Some shops prefer that you don't
have this information. We would
rather have smoother running jobs so that schedules are maintained
and we are then able to please more people per day. While this
is not a comprehensive list, applying this information to your
jobs before sending them to us can save you money! Please support
the people who help you; we are working hard to provide the
best combination of quality, service and price.
General Tips:
Provide separated hard copy to help us verify film integrity.
Submit completed order forms to avoid delays in starting your
job. Please do not supply someone else's form or an instruction
sheet, we only use the information you provide on our form.
It is too easy for any company to miss something on an un-familiar
form or to mistake who an instruction is meant for.
Do not use separate sheets to give job instructions. Notes on
hard copy may not be meant for us so they will be ignored unless
you make specific reference on our order form to a special area.
Supply all screen and printer fonts used not only in your file
but in placed graphics as well. This will minimize font conflicts
and version problems. We do not use your fonts for any other
job. By supplying fonts, you accept responsibility for font
usage laws.
Avoid stylizing your fonts at all costs. If you need that Helvetica
to be bold, choose Helvetica Bold.
Include all placed graphics in an editable form so we can troubleshoot
at every level.
No RGB images! We will charge to convert them to CMYK.
Quark
Use the Collect For Output feature.
When importing TIFFs, do not set background color to None; instead
use 0% Black or White.
Do not set White elements to Overprint. They will not print.
Do not use Quark Automatic settings for trapping; deliberately
set traps element by element. Quark cannot trap interactively
with a placed graphic except to spread text in a box that touches
a placed picture box.
Be sure to set colors to spot or process as necessary.
For spot colors, set Edit, Colors, Screen Value(s) to Black
to get most pleasing 45 degree angle. If two spot colors mix
together as in a blend or duotone, set the darkest one to Black
angle and lighter one to Magenta angle (75 degrees) and the
third choice is Cyan (105 or 15 degrees).
When importing b&wTIFFs, do not try to make it a duotone
by colorizing the picture box background. It will not print.
Whenever possible, do not save your Quark page as an EPS and
import into another Quark file. This may cause extra charges
and/or cause your job to fail.
Avoid modifying imported TIFFs in the "Style" menu.
We cannot assure you it will be successful.
No RGB images! We will charge to convert them to CMYK.
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PhotoShop
Only TIFF, EPS and Bitmap formats are supported. TIFF format
is preferred but EPS is necessary if you have a clipping path.
If you save as EPS, please turn DCS off (this is more convenient
for our shop and the OPI picture replacement methods we use).
When saving a file, do not "Include
Transfer Function or Halftone Screen".
Do not send RGB images! We will have
to charge to convert them to CMYK.
Images need to be about 300 dpi at final-use
size!
Images you download off the Web are not
suitable for high resolution printing.
Clipping paths should be drawn with the
pen tool, not the magic wand! Using the magic wand makes the
path much too complex (too many points) and can crash your
job!
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Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is not a page layout program. You can easily
incur extra time charges if you attempt to import large PhotoShop
images.
Avoid nesting EPS files; this increases
complexity and could crash an imagesetter.
For a process color job, specify custom
colors by building them with CMYK values. This way the color
will come out as expected and will also match the color used
in the page layout program, which you should build the same
way.
No RGB images! We will charge to convert
them to CMYK.
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PageMaker
Use the Save for Service Provider Plug-In in Adobe's PM6-6.5
update feature to save headaches (available from Adobe at
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/pagemaker/win/6.x/updaters).
Use "pub info" and/or links
dialog to make sure all fonts and graphics are included.
Set your color to spot or process as
necessary.
No RGB images! We will charge to convert
them to CMYK.
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Freehand
Avoid "Paste Inside". Avoid grouping items and then
pasting inside. Avoid grouping items that have information
pasted inside. This is a mask function that rarely prints
correctly. The information that has been pasted inside often
gets dropped when separating.
This is not a page layout program. Importing
images from PhotoShop is inefficient and can cause problems.
No RGB images! We will charge to convert
them to CMYK.
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Corel Draw
Whenever creating a gradient from any color to white, do not
use white as the second color. Instead use 0% of the same
color or there will be imaging problems.
When exporting an EPS file make sure you are working with
a single page file. Otherwise, items from another page may
show up in the EPS file upon output.
When sending a Corel EPS file, be sure to include a copy of
the original CDR file in case we need to edit it for troubleshooting.
When placing a Corel EPS file with colors other than CMYK
into Quark or PageMaker, be sure the color names are spelled
exactly the same or you will get extra separations.
Specify custom colors by building them with CMYK values. This
way the color will come out as expected instead of being left
to the conversion idiosyncracies of the program.
No RGB images! We will charge to convert them to CMYK.
Corel exhibits a variety of image problems. Be prepared for
extra file editing and film charges.
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