in with your graphic editor
and see if you can notice the degradation in image
resolution firsthand.
Below
are two examples of what the same image would
look like using a high resolution ready for print
and a low resolution made strictly for web use:
Notice
in the zoomed-in area how the high resolution
graphic on the left looks after printed and how
the low resolution image on the right looks.
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