CLINTON PRESS

Make Wood Grain Vector Art in Illustrator

2011-08-31T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to show you how to create your own wood grain vector art in Illustrator.

You can change the colors to your preference for your design.

1st open illustrator create the size page you want to make the wood grain, below is the tools you will be using:

Next select the rectangle tool and draw a thin rectangle the length of the page then select the rectangle and hold the option shift then drag this will copy the exact one below it. Continue until the whole page is full of lines:

Next select all the lines and go to the Object tab>Transform>Transform Each, type in these settings:

This makes the lines different sizes. Next select the warp tool double click it and put in these settings, this will distort the lines when you run the brush over the lines from left to right:

Next select the twirl tool put in these settings and lightly tap the brush over the lines in different places to twirl the line slightly:

Next choose the pucker tool use same settings as before then run the brush over the lines to contrast and pucker them to your liking:

Next select all and pull down from the top to scrunch it together into thinner shapes:

this is how it looks after scrunching it, next draw a retangle box over the top of the lines with a lighter color and send to back:

There you have it your own homemade wood grain vector art from Illustrator. Have fun and be creative!

Quick Mask Mode in Photoshop

2011-08-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hello out there my blog readers!

I just learned a cool trick in photoshop, I thought I would share it with you along with some photos of what I did. It is the Quick Mask tool.

First open a photo I used an eye just to try it out.

Next double click this box on your tools pallet, another pallet will pop up so copy my settings.

Now you are ready to paint the eyeball with the brush tool by selecting B on your keyboard then you can use [ to make brush go up in size and ] to make the brush go down in size. Now paint the eye around the iris it will show up red when you do this like the photo below:

Next you can press the Q key on the keyboard again to go back to standard mode, this will put whatever you painted into selection mode, next go to the select tab at the top and scroll down to inverse.

Now go to the Image tab scroll to adjustments then to Hue/Saturation. Make sure the preview is on so you can see how the image looks when you start playing around with the setting to achieve what you want the eye to look like as my photo below

Now you know how to use the quick mask mode to change eye color. Cool hu?

Social Networking....Does it work for you?

2011-07-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

I was recently talking to some people about how Facebook works for them. Some business swear by Facebook and others do not receive any added business using Facebook. Why is that? I think the younger people (thumb people) the ones that use the internet for everything from telling time to looking up a phone number or map are the ones more likely to use Facebook to find a business or deals.

The businesses that are geared toward an older generation or most of their client are the older generation do not really get anything out of Facebook. Take for example a business that sells hearing aids. Most people who may need a hearing aid are in the older retiree generation. Few are younger like my age or children.

I know that technology is the way to go these days, like scanning QR codes for deals and or coupons at a store on your smart phone. My mother in-law does not have an email or even know how to use the computer. She has never searched the web. She would be in the category of the retired generation. She looks for deals and ads in the Newspaper or mailers.

So just by the type of business you have should determine the market you want to reach out to. Let Clinton Press help with those marketing needs. We can create a marketing strategy to generate business to the different clients you may have.

Also Facebook has worked for us at Clinton Press. It really helps to generate business, especially with a promotion or also when we send out an email blast.

Have a great week!

Sharing Fonts Illegal

2011-06-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I recently had a client that was looking for a font, because theirs had become corrupt. We do not know why but he had upgraded to a newer macintosh. The fonts would not load so he sent them to me. I was also unable to use the fonts.

I was thinking since this is a print shop, we receive fonts all the time for print jobs. I sent an email to my graphic designer friends since I was just going to need the fonts to print the job. I actually had one person reply to me that he had the font I was looking for.

In the meantime another client emailed me and said it was illegal to share fonts. Being a print shop and only using the fonts for the printed job, I assume that it was okay. I am not really sure how that applies to a printing company. Most of the fonts are thrown out once used for that job. I wasn't trying to do anything illegal, especially when it comes to the company I work for.

I was wondering if anyone has any information about "borrowing a font" that is just what we did. I like to help out my clients as much as possible for the prepress part, or just educating them with the experience and knowledge I have gained over the years. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and Have a great Day!

QR Codes a funky looking barcode

2011-04-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Have you been seeing the new funky looking square codes lately everywhere? Well we have been getting alot of clients printing with the QR code on it. It is only going to pop up even more. It is the new wave of technology at least in the USA.

