PREPARING FILES FOR ELECTRONIC PREPRESS

Please use these guidelines in order to ensure that your job is produced efficiently and correctly.

WHAT TO PROVIDE

Please provide the native files (InDesign, Quark Xpress) including all fonts and links (EPS, AI, TIFF, PSD), a PDF with bleeds (if applicable) and a printed hard copy. Providing these items will streamline the processing of your job and allow us to serve you better.

Hard Copy (Laser Proofs) must be supplied with your job. They should be printed out at 100% if possible, if not they should be marked as to the percentage they are printed. This is to ensure accuracy of your piece.

FONTS & TEXT COMPONENTS

Please be sure to send all of the fonts to us with your job. Include any fonts used in illustration programs such as Illustrator. Use only Type 1, Postscript, TrueType and OpenType fonts. Do not Stylize Fonts. Many software programs allow you the option of highlighting a word and applying italics, bold, outline or shadow to the type characters. You must use the actual font that you want to print.

GRAPHICS COMPONENTS

Please be sure to send all graphic components that are in your job. This includes "Nested files" that are within eps files.

Line art should also have a resolution of no less than 600dpi. Grayscale and 4/Color should have a resolution of 300dpi. Try to scan your images so they can be placed in the document at 100%. Halftones should have a dot of no less than 4% highlight and no more than 90% shadows. They should not be placed any larger than 125%, or smaller than 30%. If your images are to be scanned by MPI printing - indicate Page, Cropping and Scaling on each scan.

SPOT & CMYK COLORS

If your job is printing in CMYK please be sure to convert any Spot Colors. This is especially important in illustration programs such as Illustrator. You should not have any spot colors in any of your files UNLESS they are actually printing as a spot color ink. Use only Pantone, Trumatch, or Custom CMYK colors. Never use RGB, HSL or any other non standard color models. Please delete any unused colors.

PROPER FILE FORMAT

Save scans as Tiffs whenever possible, and use Photoshop to save your scans. Photoshop writes cleaner Tiff files than programs that come with desktop scanners. Do not save as RGB. Save your images in CMYK, or convert them to spot color before sending the job to us.

Do not use LZW compression on TIFF files. Do not include the Transfer Function or Halftone Screen, do not use JPEG Compression.

BLEEDS

Any element that extends to the final trim edge needs bleeds extended to at least .125" (1/8"). Do not include the bleed when setting up your document size. Bleed should be opened up past the edge of the document. If the image does not bleed it must be at least 1/4" from the trim.

SENDING IN YOUR FILES

All disks must be labeled clearly and be accompanied by a directory print-out. Remember to send color seperated lasers with each multiple color jobs.