Preparing Files

for Electronic Pre-Press and Imaging

Platform-Independent Considerations

Some things that should be done to minimize problems at imaging are the same, regardless of the platform and application:

Deal directly with the people imaging your files. Whenever an intermediary is involved, communications can get confused, technical support is marginal, and delays are inevitable. Begin those communications at the beginning of your project, not the day before it goes to press! Remember, once you have negatives, virtually any printer can print the job relatively quickly. Getting the negatives requires knowledge of computer software, electronic pre-press, and PostScript® imaging. If you ask a potential vendor, "Can you take it on disk?" and that vendor says only, "Yes," be skeptical!
The designer should fill out our form in its entirety. If there is anything unclear on the form, or if you do not have answers to certain questions, call us and find out. If the form is not filled out completely, then we do not have the information to run the job. We normally do not find this out until second shift, which delays resolution until the next day. Providing a night phone number also helps.
Provide laser proofs. Proofread these proofs. Print composites and color breaks to your laser printer. Shrink it if need be, so that you can include crop marks and page information. Make sure that the correct elements are on the correct plates. Make sure that all elements print. This can take a long time; however, an hour at your place is more efficient and less expensive than two hours at our shop and a few more hours of communication and transportation delays. Have someone else proofread the print outs. Include these print outs with your Output Services Request. It does not hurt to delete unused colors from your document.
If you want a document imaged as reader spreads, tell us. If you want a document imaged as printer spreads, you must compose the document that way. If you want us to recompose the document for printer spreads, there will be extra charges and a high probability of error. Ask for a proofing cycle before film.
Avoid font problems before you start a project. Fonts are the single biggest source of problems in imaging any file. Contact us to make sure that you have compatible fonts, and be aware that you must provide us with fonts that we do not have. If you have chosen a normal type face and bold it in the type menu, the bold font is another font! If you use characters in the extended character set, make sure the font you choose supports them. For MS-DOS® PostScript® fonts we need both the *.pfm and *.pfb files. For MS-DOS® Truetype we need the *.ttf files. For Mac PostScript® we need both the font suitcases and printer fonts. For Mac Truetype we need only the Truetype suitcase. Make sure to tell us if you are using Multiple Master fonts or QuickDraw GX fonts; we have to change our systems to handle them (note: we may not support your GX fonts). Include all the fonts necessary, including those used in imbedded graphics. It is best if the fonts come from the hard drive of the system used to create the page-layout files, not from the install disks nor from another machine at your facility. It is imperative that the fonts provided be the same version used in the document. There are different versions of the same font from the same manufacturer. There are different manufacturers for fonts with identical names. There are Truetype fonts with the identical names as PostScript® fonts. Almost no software tells you that you have a version conflict.
Include all graphic files, and their source files where applicable (Corel Draw, FreeHand), with the job. Although some programs imbed graphic files in the document, we still need the graphic for some printing and separation functions. Remember graphics imbedded in other graphics. We may not be able to alter or correct encapsulated PostScript® files. We can alter or correct source files from most graphics programs. The main reason we have to alter a source graphic file is for trapping. The second most common reason is color specification. Always check to see that all graphics are up-to-date in your document, before sending it to us. To avoid updating problems, we normally, and you should, put everything in the same folder for output (even if you organize your hard drive with graphics in one place and documents in another). If a set of nested and branched sub-directories is copied from your removable media onto our hard drives, the page layout program will not find the nested items (the root directory has changed, and therefore the path has changed).
Use Checklist for PageMaker® or Collect-for-Output for QuarkXPress® to make sure you have all graphics and fonts required.
When dealing with color, pixel-based graphics, make sure that they are CYMK files. Something may look the right color on the screen, and print correctly to a color printer. However, if placed graphics are in RGB or indexed color, they will not separate properly. Color-break laser proofs will indicate this problem. We may not know until after bad film is run. You will be charged for this bad film. If a continuous-tone, pixel-based graphic is to be printed in a spot color, make sure that it is a gray-scale or a bitmap image. Assign the spot color in the page-layout program. The exception to this is if you understand how to make monotone eps graphics in Photoshop.
Whenever placing a continuous-tone, pixel-based graphic in QuarkXPress®, make sure the box fill is "white," not "none." A none-filled box tries to mask the light areas of the background of a photograph, and does so very badly. An exception to this rule is a pixel-based graphic inside a clipping path and saved as an eps. In this case, the clipping path accurately masks the graphic, and the box should be filled "none." This is the only way to have a pixel-based, continuous tone graphic silhouetted against a background created in another program. Be careful to minimize the number of points in a clipping path. A CMYK photograph in a clipping path with a zillion points may not print. Another exception is bitmap images; they are black and clear, not black and white.
Make sure you understand trapping issues, and trap your own files whenever possible. No page layout program traps a placed graphic. You must trap vector-based graphics in their source program. If In Tandem Design, Inc. must do the trapping, it may be expensive, and it may be a source of errors. It is difficult to go into a file after it is complete and correctly identify and solve all trapping problems. It is easy to accidentally change some attribute of a file, if you have to tear it apart to fix something like trap.
Some "tips & tricks" suggest that you can put several graphics in a single file, place it in a page layout program, and crop off what you do not need. Do not do this! Every time such a graphic is sent to an image setter, the entire graphic is sent, and then the unused part is cropped. If you place several of these next to each other, remember that the portion of the graphic you have cropped is still out there, overlapping the other copies of itself.
Be careful about layering graphics. There is a limit to the amount of layering the image setter can deal with efficiently. With pixel-based graphics, any more than three or four on top of each other should probably be assembled into a single, pixel-based graphic in a program like Photoshop. With vector-based graphics, more than four or five graduated elements on top of each other may cause problems. Consider reshaping the elements so there is less overlap, or rendering the elements in photoshop (this will only work in certain instances).
Make final decisions about cropping graphics with a print out. Do not attempt critical positioning based on screen view alone ... especially in MS-DOS/Windows®.
Computer monitors do not show accurate color. Only certain programs can allow for relatively accurate color (e.g., Photoshop). If you intend to do a lot of photographic scanning and manipulation, spend the time, effort, and money to calibrate your monitor(s) correctly. Most manufacturers consider calibration to be making sure that a monitor shows factory-specification red, blue and green. This has nothing to do with what a job will look like printed. Monitors tend to be very blue and very bright. If you are going to make color decisions on pixel-based graphics, do so in a program like Photoshop, and do so only after calibrating your system to match printed material. Pay no attention to the appearance of color in page layout and vector-graphics programs. Always choose color from a color swatch book. Please, note that there are spot-color and process-color books. Choose colors for the printing method to be used.
If you want to do your own gray-scale or color scans, talk to us before you make the scans. Desktop scanners have a limited density range. You want the scan as close to right when you scan it. Color correcting after the scan removes information, and there is a limit to how much correcting you can do. There are also certain rules to follow to get adequate printing results. We recommend no. 15, below.
If you know what photographs you will use in a project, get us to scan them early in the design cycle. We can give you low-resolution files for placement, cropping and sizing. Do not rename the FPO files! When you bring the document to us for final output, we need only link the high resolution scans to your document. If you make rough scans for placement, and then bring the photos for us to scan at the end of the production cycle, we have to try and match your cropping, sizing, and placement with new scans. This is more difficult and prone to error than simply re-linking the high resolution file. Sometimes this is not possible; we understand that knowing what you will use early in the production cycle is a luxury you do not often have. However, getting the scans a few days before finished film, and placing them yourself, can save calendar time ... when you get final approval, your files are image-ready.
You may get scans from other pre-press shops. If they provide a low resolution FPO file, you must get the high resolution file from them for us before imaging film. If you place an OPI-compliant lo-res FPO (eg.; *.lay files from Helios OPI servers), we will have to replace it with the hi-res file, for which there is a nominal charge. Automatic linking will only work on the system that generated the lo-res OPI file. If you move files from one output vendor to another, do not use OPI-compliant FPO files (call if this makes no sense). If you get lo-res FPO files from us, we have the hi-res files to re-link. No matter where you get lo-res files, do not rename them.
When dealing with pixel-based graphics, do not reduce them below about 25%. They may not image correctly. Re-sample the image to a lower resolution in a program like Photoshop before placing it. Enlarging a pixel based graphic may yield unacceptable results. For 150 lpi conventional screening, or for stochastic screening, the graphic should be 300 dpi at its finished size.
When naming files, do not use punctuation marks as the first character in the name, because PostScript® commands might begin with those characters. The printer might interpret your file name as a command.
You might compress files, so that they are smaller for sending over a modem or fitting on disks. Do not compress compressed files. We recommend that you do not compress continuous tone, pixel-based images (gray-scale or color photographs); image quality can change.
Please, call with any questions as early in the production cycle as possible. Many jobs fall short of the expectations of their creators; because something is not right, and there is no time to fix it.
If there is something wrong with the output, please, contact us as soon as possible. We deal with hundreds of files per day. We may not retain files as imaged on our hard drives past two or three days; we only archive jobs which we have altered significantly; we may not remember any considerations for your particular job if much time has passed. We can help you find out why something is not what was expected. If the error is ours, we will make it right.
If you have a question about an invoice, please contact us immediately. Invoices for output services are included with the job; they are due net 30 days for credit-approved clients. We are reluctant to change an invoice if we were not given the opportunity to fix the output.

