CSR role: Your CSR will be an experienced print professional
who can give you some insight into your job’s special needs. The CSR is the
common contact point for jobs, and is expected to know everything about a job. So
you don’t forget to inform them about everything.
Talking with the Printer:
Your first contact at the printing company will probably be
with a salesperson. The sales person will gather your initial information and
will provide you with an estimate of job cost and a propose timeline for the
steps along the way. Those steps will include such events as when your files
must be submitted, when you can expect the first proof, when the press run will
take place, and when the final job will be delivered. Finally the salesperson
will hand you and your job off to the customer service representative.
Planning for Print:
As your file takes shape, it’s important to build from the
ground up. Next time you are about to create a file follow these important
specifications:
External document size: make sure you know the correct
external dimensions before you go too far.
Adequate Bleed: 1/8th of an inch of bleed is
standard size but some print services providers may request a larger value.
Internal Plan Sizes: in your page-layout program, set up
guidelines to help you position content. Your print service provider may be
able to provide a template to use if you’re building a common size.
Artwork interactions with folds, perforations, or die cut
trims: IF artwork stops at a fold, special handling may be required to ensure
that it doesn’t dribble over onto the next panel. Your print service provider
can provide some guidance for preparing artwork.
Correct number of pages: in a common format, multipage
document, the number of pages should be divisible by four.
Correct Ink: if it’s not a 27-color job there shouldn’t be
27 spot colors in your application’s color palette. Delete unnecessary colors,
or convert them to CMYK if they’re not intended to print as spot color.
Check Raster/Vectors:
Check raster images: it is important that your images are of
sufficient resolution at final size, and that you’ve save the images in an
appropriate format and in the correct color space. If the images you are
creating are your final art, check them in Photoshop or the application in when
you created them. Consult your printer service provider to make sure you know
their requirements, but here are some general guidelines.
Resolution: raster images should usually be at least 300 ppi
but there are some cases that it needs to be different.
Color space: Images usually come in one of five major
flavors for printing purposes: CMYK, RGB, grayscale, monochrome, and duotone. Unless
you’re working in a color-managed environment, you’ve be asked to provide CMYK
images of color images. If your print service provider utilizes color
management, ensure that you’ve tagged your RGB images with appropriate color
profile. Make sure that grayscale images are truly black-only files, not
gray-appearing RGB or CMYK images.
Retouching: if you are not comfortable performing retouching
work beyond simple blemish removal, let the print service provider know that
you’d like them to perform the work instead.
Rotating and scaling: if you’ve simply flipped an image
horizontally or vertically in a page layout, rotated an image by 90-degree
increments don’t worry about it. But if you rotate an image in a page layout by
anything other than 90-degree increments you will see slight softening of
detail in the final output.
Filenames: avoid using periods, asterisks, and other
characters to flag files names. Even if you and your print service provider are
both using Macintosh computers, remember that your file will probably be copied
to a server that may be based on another platform such as Unix or Windows.
For vector artwork it is important to consider some of the
same issues that you encounter page-layout applications. Don’t forget to check
the following:
Correct colors: if you’ll be placing vector art into a
page-layout program, try to avoid multiple instances of what should be a single
spot color.
Images: Most illustration programs offer the choice of
embedding or linked placed images. Embedding increases the file size and it
ensure that all the pieces are in place. However, it may limit editing if the
print service provider needs to modify the images.
Fonts: Note that while Illustrator enables the embedding of
fonts with proper permission, this only facilitates correct images. The fonts
are not available for text editing unless the user also has the font active on
their system. If wanting to convert text to outlines, be advised that some text
effects such as underlining or strikethrough may be lost when you outline the
text. Font contains special information called hinting, which is lost when text
is converted to outlines. Outlined text will not be as crisp as the original
text when printed on a desktop printer.
Text: Spell-check content, and check for pesky little empty
remnant of text where you unintentionally clicked with the Type tool. Those empty instances may result in
preflight reports of a font being needed; resulting in time wasted
troubleshooting something that isn’t truly a problem.
Bleeds: If the vector artwork file is your final artwork,
ensure that you’ve included adequate bleed, even though you created bleed
artwork correctly, the export format that you choose in Illustrator determines
whether that artwork is correctly retained during file export.
Types of proofs
The print service provider should give you some guidelines
for submitting job files. Some prefer PDF files, while some would rather have
application files such as QuarkXPress, InDesign, and Illustrator.
Resolution for output
The rule for image resolution is the same as for image size,
because the concepts are intertwined. You can always discard information, but
you can’t convincingly create it out of nothing. Generally speaking, 300 ppi at
final size is sufficient for printing at 133-150 line screen. The resolution
changes on the line screen, and other objectives.
Color space in PS & AI
Our eyes see in RGB. RGB is the native tongue for scanners
and digital cameras as well. Once
you convert and image to CMYK for a given printing condition, you lose some
flexibility. Keeping the image in RGB allow you to defer the conversion until
later in the workflow, rather than locking you in to a particular print
condition early in the life of the job.
Flatten or layered
Flatten layer is everything compressed into one layer.
Layered is everything that was created on separate layers stays on separate
layers.
Transparency is expressed in percentage opacity. The opacity of an object or
layer is transparency.
Creating a path: Make Work Path tolerance setting on the
Paths panel can soften the granularity of the generated path. Keep reloading
the selection and experimenting with the tolerance setting since this function
doesn’t offer any preview of the outcome.
Duotones: is composed of two colors usually block and a spot
color.
AI Artboards: Represents an imaginary piece of drawing
paper. This is the region that can contain printable artwork.
Bleed Settings: Bleeds can be asymmetrical, and can be up to
one inch in depth. A good rule of thumb is 0.125.
AI Simplify complex art: modifies selected objects by
reducing the number of points in those objects.
AI effects and clipping mask: the effects menu is divided
into two sections – Illustrator Effects and Photoshop Effects. The Illustrator
Effects are applied to the interiors and the edges of vector objects. Photoshop
effects are applied only to the interior of vector objects.
AI linked and embedded images: linking an image results in a
smaller Illustrator file that embedded. They are easily color corrected or
retouched. You might expect embedding an image increases the Illustrator file
size. While embedding makes it easier to keep track of all components of a
file, it complicates image editing.
Information source: Adobe Creative Suite Applications,
written by Claudia McCue.