Here is what it looks like:

QR codes have been used for years in Japan. I think they used it to track inventory on auto parts. So now we have this wonderful code that is 2 diminsional and can store tons of information. The neat thing about it is you can create it yourself for free. Just google QR code creator and there are lots of sites that let you create it for FREE. We love free.

Here are a few ways people are already using it now:

Stores or retails may have the QR code and when you scan with your cell phone you will receive a coupon right there on the spot.

Small businesses are putting it on there website or business cards. If you put it on the business card you can basically have someone scan it and you can put your contact information and the person who scans it can easily store your info in their phone. Or it can take you directly to their website. Pretty Awesome Hu?

You can use QR codes to take a shortcut to contact, product, coupons, offers, twitter, facebook, linkedin, event details, etc. The possibilities are unlimited. Check it out. What a great way for a small business to send detailed information with the blink of an eye about them!

Trends of the Future

2011-03-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

I would like to share a website with you today. It has some really interesting articles on it.

http://thefutureofthings.com.

I recently read about xerox developing a new inkless printer which sounds so cool and unbelievable. This article can be found here:

http://thefutureofthings.com/articles/50/xerox-inkless-printer.html

They say it uses a light source and can last right now from 16 to 24 hours. Xerox has developed a special paper which can be used over and over. At this stage in the testing they said it can be re-used up to 50 times.

Wow wouldn't it be nice to have this technology in the future, imagine how green it will be and also you wouldn't have to have boxes and boxes of recycled paper in the office. I know we recycle tons of paper here at Clinton Press. This new technology is not yet available and they are still working on it. Xerox says it will be a few years off. Check out the article it is truely an amazing trend of the future!

Variable Data

2011-03-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Did you know that we have the capabilities to do variable data (personalization) on envelopes, letters, brochures etc. All you have to do is send Clinton Press a database with your names and addresses of the customers you wish to personalize printed items with.

It is a great and wonderful marketing tool. We can do 4 color process envelope and put your different addresses on them and the letters to match. All you have to do is stuff the letters or have us stuff the letters and mail it out.

The variable data industry is a fast, personal way to reach your customers individually. How about maybe doing a few notepads with a person's name and phone on it. It could be done the exact same way with your database.

Variable is the new wave of the future when it comes to printing. So call us today and ask about variable data options. Have a great week!

New Studies Show Facebook a Powerhouse Marketing Tool

2011-03-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

I just recently read a very, very interesting article about marketing tools for social media.

I am including a link to show the studies comparing Facebook, Yahoo, Google, etc. It stated that the average time spent on Facebook per person in January was 7 hours.

It also shows an example of fan base for a company's Facebook page and how the study concluded that the number of fans grew the business. I am going to try that next. We need more Fans on the Clinton Press Facebook page. Come check us out!

Here is a link to the interesting article:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-new-studies-show-facebook-a-marketing-powerhouse/

Problems with Photoshop files

2010-11-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

I know it has been awhile since I have blogged. I have been extremely busy at work these day. We have a new sales lady and tons of work. So today I have a few minutes to finally write.

I want to talk about a file I received a couple of weeks ago. It was a very unique and different pocket folder design that came in. I have never seen one like it. The designer was trying to achieve a 1 color pocket folder design. But the files were in photoshop in cmyk. I had to explain to the designer when doing 1 color it would be best to do a monotone or to draw the design in illustrator to be able to control the shading and gradients and the color better.

The pocket folder had to match in 3 places so it had to be broken down and the designer had to go back and get her to design it in illustrator. That way we could use the one color pms design in 3 spots on the pocket folder so that when it folds up and together, all images overlap and meet and match up in the same place.

So if you want to use a pms color with a line drawn design do it in illustrator it will save you time and frustrations when you send it to your printer. Vector art is always better if it is a drawing and not a photo.

Thanks and have a great day!

HOW TO REMOVE AN IMAGE FROM A PDF

2010-09-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday,

Every now and then I get a pdf file that may need something taken off of it. For example, crop marks, color bars or page information. Sometimes we may need to remove some text or an image from the pdf.

If I am lucky I receive a pdf that I can do that to. Here are step by step instructions of how to do this. Some pdfs will work this way and some do not. Just try it out to see if it works for you. It is actually a wonderful tool to have if you need to manipulate a pdf file.

