Not so long ago, if you wanted a publication printed by an outside print vendor you had to first go through your art/design department or hire an outside design firm to produce a layout suitable for professional publishing. This layout would consist of camera copy or artboards with overlays defining color, screens, image position, and additional instructions. Also hard copy of photos or transparencies would be furnished to the contractor with instructions for size and cropping. The contractor would then take all of the furnished materials and combine it to produce your printed publication. In most cases this was accomplished pretty much in the same fashion regardless of who was printing it (overall quality being a separate issue). Films would be generated by shooting copy on camera, film would be stripped and imposed onto flats, printing plates would be made, the job would then be printed and bound and... presto! Your printed publication would be ready.

Well guess what? Times have changed and we have entered the "Desktop Publishing" age. Desktop publishing does away with the conventional architecture of creating a publication. Everything is contained and saved to an electronic storage device which is then output directly to film or plate. The need for camera copy and original photographs is, well, antiquated. In addition to the way we now furnish our copy, our contractor base has changed rapidly. No longer is it simply a single workflow for all contractors (camera, film, stripping, plate, print). Contractor's are now purchasing RIP's (raster image processors - how your files are output) at various levels of sophistication so that files one contractor can output on his equipment, another contractor may not be able to output. Also with some plants, films are not even an option as they have gone computer-to-plate.

Feeling lost in this "new" world? The good news is that if you are submitting your publications digitally for publishing and are meeting the criteria for properly prepared files, you should be reaping the benefits! Just remember we stress the properly part. These benefits include but are not limited to:

Unfortunately, if you are reading this article more than likely properly created files are not what you have been able to submit for various reasons and you are not alone.

With the advent of desktop publishing just about anyone can be tasked with being a designer. An alarming amount of Government personnel have been given this task yet have little or no training in the basics of the graphic arts. Supervisors of these workers would have never dreamed of having them try to put together a publication using the conventional methods, yet they feel that sitting down at a computer and scanning images, cutting and pasting, picking colors, and choosing font styles is just too easy. They could not be further from the truth! The honest truth of the matter is that it is important that we as designers in the digital age understand the fundamentals of the printing process and design principles when preparing a job for printing. In addition, understanding the digital issues involved with preparing your files is paramount.

Do not feel intimidated by the last paragraph. We at ePUB understand the burden that the common Federal worker is under. To help you, the indentured designer, submit your files as best as you can, we have assembled this article.

Properly submitting files for print does not require a sacrifice to the digital gods...

but simply understanding what is necessary for the submission.

First and foremost, you should use professional publishing software packages like Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign, or QuarkXPress for layout; Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand for illustrations; and Adobe Photoshop for image manipulation. (I list these software package due to the overwhelming acceptance by the printing industry, other packages exist but be careful that they contain the proper tools for professional publishing.)

Now I know some of you are saying "I don't have any of those software packages!" Then you might hate what I have to say next: avoid office graphic software packages at all costs. (See the related articles on OG apps starting with "OG Files, Part 1.") These packages include, but are not limited to, Microsoft (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) and Corel WordPerfect. Why avoid these? These programs lack the necessary tools within the software itself to output to a professional publishing environment (wrong color modes; does not allow for bleeds; can not handle high resolution images; the software is not written for a PostScript environment; plus many additional problems - too many to list, just take my word for it).

If you are using the proper software to create your job, what do you need to know next? Let's talk about color. More and more jobs are including color whether it is simply text and screens/solids or the more complicated and expensive full color images. The printing industry basically works in two color modes: the process colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, a.k.a.: CMYK) and spot colors (Pantone Matching System , a.k.a.: PMS). Again, there are others but these are the current industry standard. The problem with a lot of designs being furnished today is the color mode is set as red, green, blue (RGB). These RGB colors are for the desktop environment only (monitor and desktop printers), not for publishing. A vendor is unable to output files in RGB color without making color conversions (additional prepress time; additional money; unacceptable color shifts; you get my drift). If you are furnishing full color scans you should make sure that they are in CMYK mode, if you are using spot colors like red, yellow, or green make sure that you identify those colors using a PMS color or at least as a process CMYK build of the color.

Next we should touch upon fonts. I am going to be brief on this so listen up! Printing in today's digital world is a PostScript environment, therefore you should use PostScript fonts. 'Nuff said! I know your machine is loaded with TrueType fonts and if that is all you have then so be it, but this article is about the optimal way to furnish your files and PostScript fonts are your best bet to avoid the pitfalls incurred by utilizing non-PostScript fonts. Do not forget that the fonts that are used in your publication must be copied and sent along with all of your other files or you are going to have reflow, loss of style, size issues, etc..

File formats. Who has heard of TIFF and EPS? If you are a designer who has not, shame on you. First, TIFF (tagged image file format) is the acceptable mode for furnishing all images which are scanned or created as a raster based image (normally saved from a program such as Adobe Photoshop). An EPS (encapsulated postscript) is recommended for all vector art (normally saved from a program like Adobe Illustrator). Though we see it all the time, try not sending your files as JPG. A JPG file is a compressed file format that actually throws pixel data out of your image to make it smaller. The problem is that the pixels are then gone for good. Other file formats to avoid include .wmf (windows metafile), .bmp (bitmap) and .gif (graphic interchange format).

So let us summarize what we have covered:

There are additional issues you should be concerned with which will further insure that your files will output with the least amount of troubles. GPO's Publication 300.6 covers these and more topics. It is available as a downloadable PDF file at the ePUB website! Click HERE to get the 300.6.

 

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