From The Art Director — Bobby Lee
Part I – Setup
It’s a fast paced world out there, and the printing industry is no exception. Today, questions like, “How soon can you print it?” seem more habitual than exceptional. The most likely answer is, “It depends on how fast you can get us a good set of files.”
Over the last decade, Copy Craft Printers has invested heavily in HD Waterless and Digital Color Printing technologies as well as the computer graphic technologies required to make those kinds of turnarounds possible. Even so, we realize that one of the last remaining challenges for the graphics community is how to convert a brilliant concept into a computer file that will effortlessly cause an elaborate set of machines somewhere across the country to produce a glamorous brochure that will ship…you guessed it…“as soon as possible.”
Fortunately, Copy Craft has decided to take on that challenge. In fact, we are working hard to develop new ways to educate our clients on techniques to minimize and even eliminate delays on proofing and printing alike. To that end we are launching a new FastTrak File Processing program this coming March. Soon it will be easier and quicker than ever before to submit press-ready files, review hi-res proofs online and submit final approvals for printing…all within our client’s deadline.
This new weekly series on Prepress File Preparation is offered as a prelude to the launch of this exciting new program. The tips and techniques covered in the series are offered as solutions to the most common problems we encounter with submitted files on a daily basis. For those who are new to preparing files for printing, or for those more experienced designers wishing to brush up on technique, we hope this prelude will be a valuable learning experience whatever your level of experience. At the very least, the basic tips presented in this series will make the design process go more smoothly, and at most they will help eliminate the likelihood of someday hearing those dreaded words…“we ran into a problem with your files.”
Overall Preparation
Print design isn’t rocket science, but with the involvement of computers and high-end press equipment it does require a bit of planning and background knowledge to make sure the overall mission goes well. Selecting the right program for the project is just as important as picking the right photos or typestyles to effectively communicate your concept.
Photographers may prefer to work in Photoshop, whereas logo designers might prefer to work with vector art in Illustrator. Should the final printed piece be a single-sheet document incorporating the use of both elements, then perhaps Illustrator would be an excellent choice. If the final piece is a booklet or magazine, programs that support more elaborate multi-page documents, like InDesign or QuarkXPress would be a better choice. Whichever program you use, be sure your choice makes sense from the beginning so you can avoid having to start over with a different program should things go awry or become more elaborate as the project evolves.
Acceptable Applications for HD Printing
We are often asked to recommend software by budding new designers as well as universities, school districts, advertising agencies and corporations setting up in-house design departments. As you know, software in our industry has evolved over the last few decades and it has become highly specialized. Some programs are designed for output on commercial presses while others are best left for desktop printers.
Suffice it to say that we have designated the following software programs to be the most appropriate for the task of HD printing, and experience shows these few will work the best with our new FastTrak File Preparation program without additional processing: Adobe Creative Suite including InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop, as well as QuarkXPress.
Unlike some printers today, we still accept files built in Corel Draw, Publisher, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but you should know that they do require standard processing by our graphics department and may be subject to additional charges if reformatting is required. No matter which software you use, you can still benefit from the following tips to minimize the time required to process your files and prevent delays.
Evaluating the Elements
The quality of any printed document is only as good as the quality of the elements it contains. Before you put together your piece, it’s a good idea to review any files you’re likely to place into it. If you are creating a spot color job, make sure the names of PMS colors in your final document match those of any Pantone PMS colors used in any monotones or duotones. Avoid multiple names for the same PMS color since separate plates will be generated for each color used in your final palette.
For full-color or process color printing, all photos should be CMYK, and their resolution should be a minimum of 300 ppi at 100% of the final size in your document. When purchasing photos from internet photo banks, select a size and resolution equal to or greater than the size needed in your document at 300 ppi. Lo-res 72 ppi images at 100%, such as those appearing on or copied from websites, are not acceptable as they will appear severely pixelated on your final printed piece. Digital camera images, on the other hand, are perfectly acceptable at 72 ppi if their original size is at least 4 times larger than the finished size.
As you crop and size photos, be sure to retain enough background to allow for bleed. Convert any RGB images to CMYK so you can color correct them if any unwanted color shifts occur during the conversion. There are many more things to evaluate when gathering items for a printed document. By the time this series is completed we will do our best to help you discover most of them.
Coming Monday, February 1st…
On Monday we will post Part II of this article and begin listing solutions to the most common problems we encounter with client files, starting with the most critical of them all…Document Size Settings.
By the time our new FastTrak File Processing program is launched, around 20 topics will be covered, so please bookmark this page or make a copy of these tips for future reference. Also, feel free to send a link to whomever you think would benefit from the referral. We look forward to serving you and hope this information will be beneficial to you, your organization or anyone else who prepares prepress files for you.
Our goal is to continually inform our clients of improvements in our system so you can experience quicker turnarounds and more accurate printing. You can find additional setup tips on our Support Center at copycraft.com. Please feel free to call if you have any questions beyond the items listed here: 1.800.794.5594.
Watch for the launch of our exclusive FastTrak File Processing program coming to Copy Craft Printers in March.
