How to Design Printing Materials for Resale
Please follow these steps in our guidelines to ensure your files are accepted at Freemarket.com
Freemarket.com accepts all types of graphics as long as the files are constructed to high standards, have visual appeal and have commercial value.
There are no exceptions to this rule.
Any file with images that do not have a release will be rejected.
Intro
So you want make Wordpress templates for Freemarket.com? Hopefully you already have a strong PHP, javascript, and Photoshop Background. Creating themes as with websites requires a range of abilities to create something that people will look and want for themselves.
Overview of design and layout
Templates for typical print items such as business cards, letterhead, envelopes, brochures and magazine pages have been available in a number of formats since the mid-1980s. The earliest layout applications used were Aldus PageMaker and Quark XPress. Today, Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign are the two most popular layout applications though layouts can also be produced in Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator and, to a lesser extent, Adobe PhotoShop. While other applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Publisher can be used for format text, they are very limited in their options for preparing print-ready file formats and these should not be considered professional publishing applications.
If preparing single-page documents, any of the previously-mentioned professional layout applications can be used. However, if you are preparing multiple-page documents such as brochures, newsletters and magazines, it is recommended you only use Quark XPress or Adobe InDesign as only these applications offer support for master pages and automatic page numbering that your customers will likely require for their documents.
Formats
Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign save files in their own native formats which are only readable by those specific applications. Either application can save in a standard document format as well as a template format ��a format that can contain all of the elements of a regular layout but is a locked format that requires the user to re-save the document with a new name, thus preserving the original document for further use.
While you do not necessarily have to save your layout document as a template, by naming the file �template� you are indicating to the user that it is saved in this format.
Sizes
Customers searching for templates for their layouts will likely search for them by size � either International or North American.
Standard sizes include:
Posters and die-cut layouts can vary widely in size based on their application and printing requirements and have not been included in the above measurements.
Layout structure
In addition to following the standard page sizes as noted above, you should include, as much as possible, guidelines within the document that equally divide the pages into the panels of a brochure, or in a grid in the case of a newsletter or magazine layout, and to indicate page margins [maximum extent of text on all sides of the pages] as well as column guides, and optionally, header and footer guides. These guides should be placed accurately to ensure the integrity of the document and consistency across multiple master pages.
When setting up a typical one-page layout with text, graphics and possibly images, most experienced layout artists will use layers to separate these elements. An example of this would be to include a key-line around a business card layout and place this on an upper layer that is visible when working on the layout, appears in PDF proofs and digital print proofs, but can easily be suppressed when generating the final print artwork.
When setting up multiple-page documents, it is advised that you place repeating page elements such as header, footer, page number, column guides, column rules, etc. on the master pages of the document. This ensures that as the user creates additional document pages, all of the necessary common items are immediately positioned on those pages.
One of the key requirements of long document formatting is to utilize style sheets for formatting text. By setting up styles for body text, headings, subheadings and most of the common styles of text formats in the document, the user can readily revise the format of that text throughout the document very efficiently.
The first page of your document should include an overview of the styles you have set up in your document to illustrate to the user how they are organized, named and applied to the various blocks of text throughout the document. Organizing the style names accurately by description as well as including keyboard shortcuts will ensure ease of use.
Print Requirements
In addition to preparing layouts to the physical document size [i.e. all layouts should be set up to the exact size of the trim dimensions and not created on oversize page sizes with manually-drawn framing] your documents should also include allocation of bleed. In Adobe InDesign the bleed dimensions are specified in the page setup dialogue box. In Quark XPress this is done with the guideline palette. This can also be achieved by manually dragging guidelines into position as you would do with earlier versions of these applications or in applications that do not have these features. This creates a separate set of guidelines around the perimeter of your page to which all items that extend to the edge of the print area should in fact be extended to ensure the ink prints off the edge and is trimmed in final finishing stage of the print process.
Color
One of the most common mistakes a designer can make is to prepare artwork in RGB format and then convert to CMYK for print. The resulting colors are not ideal for printing. For example, a green color in RGB may look bright and clean, yet when it is converted to CMYK, small percentages of magenta and even black may appear, causing the graphic to have a muddy appearance when printed. It is always recommended that colors for designs be created in CMYK format and that designers refer to a printed reference guide when determining colors, simply because the screen is displaying in RGB and is not an accurate method for judging printed color.
When mixing CMYK colors, in addition to referring to a printed color reference guide that shows percentages of mixes of 2 or more process colors, i.e. 50% cyan and 25% magenta, designers should also create colors that are easy to understand as the customer may wish to adjust the color. Creating colors like C72:M37:Y12:K47 is not as understandable as say C80:M45:Y10:K40.
Lastly, the best thing you can do for your customer is prepare global colors and use these colors throughout your design so that, if a customer wanted to change all of the blue elements to green, it is as easy as selecting a global color and changing that, instead of having to manually highlight a multitude of individual elements.
Placed graphics and/or images
Ensure that all graphics provided with your print layout meet the requirements for print-ready artwork. Graphics in vector format should be prepared as either B&W/grayscale or CMYK/full color artwork only, and any raster-based elements such as artistic effects in Illustrator be created at 300dpi to the final size it is used in the layout. That is, if the graphic is to appear across the top of an A4 or letter-size page, it should be created at at exactly the width of that page, not smaller.
Images that are used in the layout should also only be created as either B&W/grayscale or CMYK/full color images only and also be prepared at the size it is being used in the layout and not smaller.
Be sure to include all linked graphics and images by �packaging� or �collecting� the final artwork using that applications options for doing so. This ensures that all elements are included in the compressed/archived folder you are providing.
Fonts
It is illegal to include the licensed fonts with your document unless you have the express permission of the font vendor.
It is advised that you format the layouts you are selling with fonts that come with the typical Mac or PC operating systems.
Rights
Once you have created your artwork and placed it online for resale, you are bound by the rules of the site for which you provided your graphics. That is, once the graphics have been purchased, the customer is allowed to use that graphic within the terms of their agreement with the online service and you cannot make any further claim to own that graphic.
Should the graphic end up being used by a huge multi-national corporation who paid someone $10,000 for the design, your rights as the creator of that design are limited to what you agreed to with that online service and the payment as set out by the terms of that service.
Thumbnails
Your thumbnail image needs to be 156x92 pixels and can be JPEG, GIF or PNG format. Your thumbnail image should be an accurate representation of how your file looks.
Keywords
When naming your main file and putting in your keywords please keep these relevant to the file being uploaded. File names and keywords should reflect what the file is and what it does. Using irrelevant names and keywords will result in your file being rejected. For example "Black circular pattern design" is correct, "totally amazing pattern" is not correct. You will need to supply at least 3 keywords for your file submission.
Prices
You may recommend a price that you think your file should be sold at. However Freemarket.com staff will review your product and decide on the final price, if you do not agree with the price, please contact us. Please use this guide to help your upload process, the advice offered is to help protect all parties from copyright infringements and to aid you with your sales as a successful flash stock provider within our Freemarket.com community.
In Closing
It is important to concentrate on design, and building a solid widget based back-end with great admin panels. Your customers will appreciate an easy process so the easier you make it, the more sales you will attract.
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