Before beginning any project, it is important to understand the difference
between various applications and choose the most appropriate application
for the project. A page layout application, such as Adobe Pagemaker or
QuarkXpress, is where all of your graphic and text elements are combined
to create your final document. Graphic illustration programs, such as
Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, or Corel are applications in which graphics
elements are created. These files are generally saved as EPS or TIFF files
and imported into your page layout program and placed in position. Adobe
Photoshop is where your photo editing and special effects takes place.
These files are also imported into your final page layout. While most
graphic illustration programs allow some page layout capabilities, they
often cause unnecessary problems and delays in imaging your final film.
Avoid using compression software if possible.
As with other types of software, the version of compression software you
use must be compatible with our version. It would be more efficient to
choose the "self-extracting" option if you absolutely need to
compress files to send to us.
Are laser proofs 100% in size?
If lasers are not printed out at 100% it could cause confusion about the
actual printed size. Try to print lasers at 100%, tile if necessary and
assemble into as tight a "comp" as possible. If you have reduced
your laser pages, please indicate the percentage of reduction on the laser
print. Try not to use the "Reduce to Fit" option.
Are the provided laser copies the latest and final version?
Often, submitted lasers are not the final version which can cause confusion
about the full project. Additional phone calls and interruptions may be
required due to lack of information.
Make sure any FPO (For Position Only) images are marked as such on
your printed lasers.
If you have an FPO linked into your document, please mark the image as
an FPO only If we are to scan the high-res image for you, please indicate
images on your lasers that will be replaced by the high-res version. If
you have a low-res image and want us to relink to a high-res version you
have also provided, please note this on your laser.
Indicate the number of colors that are actually needed with laser
separations.
By creating laser separations of your document, you can double check yourself
and make it clear to us what color breaks are needed and avoid costly
extra film charges. These lasers can be reduced and should have crops
and registration marks on them to indicate actual print area. Be sure
to delete any unused colors from your palette, and make sure all colors
are defined correctly. Remember to build 1/8" bleeds where necessary.
Have you provided both screen and printer fonts?
Fonts have two components, 1) the SCREEN font and 2) the PRINTER font.
Each part is necessary to image your file. Although we have an extensive
font library, it is impossible to have every font that's been created.
So, be sure to send both your printer and screen fonts to us with your
job.
Do not rename or renumber fonts.
When you rename your fonts we often get font conflicts as a result. The
manufacturer of your fonts has given each font a particular name and it
also has a Post Script number assigned to it. When you rename or renumber
fonts, they may conflict with one or more of our installed fonts.
Do you have fonts in your EPS files?
It's easy to overlook the fonts contained in EPS files. This practice
is called "nesting fonts" and can cause problems at film output
time. If you do not note the name of these fonts or do not provide them
on your disk, these font characters may default to Courier at film output.
We would like to suggest if a font needs to be present in your EPS file,
you convert them to outline characters if possible. The letter characters
then become a graphic element and do not require the font to be down loaded
to the output device.
Have you stylized any fonts?
Many software programs allow you the option of highlighting a word and
applying italics, bold, outline or shadow to the type characters. This
feature was meant to be used for laser printers only and generally causes
problems at film output. If you "bold" an already bold font
to get a "heavy" appearance. it will probably default to either
the plain bold font or the Courier default system font. Characteristics
such as shadow or outline, need to be created in an illustration program
such as Macromedia Freehand or Adobe Illustrator.
Don't rotate large images in your page layout program.
Even though Quark Xpress and PageMaker allow you to rotate images within
the application, DON'T! It causes an increase in time to image the film,
or in some cases, causes the files to "crash". Please rotate
images in their native application. If they are bitmaps, it may be necessary
to rotate them in Photoshop, or have the images rescanned to the correct
rotation.
Are all linked graphics files included?
We need to have the native files and the EPS file for any graphics you
have placed in your document. Also remember to send any TIFF or other
bitmap images that are imbedded in your EPS files. If there is something
wrong, we can open the native files and make corrections without wasting
valuable time waiting for a new file.
Are line art, grayscale and 4/C files scanned at the appropriate
resolution?
Make sure your scans have enough DPI (dots per inch) or PPI (pixels per
inch) for the size and line screen at which they need to be reproduced.
Images should be scanned at no more than twice the LPI (lines per inch).
If you enlarge them greatly in you page layout program, you may not have
enough resolution for them to image without rasterized or stair-stepped
edges, Your images should not be scanned at lower resolution and re-interpolated
to higher resolution. Images can become softer and take on a "blurred"
look when this is done. We recommend an enlargement in the page layout
program of no more than 120%. If you provide high resolution scans with
your file, Fowler Printing will assume you have approved color prior to
our outputting the file. If this is not so, and you would like to see
what your high resolution color scans actually look like, let us know
and we will output them as random separations and make a 3M Color Matchprint
for your review at an additional charge.
Send only the files necessary to output your job.
Unrelated files take up time and disk space. When we copy your files to
our drives, we usually have no idea at that point which documents we need
to image your file. Please take time to remove unnecessary files from
the disk you send to us.
Have you saved your photos in the proper format?
Images must be saved as a TIFF or EPS. Convert scanned (color) images
from RGB to CMYK before sending them to Fowler Printing. Remember that
this conversion can radically affect the overall color of your images.
Have differences in color monitors versus printed colors been considered?
Each hardware element involved in the digital prepress process is capable
of displaying color differently How you view color on your monitor may
inaccurately represent the actual color that is output to film and what
ultimately translates into ink on paper. Remember, you are seeing an RGB
rendering of a Pantone color. Pick your colors from printed manufacturer's
swatch books, not from swatches represented on your monitor.
Limit your file names to as few characters as possible.
File names can become complex and cumbersome when they are translated
to any workstation. If possible, limit your file names to eight characters.
Do not use special punctuation like quotation marks, apostrophes or bullets.
You can use suffix indicators such as .tif, .eps but remember to use lower
case, and keep the shortest possible number of letters.
Are bleeds built into the file?
Any element that extends to the final trim edge needs bleed extended to
.125" (1/8"). Remember, images created in Photoshop or drawing
programs such as Freehand or Illustrator should have adequate image area
to bleed properly off the page.
Cropping, Sizing and Rotation of Images?
These procedures should be done in the native program of your image. For
layout purposes, you can scale, rotate, or size in your layout document.
Once you have them the way you desire, go back to the original file and
duplicate those procedures to the image. Then update the link, or replace
the image. Make sure you remove the characteristics in the page layout
document. Doing this will keep your file size down, and shorten the processing
time when the final film is generated.