First open your file in Adobe Acrobat Pro I use 9 most will work as long as it is pro versions. Next go to the Tools Tab at the top, scroll down to Advanced Editing and over to Touch up Object Tool. Next hold down the command, option, shift buttons and select the item you wish to remove from the pdf.

You will see a box around that item, now press the delete button, it should disappear from your pdf. This is a great option to use on pdfs for minor changes! Have a great week!

Nikki :-)

Indicias

2010-09-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

Good Morning my friends,

Okay we have been completely swamped lately so therefore I am a week or two behind on my blogging. But I am back and want to talk about Indicias today. There are a few regulations when it comes to putting one on your mailing piece or envelopes.

First of all you need to talk to your printer to decide if you will be using their mailing services. If so they will probably put their own Indicia on the mail piece before printing it. But if you already have your own number and Indicia made up just let your printer know.

There are a few different ones depending on how you will mail the printed item.

First Class Mail - Presorted looks like this but of course you would use your own number or the printing company would use theirs: It is 200% of actual size so you can see it better.

The real size is .875 x .875.

Next is the Presorted Standard -Class Mail (This used to be Bulk Rate Mail, but the term bulk could not be used after 2001)

Next and last one we usually use is the Non-Profit Organization Indicia, you must have your own Indicia mailing number for the non-profit company you are with.

So if you have any questions contact your printer or local post office. Thanks and have a great week.

Variable Data

2010-09-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday!

Happy Labor Day Weekend also, I hope everyone has a safe one, wherever you may go! I learned something new this morning while working with my variable data program. As you know we have the capabilities to personalize your printed mail and other printed items at Clinton Press.

It really and truly is a wonderful thing to do and a lot of companies are going this route. Only one catch, you have to have a pretty accurate database from Excel to go with it and that is what makes the variable data work.

We ran into a problem trying to figure out how to triplicate names in an Excel Database. Well after one whole day of trying it wasn't working the way it should. (If any of you out there know how to make a name appear 3 times vertically please let me know it would be very helpful in the future). So Clint had the idea of making multiple pages in a document and so after thinking and trying I did just that.

Basically I copied the page into my pdf variable file 3 times. Then I copied and pasted the variable data blocks to each page. Wow, after composing the file it actually made 3 of the same names in a row over and over until it reached the end of the database. Thanks Clint for the idea, it worked! Sometimes 2 or 3 brains are better than 1! Yay!

You are probably wondering why we needed the file triplicated anyway, well we were running variable data on carbon copy collated sheets (pink, white, yellow). The sheets come collated in the color order and we needed to print the same information on pink, white, and yellow sheets.

That way it would stay collated and in the exact order that the customer sent in the database by department and alphabetically.

Contact us if you would be interested in doing some variable data printing, it really is an awesome thing! Have a great weekend!

Nikki McDonald

A Day in the Life of a Prepress Department

2010-08-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

I apologize to my people and fans and followers for not posting in a couple of weeks. It has been hectic and crazy busy here in Greensboro at Clinton Press. And that is exactly how we like for it to be, busy.

So I will share a little about what we have been up to. Lots of designing going on these days in prepress. We have a new saleslady and she is doing well, she has brought in a few design jobs. The design jobs take a little longer than our normal jobs sent in by ad agencies or graphic designers or our clients.

We have tons of work all over the plant so therefore some days our prepress department, Kathy and I have to go to other areas of the printing company, mostly bindery. We are very well rounded and experience in most all places of the plant. Kathy is the girl that does everything. She is my partner in prepress, she handles the proof making, plate-making, etc.

On top of all that she answers the phones, writes job jackets does billing, shipping in the shipping department, she is the go to girl for Clint Jackson our boss and owner of Clinton Press. Thank God for Kathy Shelton I don't know where we would be without her.

We have also been trying to find a prepress person to take my place for 6 weeks maternity leave somewhere around December. I am due during that time. We plan to have everything running smoothly, so not to worry. You will still get your jobs on time in the same professional manner and beautiful print quality, as always. Yes we have been busy at Clinton Press! YAY! I will make sure to get back to my regular posting schedule.

Have a great weekend!

Introducing Our New Saleswoman at Clinton Press

2010-08-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Everyone!

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our team at Clinton Press.

