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1) Full-sized
printouts showing cropmarks. If necessary, tile your documents.
2) When submitting your digital
files, collect the following elements in separate folders:
Fonts—both printer &
screen fonts if you’re using Postscript Fonts or a single
suitcase if you use TrueType. Do not mix the two. Use the same
type of font throughout your document.
Support
Files —Logos, blends
or other artwork that has either been scanned or created in
one of the Desktop applications mentioned above. Please note
that fonts used in these files must be supplied too.
Photographs—Scanned
photos must be converted from RGB to CMYK with resolution between
275 and 350 dpi at final size. Either eps or tiff file formats
are accepted. We would prefer that any desktop color separation
(DCS) option be turned off.
Dynacolor® will accept Quark, Pagemaker, Illustrator, or
FreeHand files. CorelDraw
documents should be exported as an eps file with type converted
to curves or paths. And while we certainly accept Photoshop files, it’s not
a good idea to use it as a page layout tool because it does
not handle type well and is much more difficult to make changes.
3) Dynacolor
Desktop Submission Form For Disk Supplied Jobs. It’s
easy to fill out. Knowing the applications and typefaces you’ve
used saves a great deal of time as we process your files.
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4) We currently accept the following media:
3 1/2" Floppy Disks;
Zip Disk; Jaz Disk
CD ROMs and DVD ROMs.
5) FTP
submission—Sending files for print via the internet
is easy and convenient. For a successful upload, remember that
single files must have the dot extension at the end of the file
name, .eps, .tif, .jpg, etc... and no special characters such
as #, @, or & etc... When sending more than one file, place
the job elements and support files in one folder and zip or stuff
the folder. You should compress single files also. You can upload
your compressed files to our web site with no additional software
at our FTP page , or you can use an FTP Utility and upload through
a personal directory assigned by Dynacolor.
6) Preflight
your job - Dynacolor suggests the use of the program “Flightcheck.”
This software checks all the elements of your file for proper
print standards including font and image usage. It can also collect
the elements used in the file and/or “Stuff-It” for
internet transfer. Consult with Dynacolor Tech Support for “ground
control” assistance.
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THE
BASICS
What programs should you use?
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Ideally,
you should use either QuarkXPress, Adobe Pagemaker or Adobe InDesign to create your final document. Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia
Freehand, and Adobe Photoshop, while important and necessary tools
for desktop publishing, and programs that can create page layouts,
they are not nearly as well suited for creating mechanicals as
Quark, Pagemaker or InDesign. Hi-Res PDF files distilled correctly
are acceptable. In addition, the programs mentioned above exist
on both Macintosh and IBM (windows) platforms. |
As
long as you use these programs we will be able to use your electronic
file(s). CorelDraw documents should
be exported as an eps file with type converted to curves or paths. Word processing programs are not acceptable because text formatting
cannot be retained at the imagesetter.
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HOW
TO SET UP YOUR
DESKTOP FILES:
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When you create
a new document, set your page size to the final trim size of
your piece. A business card should be 3.5" x 2",
a catalog sheet 8.5" x 11", and post cards and brochures
should be built at the specified sizes you’ll find in
Dynacolor’s Technical Bulletin that gives art requirements
for folded products. You’ll want to refer to this since
slight variations required for proper folding must be taken
into account. Whenever possible, create a single document that includes both
the front and back of a two-sided piece. Both major page layout
programs allow you to add as many new pages as you need. If
the horizontal or vertical dimension of your piece gets swapped
between the front and back, rotate all the elements of one of
the sides 90º.
Many people become confused with
the terms trim, safety and bleed. Quite simply, trim
is the final size your piece will be cut to. The safety is the
distance your text must be placed inside of the trim to ensure
that it is not accidentally cut off in the bindery. And finally,
bleed is the distance an area must protrude beyond the trim
so that a color or picture comes right to the edge, or trim,
of your piece. At Dynacolor, we ask that bleeds be 1/16"
(.0625") for documents less than 81/2" X 11"
and 1/8" (.125") for pages 81/2" x 11" and
larger. Type safeties should always be 1/8" (.125")
inside your document’s final trim size.
Do not draw in cropmarks.
Quark, Pagemaker, and the other desktop publishing programs
all create cropmarks to the proper document size with an option
enabled in the print dialog box.
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Not only do you waste your time by drawing cropmarks, but
Dynacolor has to take the time to resize your document and delete
your cropmarks. Avoid drawing boxes around your mechanical to
show the trim. The lines are too small to see on the screen and
Dynacolor will need to print your document or page an extra time
after deleting them.
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Setting type is
pretty straight-forward if you observe just a couple of rules.
1. Send
us your type.
That way
if we do not have a particular font you used in your piece
your job will not be held up while we wait for you to send
it to us.
2. Send
us your type.
Slight variations
in kerning and tracking tables can, and do, cause type to
reflow so that line breaks do not match. We have
to assume that you want your printed piece to beidentical
to the printout you send us. The only way to ensure this
is to use your fonts.
3. Send us your type.
Too often a particular typeface is
used in artwork for a client logo that is placed or imported
into your page layout. When this logo is sent to the imagesetter
without its font, it prints in Courier, or typewriter type.
