File Preparation
How to Ensure Trouble-Free Output
The process from your initial concept to the finished product at our end is a complex one which involves a lot of people doing a lot of things right. Here's a list of dos and don'ts which addresses the most common causes of output problems. It can help you reduce costs associated with us “correcting” problems and ensure that your work is completed to your expectations. And if all else fails, call us. We may be able to help you correct a problem before it gets to us.
1. Include All Fonts & Images
If you don't include all your graphics, QuarkXpress (or Pagemaker) will print low-res 72 ppi previews, and in Illustrator will print nothing. So all graphics used in your layout must be included (Collect for Output in QuarkXpress or Package in InDesign is great for this). Any missing fonts will be replaced by something at output: either the system default font or something that somebody here hopes is appropriate. In either case you're not likely to get exactly what you had expected. Remember to check embedded files for the fonts and images used in them (such as Illustrator artwork that has not been converted to outlines). These are the most commonly missed items.
2. Use Only Hi Res Images
Never deliver a scanned image (photograph or greyscale) at less than 200 dpi at 100% or a line art scan (bitmap) at less than 600 dpi at 100%. Always use TIFF or EPS formats for images; no JPEGs, BMPs, PICTs, etc. Remember: line screen (lpi, lines per inch) is the effective resolution of the press as it relates to the images to be printed. Think of a laser printer at 1200 dpi as better and crisper than 600 dpi. Typically, in cold web printing 100 (or more) line screen is best quality, 85 is good. You need enough information in the image file for it to print right. For 100 line quality presswork, your images have to be 200 dpi. These values correspond to the line screens that large, medium and small presses are capable of printing reliably (although many exceptions exist), for which there is a direct correlation to the visible quality and detail of your photos. Images that are 72 dpi are fine for screen viewing (ie. web pages) and 150 is good enough for printing to a desktop printer. But don't think that you can just take a low-res image and have PhotoShop magically turn it into a high res image. The data has to be there in the first place. It cannot be created out of nothing. A word on image manipulation in a layout program: don't. Ideally, all image manipulation should be done in an image editing program and placed at final size in the layout. So avoid the temptation to stretch and skew in your layout.
3. Convert All Images to CMYK
We cannot print from RGB images. They must be converted to CMYK. And be sure that images you want black and white are bitmap for line art and greyscale for photos.
4. Add Bleed
If colour extends to the edge of a page, it has to bleed off the page at least 1/4". If you neglect to allow for this, your job will either be trimmed smaller than you intended to achieve clean edge to edge image or else it will be correctly sized with white edges randomly sprinkled from page to page. You can specify a bleed setting in the print dialogue box of QuarkXpress.
5. Don't Set TIFF Background to "None"
Only EPS images support transparent backgrounds. Do not set the background colour of TIFF images to "None" in QuarkXpress (unless you have used a clipping path to define the image) or some TIFFs may print with ragged edges. Also, remember that a white background in a box takes less space than a transparent one, so don't change it to "None" if you don't need to.
6. Don't Embed Your Images
If you embed your graphics and images, your service provider has no way of guaranteeing the output of your file. QuarkXpress links images by design; but most other programs give you a choice (ie. Illustrator, Pagemaker, Freehand, Corel) and some automatically embed them (many Windows based applications, ie. Publisher, Word, WordPerfect). If you do embed your graphics and images, your file size will grow tremendously and all responsibility for properly setting up files for output will be yours.
7. Don't Use Hairlines
A hairline is defined in QuarkXpress as the thinnest possible line printable by the printing device connected to this computer. In other words, the line width varies according to what device it is printed on. In some cases it will barely be visible. The same is true of straight lines in Illustrator or CorelDraw which have been filled instead of stroked.
8. Don't JPEG Your Images
There are only two graphic file formats for the pre-press environment: TIFF for bitmaps and EPS for bitmaps and vectors. These formats are like translators; they're only needed if and when your file must be made available to a program other than the authoring program. Until then leave it in its native format (eg. QuarkXpress or Illustrator). JPEGs and JPEG compressed EPS images will not print to most imagesetters.
9. Don't Set Clipping Path Flatness to "0"
Setting the flatness of clipping paths to anything less than 3 or leaving the box blank will probably result in a "Postscript Limitcheck" error. For imagesetter output (100-200 lpi screen), clipping paths in bitmap images should have a flatness value of no less than 3.
10. Use Only High End Graphics Applications
QuarkXpress, InDesign, PhotoShop and Illustrator are the benchmark, tried and true standards of the publishing world. Do not use Microsoft Word, Publisher or WordPerfect. They are not graphics programs. If you work in Pagemaker or CorelDraw, check with us before sending anything.
11. Delete Unused Master Pages and Blank Pages
This reduces the complexity and size of your files.
12. Check Page Geometry
Always use the measurement palette (QuarkXpress) or Transform Palette (Illustrator) for positioning. You can use it as a calculator to add, subtract, multiply or divide. There's no need to eyeball positioning.
13. Use Native Programs to Transform Graphics
Bitmaps should be resized and rotated in bitmap programs and vectors in vector programs. Using your page layout program to perform these tasks reduces quality and increases file size.
14. Crop Graphics to Size
Crop your image in PhotoShop to no bigger than the size you need. Whether in Illustrator, QuarkXpress or any other page layout program, do not put huge images in little boxes. And don't step and repeat little boxes with large images.
15. Delete Unused Colours, Style Sheets and H&Js
This reduces the size of your files.
16. Delete Unused Fonts
If fonts are showing as used in your file but they're not visible in the document, then the document contains empty text boxes or text paths. Ghost fonts can cause PostScript errors on output. So get rid of them using Find/Replace fonts in QuarkXpress or Edit/Path/Cleanup in Illustrator.
17. Use Self-Descriptive File Names
Remember that other people may have to understand your file names, so use names which help identify the contents. Using the proper file extension makes it visually easier to find files.
18. Use Picture Boxes for Shapes
To draw a shape in QuarkXpress, use a picture box rather than a text box. They're smaller in file size.
19. Provide Hard Copies
Send or fax printouts of your artwork so that we have a point of reference in case a question arises regarding your file.