Her name is Kerri Lindley. She will be a wonderful addition to Clinton Press, we are very excited to have her. Here is a little bit of her background:

C urrent

Owner at KCL Creative
Star Alliance at Broach and Company

Past

Contract Graphic Designer at SLAM, Inc.
Graphic Designer at Crago and Company
Contract Graphic Designer at Genre

Education

Appalachian State University

Public Profile

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kclcreative

Kerri is a graphic designer and now will be a graphic print specialist with us at Clinton Press. Stop by and meet Kerri today!

Overprint Settings in Indesign

2010-07-21T05:36:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Everyone!

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted on my blog. I have been extremely busy here at work. (A great thing!) When I wasn't busy I was trying to get as much information about intelligent barcoding for mailing pieces. There is so much information on it, I have to check everything out.

Enough excuses hu? Today I am going to tell you about overprint settings in Indesign. I recently received a job from a client this week with some overprinting going on in the file. They left me a long list of things they checked out and couldn't figure why the logos were still overprinting.

First thing I did was open the Indesign file and open up the separations palette, after clicking on each color to turn it off, sure enough the logos were overprinting.

So I went to the window tab at the top and scrolled down to attributes. This will pull up your attributes palette. Next I ungrouped the logo which had 20 different pieces in it. Next I selected each color one at a time. Just precautionary measures, and deselected the overprint button in the attributes palette. All colors were selected to overprint. If you run into a problem with overprinting, just check out the attributes palette it is a wonderful tool. This tool is in Indesign and Illustrator, I use it a lot.

Woohoo! Another prepress problem has been once again solved. I called the client just to let them know what the problem was and also to share with them the tools and knowledge for the future. The client was very appreciative for that knowledge.

Have a great week, we are half way to the weekend!

Our new E-Press and Variable Data Mail Merge

2010-07-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

Happy July 4th early my friends!

I know I have told you about our new E-press before and also our variable data mail merge. But since you may not know the wonderful capabilities I will give you a little insight today. The E-press can print 4 color envelopes with a mail merge at the same time.

For example if you have a 4 color envelope and would like to print individual company names or personal names on the envelope along with the mail barcode and save a ton of money, you would definitely like to talk to us about the opportunities on the new E-press.

We can take your mailing list and print each name on the letter and/or envelopes to match, we do it all right here in house. Both sides of the envelope can be printed. Below are a few samples of envelopes we have printed:

There are many more cost effective ways to print these mail merge envelopes and letters for you. Please come by or give up a call to set up your next mailing project!

Have a safe 4th of july and remember to keep all of our men and women fighting for our country in your prayers!

Make A PDF from a Word Mac File

2010-06-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I find myself needing to make a pdf from a Word File on the Macintosh. I do not recommend making a pdf from word because when you use word files it automatically reduces the resolution of any graphics, etc. to 72 DPI, low resolution. But sometimes that may be all you have.

So today I will explain how to make a pdf out of a word file: Open your word file and hopefully all of your fonts will be loaded to match.

• Next click the File tab at the top left

• Then scroll down to select the Print tab

• At the top you will see a Printer tab Select the tab and

choose Adobe PDF 7.0 or 9.0 whichever is available to choose

• Next at the bottom left choose the PDF buttom and select

Save as a PDF tab

• Next it will ask you where you want to save it

• Now Press the Save button at the bottom right

• Now you have a high resolution PDF of a low resolution word file

Hope this helps you with word files, Have a wonderful week!

Variable Data

2010-06-09T06:28:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest new technologies out today is Variable Data...of course we have that at Clinton Press. If you are not aware of what Variable Data is, I will give you some examples of what we can do for you and your company.

We can print your 1, 2, 3, or 4 colors and even more envelopes along with a database of mailing list. All this can be done at the exact same time. So each envelope would have a different name, address, and zip for every one. It saves time and money on printing specialized envelopes with a mailing list.

We can print different serial numbers to identify each printed piece individually. For example if you print CD covers and sell them. To prevent fraud and reselling of your licensed or copywrited item, we put variable data in special places on the piece. As it prints out the number changes on each and every one of the printed CD covers. That way you can tell if someone out there is copying your printed pieces.

The same can apply to artwork, if you are printing art and would like to identify each print by a special number, that can be done also. What if you want to send your clients a special letterhead personalized with their first names on it. That is also variable data. You can even design a notpad and have every 100 of them print a different photo and or name, logo, etc. This is a great idea for promotional items or christmas gifts for your clients.