This again delays your job. |
When using fonts
for logos, etc. in Freehand, Corel- Draw, or Adobe Illustrator,
we suggest you convert your type to paths or outlines.
Two terms, same thing... This removes the need to send the font,
since your type has been converted to an outline or vector object
that will print smoothly without having to reference the font
information.
In addition to observing the three steps above, there are several
other points to note about type. Train
yourself not to use “Artificial Attributes”. These
are the little boxes and commands you find in type menus that
produce Bold, Italic, Outline, Shadow and other similar effects.
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These were originally created for use with low-resolution desktop
printers, not imagesetters. What’s even more confusing is
that sometimes, with some typefaces, these commands will work.
The problem is that it is unreliable and unpredictable.
That’s why you should not use
“Artificial Attributes”. Instead, select the
named bold, italic, heavy, black, or oblique typeface you’ll
find in your type menu.
Do not color small type. Unless you are using spot color in a
piece, do not apply a CMYK color value to type that is less than
12 points in size. The slightest misregistration in the printing
process will create a soft, slightly out-of-focus edge. Try and
set your type as simple as possible. In QuarkXpress, the fewer
text boxes the better. In Page- maker, try to do all your type
within one windowshade. Even minor adjustments become complicated
when multiple text groupings are involved.
Simplicity is the key to success in typography. Choose two or
three fonts for any one piece and stick with them throughout.
This applies to indents, tabs, and columns, too. Learn to use
the many different formatting tools built into page layout programs—they
are extremely powerful and can save huge amounts of your time.
Do not use multiple spaces for tabs;
or multiple tabs where one will do. Use space before or
space after instead of multiple returns to space heads, copy and
paragraphs. The more you learn to use and rely on these formatting
commands, the faster and easier your typesetting will be. In Quark,
use show invisibles to see your text formatting marks.
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Many people question using TrueType
vs. Postscript typefaces. Certain imagesetters have no
problem with TrueType fonts while others do. At Dynacolor, we
accept and work with either type format.
When you are sending us your fonts with a job, you need to know
what to look for on your computer. TrueType is contained with
a single, suitcase-shaped icon. Postscript fonts have two parts;
a suitcase icon and a printer font represented by a square icon
with the letter “A” on it or an icon shaped like
a printer. You can check your fonts by opening the suitcase
font and seeing the screen fonts inside. On the PC side, PostScript
Type 1 and Type 2 font files are identified by the .PFB,
.PFA, .PFM, and .AFM extension; TrueType by .TTF.
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Using pictures of any kind in a page layout
program is a fairly simple, straight-forward affair as long
as you follow the rules. Different kinds of pictures, because
of how they are created and how they are reproduced on press,
are handled differently. In the broadest sense there are just
two kinds of pictures; line art and half-tones.
Line art is the simplest format to understand. It is your basic,
on-color scan. Imagine a silhouette of a bird. That is simple
line art. When you scan it, you need to scan it at a resolution
between 800 and 1200 dots per inch (dpi). Once you understand
what resolution means in desktop publishing and how it affects
your printed piece, scanning and manipulating images becomes
much easier.
Picture a simple window screen. A broad screen has large boxes;
a fine screen tiny boxes. If you lay down an image over these
two screens you immediately notice that there are many more
tiny boxes in the fine screen. Pay particular attention to the
boxes along the object’s edge. The edge of the image on
the broad screen is made up of boxes that look like stairs.
That’s the staircasing, rough, bitmapped edge you want
to avoid. The fine screen, with many more boxes has a much smoother
edge. It has more boxes because it is a higher resolution.
Now
that you understand line art resolution, lets look at halftones. A halftone is a somewhat imperfect attempt to recreate the look
of a photographic print on a printed piece of paper. On photographic
paper, colors are solid, they move and blend smoothly from one
shade to the next. To simulate the effect, a printing press
prints percentages of dots that fool the eye into seeing a smooth
transition between white and solids. Dots are measured as lines per inch (lpi)(ie. 133, 150, 200).
The computer, through the imagesetter, creates the dots on film.
Dpi, or dots per inch is how this resolution is measured. Industry
theory varies, but 1.5 to 2 times the line screen is the acceptable
resolution for a halftone image. Dynacolor prints with a line screen of 200, therefore when scanning a photo, anywhere from 300 to
400 dpi is acceptable resolution. One problem that arises frequently
is a belief that when it comes to resolution in scanned photographs,
more is better. It’s not true.
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High
resolution is no substitute for balanced color, good lighting,
or any of the many factors that create a good picture. In fact,
too high of a resolution just eats up storage space and processing
time because film resolutions is set at the imagesetter and excess
resolution is simply discarded. Never artificially add resolution. For example, never make a 3"
x 5" scan at 72 dpi then use your controls to raise the resolution
to 300 dpi. The computer makes up pixels to increase the resolution.
