Send All Fonts/Send All Images

The single most important thing you can do to ensure that your job is printed correctly is to send all the fonts and images associated with your publication. This includes nested fonts and images in your placed EPSs.

Just because you can see the graphic on the screen does not mean that the file is ready for film. Keep in mind that if your file is output and a link is missing, a low resolution pixelated image will result. Similarly, any missing fonts will output as Courier.

It is also crucial that all your image links have been updated and that none of your images is renamed afterward. Please do not embed graphics into your PageMaker file.

Place all fonts into one folder and images into a separate folder. Leave your native Quark or PageMaker file in the root directory of your disk. ==> see left

Document Size

Please use the exact page dimensions required for your job. Set your document size to the trim and your margins to the image area. Keep all of your text and graphics within your margins. All bleeds need to extend a quarter-inch past the trim.

If your document setup is not correct it will more than likely have to be scaled to meet the required dimensions. This will affect our ability to trap your document effectively.

Formatting Raster Images

Convert all RGB images to CMYK. This will ensure that your images separate properly. We output your files at an 85 line screen, so it is only necessary to scan your images at 170dpi (2X the line screen). Scanning continuous tone images at higher resolutions will unnecessarily increase the file size. Line art, however, should be scanned in at our imagesetter's output resolution, 1200 dpi.

All scaling beyond 20% should be performed in Photoshop and not the page layout application.

When placing your TIFF images in QuarkXPress, make sure to have a background color of white in the picture box rather than setting it to "none". This avoids problems with pixelation at the edges of the image.

Your files should be saved as either TIFs or EPSs, and please, never use LZW compression.

Formatting Vector Images

Please list the colors being used and check to see that all of the color names are consistent (letter for letter) between applications. For instance, if an EPS file from Illustrator is created with a color called "PMS 283 CVC," and is imported into QuarkXPress which contains a color named "PMS 283 CV" then two plates will be the output result for only one color. If you see this problem, open the graphic in its native program and rename it to fix the discrepancy.

Please delete all of the unused colors from your Illustrator file. You can do this quickly by choosing "select all unused" then choosing "delete swatch" from the color palette menu.

Do not nest EPSs into EPSs. Doing this will give you an unpredictable finished product. You can copy and paste with much better results.

Change the output resolution to 1200 dpi. You can do this by selecting everything and changing the "output" located in the attributes palette.

If you have any vector images that were placed in Quark and then rotated, apply the rotation factor to the original file in its source program, then reset the updated image rotation to zero in your page layout application.

Set your black type to overprint, also located in the attributes pallete.

Delete all superfluous information from your artwork. Doing this will speed up the time it takes for your file to be processed and minimize confusion during output.

If you cannot send the fonts used in your EPSs then please convert them to outlines. Doing this will eliminate the necessity of sending the font by converting the font to paths.

Fonts

For predictable output you should use PostScript type 1 fonts. TrueType fonts are often inexpensive but tend to cause more problems during output. Avoid Multiple Master fonts which often trip up our rips even if you have sent all the instances. Also stay away from PostScript type 3 fonts.

Please do not apply styles to your fonts. Always select fonts by their long names (i.e., select "Helvetica bold" as a font rather than selecting "Helvetica" and clicking the "bold" style button). Some applications will not display all font faces for TrueType fonts. Consequently, you may use the different styles if you are positive the corresponding font exists.

Never apply the underscore or outline styles to fonts from QuarkXPress or other applications. These are gimmicks that look nice on screen but are hideous in their output behavior.

Don't apply 2 or more process colors to small text (i.e., under 8 points). This also applies to white knockout type with a process color background. If the registration gets slightly off on the press, your text will be illegible.