Call Clinton Press today and talk to us about how Variable Data can help you and your company . Have a great week! Nikki

Clinton Press FTP Site Instructions for Mac and PC

2010-06-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

FTP Site Instructions for Macintosh

You cannot log on the FTP site with Internet Explorer!

To place files on Clinton Press FTP site from a Macintosh platform:

Use a program called FETCH or you can

get a free FTP client program at: http://filezilla-project.org/

type these items in the fields as shown below:

Host: ftp.clintonpress.com

User ID: ftpuser

Password: FTPftp1028

You will be connected and can upload your files.

FTP Site Instructions for PC Users

You cannot log on the FTP site with Internet Explorer!

From a PC platform, use Mozilla or you can

get a free FTP client program at: http://filezilla-project.org/

Have a great week! Nikki

Cool Website for Identifying Fonts

2010-05-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday and early Memorial Day!

I came across this wonderful website a while back. It has come in handy so many times it is unreal. I have recommended it to several graphic designers, customers, etc. How many times have you gotten stuck on trying to match a clients fonts....

The client wants you to match their fonts, but they do not know the name of it and you are not sure what it it either. Well thanks to the wonderful grand website call Identifont, I am able to almost, always trace down a font or even a very similar look a like.

Wow, thanks Identifont! You guys rock, the makers of the Identifont website are wonderful people and their website is a very helpful tool in my field. Check this website out, I am sure you will love it. You might want to put it in your bookmarks, because I promise you will go back to it over and over again.

The website goes through a series of questions about the font you are trying to match and in the end it will give you a list of fonts that could match, then you can scroll through to find the one that is the closest by the sample of the fonts the website displays.

www.identifont.com

I hope you enjoy this website as much as I do. It will be a very helpful tool for those of you stuck on trying to figure out what a font's identity is. Have a great week!

Mailing Indicias

2010-05-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Since we have gone into the mailing business full force, I have learned there are so many details on the regulations and standards, etc for the US Postal service. The Indicia located in the top right corner of the mail pieces are a very important part of the whole system to make the items mail otherwise they could be rejected.

Today I am going to show you a few samples of Indicias that we use on a regular basis, check with you local postal service to determine what indicia you need to use when you design your next mail piece.

First up is the Presorted First Class Mail Indicia sample: This is for pre-sorted mail going first class postal rate.

Next is the Presorted Standard Indicia Sample: this is for bulk mail going standard class.

Now our last sample is Non-profit organizations the permit # is different for each nonprofit organizations. The return address is required and must match the address of the permit holder:

Remember to check with your post office or printer before placing your own indicia on your designed mailer. There are different rules and regulations for each mail piece. Have a great day!

Problems with PSD files in Indesign

2010-05-11T12:28:00.001-07:00

Good Afternoon,

Today I'd like to talk about PSD files (photoshop files save as a PSD Photoshop Document). Lately I have been running into some problems with pdfs created from Indesign that have PSD files or links inside the Indesign file.

Just the other day I received a file from a customer (PDF file) that had a line curved across the bottom. The line appeared jagged almost low resolution. But when I ripped the file in Rampage, it did not give me an error of a low resolution file.... very weird. So we decided to contact the customer. She said maybe it was because she had a link in the Indesign file that was a PSD file type.

So she went back to her PSD file, resaved it as a tif and relinked it in Indesign. Then she made a new high resolution pdf to send to me, and wow what a difference! It looked great, the line was not jagged, it was very smooth.

I think what happens when you have a PSD file it takes up more than double or even quadruple the amount of memory than a flattened, non-layered tif or eps photoshop file does. So when you put it in the Indesign, the memory ends up being outrageous. I think the files trys to process all that and you can end up with small weird things happening to little tiny parts of the files.

The best most sure fire way to get the file to look correct it to flatten all arwork you may have in photoshop and save it as a tif or an eps file. Then use that inside your Indesign file. This will prevent anything strange going on once it gets to the printers.

Hope this helps with PSD problems. Have a great week!

Nikki

How to Use the Advanced Editing Tools in Acrobat Pro

2010-05-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

Today I want to tell you about a really cool tool you can use to edit pdfs sent in by customers that may have cropmarks on them. The tool is the advanced editing tools (TOUCH UP OBJECT TOOL) in Adobe Acrobat Pro. I love this tool.