It does this by averaging the color of adjacent pixels, then adding
the result between them. You end up with a heavily digitized looking
picture that lack all sharpness. You can lower resolution without
losing quality. Scan pictures at a higher resolution than you
need, then use
your image size controls to adjust your picture’s physical
size and resolution to roughly 300 dpi at the size it will be
used. There is one important thing to do to scans. All scans have
to be converted from RGB - the red, green, and blue colors that
scanners and monitors use to create color - to the CMYK or cyan,
magenta, yellow, and black colors that the printing press uses
to produce color with ink. More detailed information on this subject
can be found in the color section that follows.
Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for photographic manipulation.
Save your final files as CMYK tiffs (tagged image file format),
or as eps, (encapsulated postscript files). There are minor differences
in the two formats, mostly in the way Quark and Pagemaker handle
the images, but the printed results are indistinguishable.
There is yet one more picture format. Vector graphics are created
in drawings and illustrations programs. The two most popular programs
are Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand. Whether it’s
a map, logo, or full-color illustration for a children’s
book, this art is easy to place, use, and print if you just remember
a few things. Make sure you use CMYK colors. Make sure you send
along any typefaces used in this art or convert your type to paths
or outlines, and finally, make sure you include these files along
with your page layout document.
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PHOTOSHOP
Color Management
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ICC (International Color Consortium) profiles make it easier for Photoshop
users to achieve consistent color across various platforms, monitors,
and printers. The single most important step in color management
is to calibrate your monitor. Use the Adobe Gamma utility (found
in Settings > Control Panel) regularly, or better yet, buy
one of the monitor calibration utilities. Please visit our web
site at Color_Management to download Dynacolor’s latest profiles to match your system
and version of Photoshop. The PDF files will give you complete
instructions on how to install and use our profiles with your
system. Below is an example of the CMYK setup dialog box from
Photoshop 5.5 after profiles were loaded on a mac.
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The dot percent number listed
below represents the percentages in Photoshop’s info pallet
and will provide a “Reference to Success.” The value
may be lightened or darkened to achieve specific results. While
there is no one perfect set of numbers for all presses and printing
devices, these numbers will provide a proven starting point for
color correction.
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Now that you’ve assembled all the elements
in your page layout program, what do you need to send to Dynacolor?
Send us everything!
To really understand what we need and why we need it, you need to understand how and what a page layout program
does. Once you’ve got that down, sending us all those
files begins to make lots of sense. Think of your page layout
program as an orchestra conductor who calls on different musicians
and tells them how to play their movements. All those support
files—the type, the art, the photos—are the notes.
Without them, there’s no music. Make sure you send us
everything, on missing typeface, picture, or logo will delay
your job. “But I set my type in Pagemaker. I saw my logos
on the screen. They’re on my printout. What do mean they’re
not there?”
Yes, they are there... on the screen, but not necessarily containing
the information Dynacolor needs to produce film that will duplicate
your pieces the way you expect it to look. What page layout
programs do, to allow you to place, scale, rotate, color, and
build your document is create proxy images of your design elements.
For instance, if you place a full-page product shot on a catalog
sheet, the image you are moving and sizing is really a 72 dpi
screen preview. What the program really saves is the low resolution
image and the address, where to find the hi-res image, and numerical
information about how to place and size this image when it is
sent to the printer. If the program cannot find the high resolution
image, it sends the low resolution screen image and you end
up with a shoddy, bitmapped picture or graphic.
The type you see on the screen is a preview image. If the type
files are not available, the computer does not have the information
it needs to draw each letter the way you want it to look. As
a result, text reflows, things move and you have a costly mess
on your hands.
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Both QuarkXpress and Adobe Pagemaker have built-in
utilities to help ensure that all support or resource files
are sent along with the final document. Under the utilities
menu in Quark you can select font or picture usage to identify
the fonts you’ve used and where on your hard drive to
find the pictures you have used. Quark also has another feature
called “Collect for Output” under the file menu
that will go out and copy all the picture resources you need
to print your document correctly.
Pagemaker has similar functionality.
Under Utilities —> Plug-ins you’ll find “Pub
Info”. This utility tells you what fonts have been used
and where and what graphics are in your Pagemaker file. In your
Save dialog you also have an option to copy all the files you
have used for remote printing. Sending files for output has
never been easier, you just need to know where the tools are
to help you do it.
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We’ve
already discussed the differences between RGB and CMYK color with
scans, but there’s a bit more to know about color and how
to use it in other elements of your project. All the major desktop
publishing programs allow you to create and use color. Remember
that, in almost every instance, your printer will need CMYK colors.
Often named colors; pink, gold, cobalt, etc., used in programs
need to be converted to CMYK. It’s just a click of a button,
but it’s necessary to create film properly. If you do not
convert colors, you’ll end up with a separate piece of film
for each color in your document. Paying for six, twelve or more
extra sheets of film can eat up profits in a hurry. Here’s
how to convert colors CMYK. Illustration programs allow you to
define, or create colors as you work. You can select from hundreds
of predefined colors, be it Pantone®, Toyo® or named colors
supplied with the program. Generally, you can convert any of these
colors to the 4-color process, CMYK, by clicking the “Process”
box in the color palette. It is really that easy. Once you do
this, any color you use will separate properly creating film to
accurately reproduce it. If you need a spot color, just turn off
the “Process” box and you’ll get a fifth plate
for that color.
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