Sometimes things just are not a good fit. Just like those favorite blue jeans you wore in high school, things can be comfortable and look cool, but over time what was a good fit for a specific period of your life usually is not as snug for all times. Using Office Graphics (OG) applications and files for print publishing is like those old blue jeans. You want them to fit, but they rarely do. And when they do not fit things get ugly very quickly.

Office Graphics as it relates to the print industry refers to two separate areas. First is the use of OG Applications to create publications, documents, flyers, brochures, graphics, charts, and tables. Second is the submission of the resulting OG Files for print publishing. The two areas are related and used interchangeably, but also separate. As you read through this article, keep in mind the similarities and differences of the two areas.

What are OG Applications?

Since most software is designed for purposes other than print, it follows that most software is incompatible with press output. ePUB defines OG applications as any software product developed for non-print publishing specific tasks. With literally thousands of software applications fitting this definition, making a list is bit of a fright. The ePUB Group, even as fearless as it is, can only muster the courage for this small list. The most common OG Apps are… (drum role please)... Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Corel WordPerfect. This is not to say that these are the only OG applications, these are just the most common.

The list provided above is admittedly incomplete and a full list would be virtually impossible to generate, so ePUB has done the next best thing. We have developed a handy list we call Software That Should Be Used. These are what we call Professional Graphics (PG) Applications. Without further delay, the list of PG apps: Quark XPress, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign, Adobe FrameMaker, Corel Ventura, Microsoft Publisher*, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia FreeHand, Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint, Deneba Canvas. (*Be advised: MS Publisher is among the gray area of PG apps. It posesses some PG features and some OG features. This dual existence yields a neat trick: give GPO's printers a cold chill by just calling them and saying the word Publisher.) We call the applications on the aforementioned list Professional Graphics software quite simply because that is what the "pros" of design use. This leads us to ePUB Law #1 - If it is on the PG list, the software is OK for print publishing. If it is not on the list, beware.

What are OG files?

Now we know what OG Apps are (PG Apps as well), but what about OG files. ePUB defines OG files as any file, native or graphical, that results from the use of an OG application. In other words, if you are using an OG app and you "Save" or "Save-As" a document, you are creating an OG file. Likewise, if you create a table or chart in an OG App and "Save", "Save-as", cut-and-paste, or "Paste-Special" into another application, you are creating or using an OG File.

Like with OG Apps, almost all file formats fall within the OG file definition because they are not designed for print publishing. Again, ePUB will take on the task of listing these offending OG file formats. The most common native OG files are .doc (Word), .ppt (PowerPoint), .xls (Excel), and .wpd (Corel WordPerfect). In addition, most OG applications are capable of exporting pages, graphics, charts, tables, images, or documents to other file formats. These "other" formats include .wmf (Windows Metafile), .emf (Enhanced Metafile), .bmp (Windows Bitmap), .pcx (PC Paintbrush), .gif (CompuServe's Graphic Interchange Format), .jpg (Joint Photographic Expert Group), .png (Portable Network Graphic) are also considered OG Files.

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