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OK, this may be a steep learning curve for most people. So you need to have a comfy chair, a coffee handy (maybe a cookie too!) and a little patience. We're going to take you on a little trip down the road of desktop publishing. It can get a little bumpy now and then, but you'll make it through with our help.

Many customers ask us for tips on designing Business Cards, Brochures and Letterheads! The following four articles will be covering the most common mistakes we see made.

Incorrect Page size. Yep, it sounds like it would be a hard mistake to make, but this is one of the most common mistakes we see. Most of the time it's because the designer just starts the design of the Business Card, Brochure or Letterhead with the default page size of the application, which could be Letter or A4.

This is a problem when supplying to a printer, since many times they have automatic 'imposition' or layout applications to place your job on a 'press sheet'. If the page size is incorrect it means it won't position your product correctly and can cause your product to be cut at the wrong position. Obviously, you don't want this! The printer then has to re-adjust the size of the page manually, before the design is submitted to the 'imposition engine'. If there's a few pages this takes a little time, but If there's a lot of pages, it can take a long time! Regardless of how much time it takes printers will usually charge for it. In many cases, printers will simply reject the job and ask you to resupply it.

The solution? Call or email your print provider - before you start your project! Ask them about the exact dimensions for the final product. Punch those values into your design program. This can be under 'document setup' or 'page settings' in some applications. Now if you're using Adobe Photoshop to create your design, you will need to also make your document larger again to allow for document bleed. We'll explain what bleed is in the next article.

Like we said, you would think it's a hard mistake to make, but it's one of the most common mistakes made with Business Cards, Brochures & Letterheads! That's why we made it mistake #1.