I use the Advance Editing Tools all the time. I received tons of PDFs from clients with the cropmarks. I cannot use files with cropmarks, it just gets in the way of the finished product. So

next best thing would be to open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat.

Next go to TOOLS tab at the top, scroll down to Advanced Editing, then scroll over to Touch up Object Tool.

Next drag around the cropmarks or select the cropmarks individually.

Now press the DELETE button on your keyboard. TADAAAA now you have just deleted the cropmarks with no problems.

Next make sure to save the pdf again with a new name, that way you will have the original version of the file and the new version of the file that you edited without those annoying cropmarks.

Hope you enjoyed learning about the Touch up object tool in Acrobat Pro. Have a wonderful week!

WE ARE EXCITED TO OFFER THE NEW E-PRESS!

2010-04-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

Good morning my friends!

I would like to tell you about the new E-Press!

This has to be one of the coolest presses

we have at Clinton Press!

Here are a few samples to show you!

Fast, Easy, High Quality envelopes printed in full color at VERY AFFORDABLE PRICES!
We can show you how our E-Press!
can get your next direct mail project noticed!
Call us today! 336-275-8491

Make a Perfect Hi-res PDF from Quark

2010-04-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

Good Morning my friends!

As promised, I will explain how to make the perfect high resolution pdf from quark.

Open your document in quark, next click the "FILE" tab at top, scroll down to "EXPORT", then to the right select "LAYOUT AS PDF". Ok, now decide where you want to save it, after that here are the settings:

Uncheck the Square box beside Spreads, make sure pages are set to ALL, next click the options tab: the first tab will be Layout info, skip this one, nothing you need to worry about here. Skip the Hyperlinks tab, go to the Job Options tab, check the Font Options boxes "Embed all fonts" and "Subset fonts below 35%".

Under the Compression Options: Make sure to set all tabs to NONE on the Compression tabs. Make sure to select keep resolution under all Resolution tabs. Make sure at the bottom to UNCHECK the compress text and Line Art box and UNCHECK the ASCII format box.

Next go to the "OUTPUT" tab under the color output section Type: Composite, under Print Colors: make sure to select As Is or CMYK, uncheck the produce blank pages unless you have blanks in the document. The use opi should be grayed out, under "REGISTRATION: select OFF tab, you do not want to include registrations in your file for the printers. Under BLEED select Symmetric and for the amount put "0.125" that is 1/8th of an inch bleed all the way around.

Next go to the "OPI" tab, and make sure to uncheck the OPI Active box, it will be grayed out. If this box is check and not grayed out, it will cause major problems when ripped and it will say images are missing. Then it will ask to go find them. A real pain.

So now you have a perfect PDF if your actual quark file it perfect! Have a great week! We have a new and exciting GREEN MACHINE, I will tell you about next week! ;-)

Crazy, wrong pdfs made from Quark!

2010-04-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon!

I received the craziest, just plain wrong pdf the other day. I know if you are a pre-press person you have to know what I am talking about. The weird thing is a PDF is supposed to be the perfect type of file to send to a printer.... not in this case. It really all depends on how the operator or designers save the pdf out of quark in order to get the perfect PDF to rip in our program (Rampage).

The file looked great on the screen, then all hell broke loose when I tried to rip the thing. It was a two color job but when I ripped it, it was 8, crazy. So I spent 3 hours trying to break the pdf file apart to make it work. It was honestly no fault of the designer, it was just the way the file was exported into a PDF.

I had to open the pdf in Acrobat and select the Advanced Edit photo tool then I selected each picture with the command and option keys, this opens the photo in photoshop so I could change it to a duotone instead of 4 color grayscale photos. Then I saved them and they automatically update in the PDF. There were about 12 or 14 photos I had to do that to. What a hot mess, I tend to think that I have no patience sometimes, but I actually have some when it comes to technical stuff. That is only if I can figure it out and make it work.

So to make a long story short it took 3 hours to break the pdf apart and make it work. Then we finally got the proof out... then along came changes, finally I got the parent quark files from the client and saved the pdf correctly and WOOHOO it worked.

Next week I am going to tell you the settings for a high res pdf in quark so you will save your company money. When it makes it to prepress department at your printers you will have an almost perfect or perfect pdf as long as the images and fonts are perfect too.

