There are a few things in poster printing that must always be absolutely there. These important factors or "musts" determine if the poster printing turns out bad, or if they turn out good.

In most cases, having them integrated in the printing process is a good thing. That is why they are the perfect guideline to creating the best posters every time. Therefore, for your reference, here are the four musts in making color posters.

1. You must always use high quality original images – High quality images are basically mandatory. This is not just an issue of design ethics. It is an essential printing need. Higher quality images mean a larger size or basically a higher resolution setting. In a digital format this means that the images must have a high "dots per inch" (dpi) value. In fact the higher the dpi is the better for your poster design.

Thus, if you are creating designs for your posters from scratch, I recommend that you only use original images that come directly from your camera or from scanned images. Never use anything from the Internet.

2. You must always follow up your images with text – Image and text always go together. Both are equal and important parts of the whole. So do not get fixated with your design and neglect your text. Always follow up your great images with great looking text as well. Use different colors. Add shadows and lighting effects on your text to make them look better. You will be delivering the poster’s message faster this way.

3. You must always consider the printing quality with the design – You should also always take into account the printing quality when it comes to your design. Sometimes a great design will not work well with cheap printed materials. All that effort might be really wasted. Try to match your printing design with the printing quality itself. This should make the effort of designing and printing ideal for your situation.

4. You must always have one unique factor to use – Finally, poster designs must always have at least one unique factor. This can a very original artwork in the poster, glittering inks within the design, special poster holes that let people see through something, or it can be as simple as a very large poster dimension. This unique factor is the key to being remembered by the reader and it will make your color posters more effective. So make it a point to add at least one unique factor.

These are all the "musts" for poster printing. If you are wise, you will always consider all this when you create your own color posters.