Graphic Design and Digital Prepress
Top 10 Do's
(& Don'ts)

Page elements that bleed should extend at least 1/8" past the page boundary. The page dimensions (aka. document set-up) should be exactly the same as your final trim size of the piece. DO NOT build your page elements in the middle of a bigger page and manually add crop or registration marks. Those marks will be created when film is generated and it will save you time not having to add your own marks! Besides, your service provider may charge you for rebuilding your pages in order to post process them for trapping or imposition.

The DPI (dots per inch) of a bitmap image should be NO MORE THAN TWICE the output line screen or NO LESS THAN 1.5 TIMES the output line screen. A resolution (DPI) too low will yield undesirable quality and a DPI too high makes the file size much larger than it needs to be, increasing RIP time. Not to mention the additional time required to copy or move the bloated file(s) across disk or network media.

For example, if you are printing a photo at 150 LPI (lines per inch), the DPI of the photo should be 300 DPI ideally or at the very least 225 DPI. If you are not sure of the resolution of the images you are working with, let your service provider know so that they may check them.

NOTE: Standard Screen Captures, while they are very useful and many times the only way to retrieve an image, they typically yield very low resolution (72 DPI) files unless handled in a special way, They must be interpolated or resampled up before they have adequate resolution for offset printing.

While it is very tempting to use a typestyle palette for quickly styling your text, (i.e. bold-italic) be careful that you actually have the typeface that corresponds to that style available on your system. You may not discover that this is a problem until you are ready to run high resolution film because many laser printers will rasterize and print the styles anyway. Imagesetters however, require that the printer font be available to accurately render the style.

For example, if you are using Goudy Oldstyle Bold and then use the style palette to add the italic style, you must have the screen and printer font file for Goudy Oldstyle Bold Italic. Otherwise you will not get the desired type you want and subsequently cost you more for additional film output.

When using EPS files from Freehand, Photoshop Layers or CorelDraw, it is a good idea to also include the native source files of your imports. Then, if your service provider needs to alter your import files, they have the opportunity to change the original files and re-export them. This can save you time especially when you are not available to do the changes yourself.

NOTE: Freehand users can avoid sending two files by selecting the "Include the Document" option when exporting to an EPS. Illustrator EPS files, however, are already in native format when they are imported.

Images in RGB or other color modes do not separate as process color correctly. If your application will not convert color images to CMYK, let us know and we can do it for you.

Most applications today will allow you to convert spot colors to process upon printing. Sometimes however, this is a global effect which may negate that 5th plate you wanted. If a color is supposed to print as process, define it that way. Also...watch for duplicate instances of the same color usually occurring when import colors duplicate document colors but are named differently.

For example, Freehand may call the color Pantone 186 CVC while Quark simply refers to it as Pantone 186 CV.

Illustrator 7 users be especially aware!

When transferring your files to your service provider, always supply a current proof. This proof should show them exactly what your job is supposed to look like. If changes have been made to the final document, run a new set of proofs. It doesn't matter if this proofs are black and white or in color, but don't substitute a color composite proof for a separated one. Printing separated laser proofs of your job ensures that all of the images are colored correctly. Depending on the preflight experience of your service provider, this may save you from running additional film later.

It's easy to give your service provider all of the files they need. Quark (Collect for Output) and PageMaker (Prepare for Service Bureau) both include features that do this for you. A good way to prove to yourself that your job is complete is to open your document from your removable media that will go to your service provider. Check your image links or picture usage to see where your imports are linked to.

It's easy to give your service provider all of the fonts required for imaging your job. All that is required is knowing where your font files reside on your system and how to copy them. Some applications are better than others at telling you what fonts are in use in any document, but if your need to know for sure, give us a call.

Talk to the people who will be handling your job, let them know what to expect and they will be prepared to handle your job in the most error-free way.