How to prepare your files for printing

Digital printing services,postcard,business cards,poster,flyers,letterhead,fridge magnet,docket book > Preparing files, help & links > How to prepare your files for printing— General Matters

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Correct file preparation is an important part of the process that will result in you:

  • Getting a top quality job;
  • Having your job run smoothly (e.g.; fewer E-mails and telephone calls); and
  • Having your job delivered on time.

We suggest you print this page out and use it as a checklist as you proceed through your project.

  

Detailed Suggestions on How to Prepare Your File 

 

Use the right software

 
Use the right software for the job. This advice sounds obvious, but it is frequently ignored. The most appropriate software for design work is page layout software.

 

The popular page layout software packages currently available are:

Drawing and photo manipulation packages such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Freehand can be used, but work created in those packages should be placed into page layout software.

Try to avoid using word processing software such as Microsoft Word, or presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint. We can handle work created in these packages, but there is a greater risk of text reflowing (i.e.: words might drop from one line to the next line for no apparent reason), and images not reproducing as expected.

A good investment is the Adobe Creative Suite which includes Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat, GoLive (web authoring) and VersionCue. The Adobe Creative Suite ties all these programmes together, and for less than the cost of other stand alone page layout software.

 

Supply PDF files

After your page layout software, the single most important piece of additional software you need is Acrobat, a PDF programme.

 

Our first preference is to receive PDF files. After you have created your work in the software of choice (hopefully page layout software), our preference is for you to distil it into a PDF file. The advantages of doing so are:

  • We cannot easily change your file;
  • The file size will usually be small enough to email - PDF files do not have to be compressed for safe transmission; and
  • You do not have to send us linked images or fonts.

Converting Adobe InDesign files into PDF files suitable for professional quality printing is a doddle (a piece of cake, easy), and is another reason to seriously consider purchasing the Adobe Creative Suite and making Adobe InDesign your page layout software of choice.

It is important that PDF files (and all files for that matter) include bleeds if your job prints right to the edge of the page, include crop marks so we can see where you want the job trimmed, have all fonts embedded, have high resolution images (ideally 300 dpi at the size they will be printed), and have all images converted to CMYK. We have included information on all these issues below.

 

Understand bleeds and use them if necessary

If your job prints right to the edge of the pages, you need to understand about bleeds. This subject is so important we have written a separate page devoted to it. Click here to read all about bleeds, why you may need them and how to create them.

 

Make sure all your images are CMYK and not RGB

RGB and CMYK are known as ‘colour spaces’. RGB is the colour space used by digital cameras and computer monitors. Printing presses of any description print in four colour - cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). Understanding why you need to provide your work in the CMYK colour space, and why it is preferable for you to do the conversion is another critically important issue. Click here for the separate page we have written which contains all you need to know about RGB to CMYK conversion.

 

Be careful with Rich Black

If you are going to have your job printed digitally, then do not use "Rich Black", as it can produce a somewhat mottled appearance. We suggest that 100% "K" (i.e.: 100% back) should be sufficient if you order a Fast Digital product.

If you are ordering a Discount Priced product, then we suggest you do use "Rich Black", and your setting for Rick Black should be:

  • Cyan 70%
  • Magenta 40%
  • Yellow 15%
  • "K" (Black) 100%.

 

Provide crop marks

Strictly speaking, it is not essential for you to save a PDF file with crop marks, but it helps us understand exactly how you want your job trimmed. You set your job up as if you were going to print it to a quality colour printer, with bleeds and crop marks, and instead print to disk or file (PC), or save a PostScript file (Mac). You use Acrobat Distiller, using High Quality or Press Quality settings to distil the .prn or .ps file you have created into a PDF file. Often customers fail to do the obvious and actually check the PDF file. You should open it in Adobe Acrobat to check you actually got what you expected.

  • DO NOT place registration marks on the page.
  • DO NOT place the name of your file anywhere on the page.
  • DO NOT place the date of the file on the page.
  • DO NOT place colour bars on the page.
  • THE ONLY EXTRA MATTERS THAT SHOULD BE PLACED ON THE PAGE OF YOUR FILE ARE, other than the image/text/background colours that you want printed:
    • BLEEDS; and
    • CROPMARKS.

