The Digital Pre-Press
By Donald Samson
The purpose of this site is to offer information to those who would like to send digital files to Marcus Printing for high-end, high quality printing.
I have been in pre-press since 1987 and have seen dramatic changes in operations due to the use of computers. I have seen the death of paste-up and can easily predict the end of traditional stripping and platemaking as well. I work in a 40 person shop. We are a middle to high middle end, one to five color shop with total in-house pre-press equipment. We use Macs, PCs and high end flatbed scanners with the latest publishing software. We also have direct-to-plate capabilities, which guarantees high quality impressions. We have virtually no traditional prepress equipment (imagesetters or darkroom camera) and we are proud of it.
I'd like to start with the list of do's and don'ts for designers sending files to printers. As many times as you may have heard this list, it still remains as the most important first step in the printing process. Remember you are now part of the production team. Having missing fonts on a disc is like handing in a blank piece of paper or mechanical and asking the camera operator for good sharp type.
The Basics, an Overview
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First and foremost be compatible, be sure that the programs/applications and fonts you are using will work for your printer or service bureaus. Don't be afraid to contact us if your not sure about a specific aspects of building an electronic file. This is especially important when crossing platforms, PC to Mac or Mac to PC. If you are a using a PC use this link also. If you have any questions about the following items, please contact us.
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Create the digital document the size you expect it to be when cut down and don't forget the bleeds, if applicable. Books should follow a normal order: Cover - page 1,2,3, etc. We will take care to impose the book for the printing press.
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Include all graphic files (EPS and TIFF) with your job. PICT (Mac), Windows Metafiles (WMF), GIF and JPEG are not appropriate file formats for this venue. Tell us if the pictures are FPO (For Position Only) or not. If they are only FPO, be sure to send us the pictures so they can be scanned. If your photos are in color, be sure they are in the CMYK color space, not RGB. If your images are pixel based be sure the resolution is at least 300 dpi at the physical size they are to be printed at and at least 600 dpi for line art.
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Send all Mac fonts or PC fonts used in the document. Don't forget the fonts hidden in imported graphic eps files.
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Make a mock up of the job so we can see what you expect and
to check the bleeds and folds (copy should center on each panel).
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Provide color separated printouts. When doing a two or three color job it is very important to know that the correct colors will show up on the right plates. This is detailed intensive work and requires that no periods, dashes or eps colors are named wrong. Color printouts look great for your clients but will not help you find those CMYK colors in your spot color job. Name all spot colors exactly the same in the drawing/painting program and in the pagelayout program. For example (Pantone 249 CV) not also (Pantone 249 CVC).
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Let us know exactly what the file name is for your job so we can easily locate your job on your transfer media (Zip, CD's, DVD's, USB Flash Drives).
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A good trick for checking a file to see if all the elements are present on the disc you are submitting for output, is to open the file from that disc. If you are using a font management application (ATM, Suitcase, FontAgent, Font Book, etc.), reload all fonts from the disc too.
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Give all other relevant information on how to contact the designer and where to ship the job, etc.
Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) Files
PDF stands for "Portable Document Format". Its native software is Adobe Acrobat. It is the promise of PDF to be the final interchange file, ready for the printing plate. MPC uses PDFs for our intermediate file format between all Applications (Quark, Publisher, etc.), to our Sherpa Proofer and our page imposition software.
The main special features of PDFs are that they can be self-contained into one file and can also be properly compressed for printing to optimize their portability. A PDF can contain (embed) graphics (all formats) and fonts (all kinds). It is a good analogy to think of PDF as final "Film". There are limits to how much these files can be altered. In some cases PDFs can be locked so that no changes are possible. Also we can not imposition a locked or password-protected PDFs.
"Print-Ready" PDF Files
Not all PDFs are created equally. The PDF files that we create here at MPC have very specific parameters for our needs. Considerations for color space (Spot Color, CMYK or Grayscale), bleeds, folding, trapping (color fitting), size and having the fonts properly embedded are very important. You must proof your PDF, not your native file. If the PDF does not conform to any one of these parameters MPC may not be able to correct them and the process will be slowed or stopped.
If you follow these guidelines you can reap the benefits of a digital workflow, faster turnaround and the highest quality printing. Once again you are part of the production process and the trick is getting all the elements of your job from your computer
to our computers. It's that simple!
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