Hi Everyone, I’m Dheeraj Sudan and my wife Meenu Hinduja, run a business. I’m trying to get better at preparing my designs for different outputs.
How do you usually export files for web versus print? Any tips or best practices?
Regards
Dheeraj Sudan and Meenu Hinduja
For print, the only answer is to contact the printer doing the work. Different types of print have very different specs.
As for web, if you don’t know the answer, I hope you have a web developer.
It sounds a little mean, but it’s also true. 
Generally, one could say that one probably is better off with CMYK and 120 pixels per cm on the final printout, and RGB and 72–144 pixels per inch for displays.
And Welcome Dheeraj 
I sure as heck don’t want 120 pixels per cm on a 40’ billboard. Or even a 10’ vinyl banner.
I’ll take it if you can get it there, but likely won’t rip it all. Overkill.
That’s almost like saying, “include 3mm bleed.”
For a 10’ banner I want a minimum of 2.5 CENTIMETERS on all 4 sides. For a frame wrap, like a billboard or a wall flat, that can be up to 15cm all 4 sides.
I might even want your imagery in RGB to give my print machines more color info to work with – as long as the images are native RGB. Converting to RGB from CMYK does not serve any useful purpose. Once made CMYK and saved, the color info is gone.
In print, it’s all about the size, the process and the finishing.
I know.
On the other hand, if we tell everyone to either ask a professional or get a graphics design education, we might as well close this forum to non-professionals. Am I wrong? 
Do we have a section for laypeople?
One thing that often gets overlooked in these discussions is colour management, which can matter just as much as colour mode or resolution.
It’s not just CMYK vs RGB, it’s which CMYK or RGB. Embedding the correct ICC colour profiles and knowing where the file is going makes a big difference. For web, working in sRGB is usually safest because most displays are unmanaged. For print, it’s worth asking the printer which profile they want and soft-proofing against it, rather than assuming a generic CMYK will behave the same everywhere.
Another helpful distinction is vector vs raster. Logos, text and flat graphics should stay vector as long as possible, which avoids resolution issues entirely and keeps things sharp for both print and screen. Photos and effects can stay raster and be exported per use case.
A good general workflow is to keep one clean master file, then export different versions depending on where it’s going, web, digital, large-format print, etc. That way you’re not redesigning each time or baking in compromises too early.
For web specifically, it’s also worth thinking beyond “72 vs 144 ppi” and looking at responsive sizes, compression, and formats (JPG vs PNG vs WebP). Often perceived quality and contrast matter more on screens than absolute colour accuracy.
In print, size, process and finishing always win, but soft-proofing and correct profiles at least let you see what compromises are coming before the file ever leaves your desk.