Have a great week and Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Types of Envelopes and Sizes

2010-04-06T07:50:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!

Wow its going to be almost 90 degrees today in Greensboro. Kinda early for spring to be getting that hot already. Today I wanted to talk about Envelopes and different types and sizes.

There are usually 2 different types that are pretty common for invitations, reply cards, etc.

Type A is a square flap, Type Bar is a regular pointed flap. The type you choose is your preference. I personally like the A types for invitations. They just seem more formal. Even if your invite is not formal, it still looks great, especially if you print the return address on the flap.

Here is an example of an A-7 envelope:

Remember to place address or logos and or artwork 3/8th of an inch away from the edge. This is because when it is printed the press has to have room to grab the envelope, otherwise it may not print all of the image that you have placed on the envelope.

Here is an example of type Bar Envelopes:

See the difference in the flaps: Bar Envelopes and A envelopes come in many sizes, so I am going to list the sizes here. Just remember also when you design the card, invite, etc., be sure to make it at least 1/8th to 1/4 size smaller than the envelope. If you don't it will not fit the envelope.

Envelopes and Sizes:

A-2 (4 3/8 x 5 3/4) 4.375 x 5.75

A-6 (4 3/4 x 6 1/2) 4.75 x 6.5

A-7 (5 1/4 x 7 1/4) 5.25 x 7.25 (may require more postage)

A-8 (5 1/5 x 8 1/8) 5.5 x 8.125 (requires more postage)

A-9 (5 3/4 x 8 3/4) 5.75 x 8.75 (requires more postage)

A-10 (6 x 9 1/2) 6 x 9.5 (requires more postage)

4 Bar (3 5/8 x 5 1/8) 3.625 x 5.125

5 Bar (4 1/8 x 5 1/2) 4.125 x 5.5

5 1/2 Bar (4 3/8 x 5 3/4) 4.375 x 5.75

6 Bar (4 3/4 x 6 1/2) 4.75 x 6.5

Lee (5 1/4 x 7 1/4) 5.25 x 7.25 (may require more postage)

I am not sure why the Bar 7 envelope is called Lee, I will check on it and get back to you on that one. But if you already know the answer, please contact me and let me know, then I will post it on my blog!

Have a great Day and Week!

Nikki

Dielines for Envelopes

2010-03-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon!

What a beautiful day it is, and it will only get better through the week. Happy Easter! I hope everyone gets a day off for the holiday. We have Good Friday off, YAY!

Today I wanted to tell you a little about dielines for envelopes. To be more specific the Remittance envelopes. We have been doing a lot of those lately. It really helps me to lay the remittance envelope out if I have a dieline as a guide to follow.

Because Remittance envelopes have glue tabs, you want to make sure that you don't put words on the bottom, or lines that need to be filled out. I didn't even realize until I saw someone design a remittance envelope one day with information to be check and filled in at the bottom of the inside. But when the person goes to fill it out and seals the envelope, it will rip the information off when the company goes to open it up. I am going to put a couple of sample of my remittance envelope dielines on here.

If you see one you could use please email me at graphics@clintonpress.com and request a dieline you need. I will be glad to send a vector eps Illustrator file to you. It will save you the hassle later on.

Here are a couple of samples of the most popular sizes we do a #9 Remittance and a #6 3/4 Remittance envelope:

Happy Easter! Feel Free to contact me if you need this dieline! Nikki

HOW TO MAKE PANTONE SWATCHES IN ILLUSTRATOR

2010-03-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!

Finally beautiful weather, no snow and 60 degrees outside. Spring is on the way!

Today I am going to tell you how to use and make the Pantone swatches palette in Illustrator CS4.

After opening the Illustrator program: Go to the "Windows Tab" at the top, select the "Swatches Palette".

Next in the "Swatches Palette", select the arrow drop down menu on the right hand corner of the swatches palette. Choose: Open Swatch Library: then select Color books: then select the Pantone colors you wish to use, there are many choices. Pantone Solid Color is pretty standard in printing, but there are metallics, pastels and much much more.

Then the swatches show and you can type the pantone color you are looking for in the find field at the top of the pantone swatches palette. It will then take you directly to the color you wish to use.

Have a great day!