 

Embed your fonts — better still, convert your text to outlines

One of the most difficult issues we face, and have faced for nearly two decades, concerns fonts - wrong fonts, incomplete fonts, no fonts, fonts produce by Dodgy Brothers Inc., Type 1 fonts, Type 3 fonts, TrueType fonts, Multiple Master fonts, font management software and so on. You would think the industry would have got it right in twenty years, but no, fonts can still be a major headache. This is where Adobe Acrobat is such a boon. You can embed all your fonts and remove font worries completely. To make sure all your fonts are embedded, in Distiller, go to Settings > Edit Adobe PDF settings > Fonts, and make sure the ‘Embed All Fonts’ tick box is ticked

ALTERNATELY, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO CONVERT YOUR TEXT TO AN OUTLINE, THEN DO JUST THAT, AND ALL THE 'FONTS' ISSUES WILL BE SOLVED.

Visit the below pages for help with outlining text:

Some suggestions on how to use fonts when creating a file for printing. 

 

Supply high resolution images

One of the most common causes of disappointment in the finished, printed product is the poor quality of images. This in turn is usually because the image resolution was inadequate. Printed matter requires images with far higher resolution than is necessary for viewing on the screen of your computer. Computer screens, and therefore the Internet, need images of approximately 72 dpi (dots per inch). 72 dots per inch (dpi) means 72 rows of 72 dots, or a total of 5184 dots in a square inch (yes, metric equivalents are available, but no-one in the industry uses them). The ideal resolution for printing however is at least 300dpi, 300 rows each of 300 dots, or 90,000 dots in a square inch. Put another way, images destined for printing should contain almost 18 times more information than images destined for the computer screen. A 72 dpi image which is printed will have quite clearly visible small ‘steps’. We call this ‘having a bitmapped appearance’. Such an image will be indistinct, not sharp, and look very unprofessional. So one rule to follow is don’t use images taken from web sites unless you can obtain a high resolution copy of the image.

Please make sure all the images you use are at least 300dpi or as close thereto as you can get. By the way, there is absolutely no point in using images that have a higher dpi than 600dpi. You will never see the the difference in the printed job. And when we use the expression ‘300dpi’, we mean 300dpi at the final output size. If you have a 300dpi image that is, say 100x150mm, and blow it up to A4, you have reduced the effective resolution back to 75dpi, and achieved nothing.

If you want to know why high resolution files are important, then visit our Why high resolution files are important page.

 

Make your page size the actual page size of the job

We regularly receive files where the page size is larger than the size of the job. For example, a customer might make up a business card on an A4 page, or an A4 poster on an A3 page or worst of all, a whole A5 book on A4 pages. Such scenarios inevitably mean more work for us, a slower turnaround time for you, and may mean we need to return the file to you for adjustment. Please make sure the page size you choose in you page layout software is same size your job is to be printed at. If your document is to be printed right to the edge of the page you need to understand about bleeds. To provide a document with bleeds, you do still make your page size the actual page size of the job. All you do is drag the elements that will bleed a few mm outside the page border and make sure that if you are sending us a PDF file, the job is set up correctly in your page layout software before you save the job to disk or before you save a PostScript file. Click here for more information about bleeds.

 

Make certain your job folds correctly

If your job is going to be folded then fold the printout to see if the elements on the page are positioned correctly on the panels and to see if there are any problems with folding it the way you are planning to. For A4 brochures folding to DL, the front panel (the one on the right when the job is unfolded) should be 100mm wide, the middle panel 99mm, and the inside panel (the one on the left) should be 98mm wide.

 

Supply the minimum number of files - not one for each chapter

If you have a job made up of a number of different files - for instance, one for each chapter - please combine them all before sending them to us. ‘Book’ or ‘Make Book’ features usually don’t work with our RIPs. You can easily combine separate files in Adobe Acrobat. This is a good idea, because often the issue of blank pages at the end of a chapter is ignored. New chapters should always begin on a right hand page, and you will often need to insert a blank page at the end of a chapter to force the new chapter to begin on a right hand page. You should also ensure that page numbering is correct, especially if you have to insert blank pages. Page numbers should always appear on the outside of the page - the left of a left hand page, and the right of a right hand page.

 

Make sure the page order is correct and we know what it is

Sometimes we are left to guess what is the correct page order for a job. This often happens in the case of booklets. It could be that pages one to four are the cover pages, or the first two and last two pages, or, if there are no inside covers, the first two pages might be the cover, or the first and last page. Sometimes we can be left guessing in the case of a double sided A3 sheet folded in half so it become a four page A4 newsletter, or even more in the case of a six page A4 newsletter (630x297mm folded in three). Please be sure we know. You could use a different numbering regime. You could fax us a rough of how you want the job to be printed, or you could insert notes in one of the comments boxes on our job submission form.

