What is dpi?
DPI stands for Dots per Inch. The measurement of resolution for scanners, printers, photo type setting machines and graphics screens. Traditional graphics screens usually reproduce 50 to 85 dpi, most page printers 300 dpi, and typesetting systems 3600 dpi. Top of Page
How should I prepare my images?
Picture files should be saved as either TIFF or EPS. Gray scale and color images must be scanned in at least 300 dpi. Line art images should be scanned at 1200 dpi. Attach all current graphic files linked to documents, including any placed Adobe Illustrator files. Include editable versions of all linked graphic files in case we need to edit them. Do not use PICTs, GIFs, JPEGs, or LZW compression. Please size and crop images in Photoshop or compatible software, before placing them in your page layouts software. Never resize images in your layout application more or less than 10%. When placing files in Illustrator, please link rather than embed. Do not use Illustrator to create transparency effects - use Photoshop instead. Top of Page
Should I submit fonts that are used in artwork?
Artworks files that are being submitted must include all fonts used, including any that are embedded in placed EPS files. Top of Page
How should prepare my files for you?
You can Stuff or Zip the artwork files and send them by email, burn them to a CD-ROM or DVD-rom and mail them to us. Please send printouts of your artwork so that we can be sure that we are using the correct files. Top of Page
File naming guidelines
Whether you're emailing an attachment or sending your files to an FTP server, chances are the file will have to go through a UNIX or Windows server. Therefore, when naming your files, you should follow a few basic guidelines:
- File names are case sensitive. Use all lowercase letters to be consistent.
- Although UNIX accepts file names up to 256 characters long, you should try to keep the names short for practicality.
- Characters you should NOT use in file names: | ; , ! @ # $ ( ) < > / " ' ` ~ { } [ ] = + & ^
- Do NOT start a file name with a period. This will make the file invisible.
NOTE: If you have a lot of files and don't want to change the names, please use compression software such as Stuffit or PKZIP to compress the files. Top of Page
Image Resolution and size
Resolution and file size (dimensions) are inversely proportional to each other. So, if you enlarge an image, you lower its resolution. If you reduce an image, you increase its resolution. For example, an image 15cm x 15cm in size at 300dpi increased in the layout to 30cm x 30cm has a new resolution of 150dpi. Top of Page
How do I scan images
Know the image size before you scan. If the image is larger than the layout size, simply scan at 300dpi. If the image is smaller than the layout size, adjust your scanner settings for resolution and scan size. To calculate the resolution you must scan a photo and increase the scanning resolution above 300dpi by the same percentage you will be enlarging the original photo. For example, if the photo measures 10cm x 12cm and the image layout size is 30cm x 38cm, 30cm/10cm = 3 , then you will have to enlarge the photo 3 times, or 300%). Scan the photo at 3x 300dpi, 900dpi. If your scanner is not capable of producing such enlargement factor, you should then contact a service bureau to scan you image professionally. Top of Page
Image format
If you are scanning the images yourself, it is better to save them in either .tif or .eps format. These image formats will preserve the color and sharpness of your pictures the best. Try to stay away from file formats such as gif or jpg, these file formats are used for the Internet with special compressions used to make the images appear faster on the browsers. So it's not a good idea just to copy images from the Internet for print purposes. If you are using pictures from your digital camera and their format is jpg, they will work just. The quality of jpg format images from digital cameras are better because digital cameras encode with higher resolution. Then you will have to figure out whether your camera records high enough resolution for print. For instance, if your camera puts out a typical image of 1280 x 960 pixels at 72dpi you get about 43cm x 33cm of photograph (at 72dpi); this is the same amount of detail as an image which is 10cm x 7cm at 300dpi so itīs safe to reduce or enlarge that image in Publisher up to about 10cm x 7cm in dimension. Top of Page
Preferred File Formats
It is our experience that format TIF or EPS files do not lose color quality, contrast or file size. They are designed to retain the original format quality for clear printing and high quality color and resolution. On the other jpg and gif type files cause most of the problems. They were originally designed for easy file transmission and Internet use, not for printing. When these file formats are saved over and over again, the pixalization (jageddy edges) are exaggerated. Therefore, if you start with a .jpg file that needs a lot of editing, save it as an EPS or TIF file. This way, additional information will not get lost and the quality of the original JPEG image will be maintained. Top of Page
Gathering Fonts
If you use only the fonts that came with let say MS Adobe Illustrator, Quark Xpress or Publisher then you don't have to send us your fonts. We have them here too. But if you use any other fonts from other sources then we do need you to gather up copies of them and archive them together using a program like Winzip and send them to us with your layout file. If you don't know how to do this then just carefully go through your document and make a list of the fonts used. Send that list to us in an email along with your order reference number so that we can find good substitutes for your typefaces. Top of Page
Printed colors vs. computer monitor colors
There are major differences between a printed image versus and same image being viewed on a computer monitor. First and the most important factor is that when you look at a printed piece your eye sees a reflection of color, light bouncing of the paper, so the image becomes duller, muddier with less vibrancy. On the other hand on a monitor images are viewed via a light source that come through the screen making the image brighter, more color full and vibrant. Top of Page
Scanners and digital cameras create images using combinations of just three colors: Red, Green and Blue (called "RGB"). These are the colors that computers use to display images on your screen. But printing presses print full color pictures using a different set of colors: Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black (called "CMYK"). So at some stage your RGB file must be translated to CMYK in order to print it on a printing press.
This is easily done using an image editing program like PhotoShop or Corel PhotoPaint. Itīs best if you do the RGB-to-CMYK conversion of your images yourself. You will have more control over the appearance of your printed piece if you convert all of the images from RGB to CMYK before sending them to us. When we receive RGB images, we do a standard-value conversion to CMYK, which may not be perfectly to your liking. We want you to be happy, so please, take the time to prepare your file properly. We cannot be responsible for sub-par results if you furnish low-res images or RGB images. Be aware that it is possible to make colors in RGB that you canīt make with CMYK. They are said to be "out of the CMYK color gamut". What happens is that the translator just gets as close as possible to the appearance of the original and thatīs as good as it can be. Itīs something that everyone in the industry puts up with. So itīs best to select any colors you use for fonts or other design elements in your layout using CMYK definitions instead of RGB. Top of Page
File Formats
We can take any Mac or PC version of InDesign, Quark, Pagemaker, CorelDRAW!, Illustrator, Photoshop, Freehand, Publisher, Word, PowerPoint, any file output as a PDF or listed on our File Formats page of our website. If you have created documents in Word or PowerPoint that contain photos, clip-art, or other color images, send them in. Same great service, same great pricing. Top of Page
Compressing a Publisher file
While we can work with either type, we prefer to get the normal, uncompressed file. Please do not use Publisher's "Pack and Go" feature. If you are sending Publisher files with linked graphics (generally NOT recommended in Publisher), please gather all the associated files into a single Zipped file, and send us that. Compressing files with Winzip or PK Zip (or StuffIt on the Mac) is also the preferred method for Quark, Pagemaker, Illustrator, InDesign or any file with linked graphics. If you are using a font that is not included with Publisher, please send it along with your Publisher file. You can either Zip them together, or upload the font as an additional file upload (or include it on cd or zip-disk if you are sending files via mail.) Top of Page
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