Concerning Choice of Platform

Many people do not like to hear us say it, but using a MS-DOS/Windows® platform for graphics work is not recommended. The reasons include, but are not limited to, the following:

Windows® cannot use bidirectional printer communications, and therefore cannot interact with PostScript® printers efficiently. It takes several times as long to run a job from MS-DOS®/Windows® as it does to run the exact same job from a Macintosh®. Sometimes the job cannot run at all (see no. 2).
The PostScript® driver for Windows® is unpredictable at best; for jobs with pixel-based graphics (anything scanned) it is inefficient (see no. 1).
There is no standard nor predictable relationship between screen resolution and graphic element dimensions. Placing graphic elements is inaccurate.
It is extraordinarily difficult to troubleshoot problems, since the error messages from Windows® are meaningless. In fact, the same error message is used for everything print related ("...because there is not enough disk space").

We charge half-again as much for MS-DOS®/Windows® output as for Macintosh® output. Most pre-press houses and printers do not hav Windows machines for graphics output.

If you are going to do graphic design and electronic pre-press, we recommend that you buy the appropriate tool for the job: a Macintosh®.

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Trademarks and Copyright
Some or all of the following trademarks are referenced in this and/or other documents associated with the In Tandem Design, Inc. World Wide Web site.

PostScript®,Acrobat®, PageMaker®, and Adobe® are registered trademarks of Adobe® Systems, Inc..
Diamond Screening®, Linotype®, Hell®, and Linotype-Hell® are registered trademarks of Linotype-Hell AG and/or its subsidiaries.
Iris® is a registered trademark of Iris Graphics, Inc. a Scitex Company
Apple® and Macintosh® are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
Quark® and QuarkXPress are registered trademarks of Quark, Inc.
Pantone® is a registered trademark of Pantone, Inc.
MS-DOS®, Windows NT(TM) and Windows(TM) are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
OS/2® and OS/2 Warp® are registered trademarks of Internationsl Business Machines Corporation.
Cromacheck® and Du Pont® are registered trademarks of E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.