 

Provide the cover as a separate file

One way of avoiding the difficulties referred to above in the case of books and booklets is to provide cover as a separate file, or two separate files (front cover and back cover).

 

In the case of book covers, make sure we can adjust the spine

One fact that is rarely known with precision before a job is commenced is the width of the spine of a book which is to be perfect bound. In order to be exact, it is usually necessary to print out a copy of the book on the actual paper that is to be used, and to measure the spine. If (as is almost always the case) the spine width is different from the width you have provided, we need to be able to adjust it. This is the one case where a PDF file is no good - because it can’t be adjusted. Therefore book covers should be provided in the page layout software you used.

 

Don’t do the imposition for us

Imposition is the term used for arranging multiple copies of a document on one sheet of paper to gain economies in printing. For instance, standard A4 flyers are printed two up, standard DL flyers are printed 6 up, and business cards are printed 20 up. We have software that carries out this task for us very quickly and accurately, and we ask you not to do it for us. This means that we want all documents, including business cards, to be supplied one up. Invariably, if they are supplied more than one up, we have to electronically pull them apart.

 

Don’t supply any unnecessary files

We sometimes receive CDs with a whole lot of additional files that are unrelated to the job in hand. This can make it difficult to find exactly what it is we are to work with. Please supply only the files required for the job, which will be the page layout files, fonts used, and images used.

 

Put ALL files (with the exception of fonts) in the one folder/directory

Customers usually supply their jobs with their files neatly arranged in several different folders / directories, such as ‘InDesign files’, ‘fonts’, ‘images’. The trouble with this neat housekeeping is that when the job moves from the computer on which the job was created to our computers, the paths to the images can often be lost. This neat housekeeping usually takes place only in the case of very large jobs, and it can take us a very long time to re-establish the links. Furthermore, there is a danger that not every image will be re-linked correctly. For instance in extreme cases customers will have a separate set of folders for each chapter, and some images may have the same name, which makes incorrect re-linking highly likely. The solution to this problem is to put all files in the one folder / directory, with no sub-folders. If you arrange your files as suggested, there is an added safeguard as you won’t be able to use images with the same name. The only exception is fonts, which should always be in a separate folder / directory.

 

Check your spelling and punctuation

Don’t forget to check your spelling, punctuation and grammar. Run your spell checker (and make sure the language is set to Australian or UK English, not American English)!

It is also a good idea to have someone else look at your work. Another set of eyes often see something you’ve been looking at and missing. Often the longer you have been working on a project, the less likely you are to spot the obvious. Pay particular attention to headlines when checking (this advice from one who has made some fearful bloopers!).

 

Avoid common grammatical and usage errors

Avoid some of the more common mistakes, and make your work read more professionally. Here are some examples:

  • When referring to a decade, do not use an apostrophe as in 90’s, use 90s.
  • Use hyphens as dashes to hyphenate words (in-between), en rules between numbers (100-200) and em rules between words (different files - for instance).
  • Do not use ampersands (‘&’) in text, use the word ‘and’.
  • Do not Make Excessive Use Of Capitals - keep them to a minimum.
  • Use single quotation marks (‘ ’) rather than double quotation marks(“ ”), and use curly quotes in preference to straight up and down quotes.
  • Use single spaces between sentences, not two spaces.

If you are writing a book, the we suggest you purchase the following two useful additions to the library of anyone charged with responsibility of writing lengthy material for others to read:

  • The first is the Commonwealth Style Manual, 6th edition, published by John Wiley, Paperback, ISBN 0 7016 3648 3, $44.95.
  • The second is The Design Manual by David Whitbread, published by UNSW Press, Paperback, ISBN 0 86840 658 9, $49.95.

Both are available from Meredith Wright at Daltons Books in Canberra.

 

Print out your job and check, check and check again

It is easy to miss mistakes in your document when you have only ever seen it displayed on the screen. It is an important part of proofing your job to print the document out on your own printer and look at it. Check for spelling errors, spacing problems, inconsistencies, and design problems.

Then have someone else read what you have printed — you will be amazed how many mistakes a second set of eyes will find.

 

Supply files either stuffed or zipped

If you are sending us your job electronically, copy all files into the one folder/directory and compress the files. The files will be smaller, and the chances of corruption occurring in file transmission are almost eliminated.

The file compression software that you use will either 'zip' your file (if you are working on a PC) or 'stuff' your file (if you are working on a Mac):