A Designer’s Guide:
Using ChatGPT for Print
Written By: Katt Woodworth
Introducing the all-new ChatGPT — the artificial intelligence that can do your job for you… or so it would like you to believe.
Yes, ChatGPT is a powerful tool to have in your wheelhouse. But like anything else, it has a time and a place. Unfortunately, a lot of inexperienced designers have started treating this AI tool (and others) like a catch-all “do everything for me” button — which has led to some pretty massive headaches at the print shop level.
So, here’s a quick summary of when to utilize this hefty bot.
The Creative Block
Everyone has heard of the Creative Block, and every designer dreads the day that they will be struck by it. Luckily for those of us who live in the age of AI, ChatGPT is there to give us the push we need to break through it.
It’s perfect for sparking new ideas and concepts that a designer can build upon. And I’ll admit, I’ve even used it to quickly hash out multiple ideas so that I could visualize what would and would not work.
Becoming Print Ready
Let’s say you fully designed your business cards with ChatGPT – or rather, let it design them for you. It has provided you with a file, and you are ready to print.
What’s next? Send that file to a print shop, right?
WRONG!
This file that ChatGPT has given you is not suitable for printing. No matter how many specifications you provide, however perfect it seems, it will never be print-ready.
Why is that?
Well, ChatGPT can explain print production concepts and tell you what a print-ready file should include – but it can’t consistently maintain those requirements in the files it generates.
The dimensions can become distorted, bleed requirements may be overlooked, and the resolution is usually far too low for professional printing.
So, how do we get this file ready for print?
Unfortunately, there is no way to obtain a truly print-ready file using solely ChatGPT.
Trust me. I tried. You will need to recreate the design in another program, using the AI-generated file as a template. Just don’t forget to export the PDF with bleeds when you’re done.
In order to prepare myself to write this article, I decided to test the design process within ChatGPT myself. That way I would have firsthand knowledge of the issues that can occur.
The top image is the initial design that it came up with. The bottom image is the final “print-ready” file it gave me.
As you can see, it distorted the dimensions of the actual business cards and added a white margin around them before placing the crop marks.
A Helpful Tip When Designing With ChatGPT:
If you want the smoothest workflow, start in ChatGPT’s Apps section and choose Canva.
Once its AI generates a business card design, you can request an editable link. That link opens the file in Canva, where you can make adjustments and export properly.
When exporting, make sure you select:
- PDF Print
- Not PNG
- And include bleed + crop marks
In Conclusion
ChatGPT is a powerful tool – perfect for ideation – but it’s no substitute for proper design software.
Used alongside your other programs, it can help you push through that creative block and speed up your design process.
Just don’t expect it to hand you a print-ready file… because it won’t.