Imposition and Crop Marks

2010-02-26T11:08:00.000-08:00

Okay friends,

Here is the definition of Imposition: Arrangement of pages on mechanicals or flats so they will appear in proper sequence after press sheets are folded and bound.

The reason I gave the definition is to let you know what it is that we do with your single page files. Clinton Press prefers single page layouts because we have to save and rip individual pages to Rampage, then Kathy my prepress expert imposes the pages to fit the way we print and fold and or stitch the job.

I have files sent in all the time in printer spreads and reader spreads. Also I get high resolution pdfs with crop marks, color bars, etc.

When you send in a file make sure it is set up in single pages in the document, also when you send in a pdf you will save time and money by including the bleed (1/8th of an inch .125") but please leave the crop marks and other stuff off.

I have to manually remove those before I rip it in rampage and give it to Kathy the Imposition and Proofing Specialist.

Hope this helps with the meaning of Imposition and why we ask for files in Single pages.

Thanks and Have a Great Weekend!

Bleed, Bleed, Bleed and more Bleed

2010-02-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!

I would like to talk about bleed and how much bleed a standard for printing is. Our standard for bleed is 1/8th (0.125") of an inch at Clinton Press. We don't need 1/4 of an inch, sometimes we can get away with 1/16th (0.062) if there is no other way around it.

Some photos may be placed at the edge of your document and the placement may only allow for 1/16th of an inch bleed, but if possible make it bleed off the page at least 1/8th of an inch.

What happens when we do not have bleed on a page or document is when the files are imposed (placed together in a spread to print on a sheet) it make leave a white line where the two pages without bleed line up in the imposition.

Usually if a customer sends a file without bleed, I will request a file with bleed. But if the file has a solid background I can usually fake the bleed myself by adding it to the outer edges in Indesign.

Please always check and plan your design. If you plan on using photos that run off the page or to the edge allow placement to bleed at least 1/8th of an inch. In Indesign you can set your document up to add 1/8th bleed around the page and you will have a guide of the placement of your elements so that they will bleed off the page.

Thanks Have a Great Day!

Importing Graphics in Indesign CS4 Problems

2010-02-10T12:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday!

I have noticed since working with Indesign CS4 that when I go to import a link into a graphics box that I draw in Indesign, the size of the imported graphics changes percentages.

It is crazy, thank goodness I caught it before sending a job to proofing. I checked it out and it is a new feature that automatically fits the image inside the graphics box. If you go to the Windows tab at the top: select Object styles: there should be 3 different ones inside the Object Styles Panel.

Make sure to select none, then draw your box. This way when you go to import the links it will not resize. If you don't select that, Indesign will automatically resize either up or down and scale the image you try to place in the Indesign document.

I am not really sure I like the new automated feature. It actually creates more work on my part when I try to import a link in. Let me know what you think of this new feature and also any other weird problems you may be having with the new Indesign CS4.

Have a great week!

New Illustrator CS4 saves 2 version of EPS...Why?

2010-02-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

Are you sick of the winter weather and snow yet?

I am ready for spring!

Since we have been getting files from CS4 Illustrator, I have noticed

customers sending duplicates of the same file. I wasn't sure what was

going on until I saved my own illustrator file, here is what I end up:

two of the same resulting .eps files, one with the name I saved

it to, and the other with "the name-01".

So I went online to find out why that happens, I went to the Adobe

website to get the answer:

Uncheck the "Use Artboard" option in the save as EPS dialog. When

it's check, and the "All" ratio is check this will give you one EPS

containing everything in your document AND one for each artboard.

That why even if you have only one artboard in your situation you

get two eps.

The guy on Adobe goes to explain this:

One advantage or enabling the "Use Artboard" in this dialog even if

you only have one artboard is that Illustrator will create a clipping of

your art to the size of the Artboard itself, so you won't have to worry

about the objects that are outside the artboard. In this scenario, what

you need to do, is enable "Use Artboard" but uncheck the "all" ratio

and enter 1 in the Range field.

This is great information for you if you want to save 1 file only.

Hope this helps to explain the new weird function Adobe Illustrator

CS4 does.

Digital Printing Problems

2010-01-25T07:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday Y'all!

Remember a couple of months ago when we had problems with the client's PDFs dropping out images and having problems with printing after it is processed through the rip on our Xerox Digital Printer?

Well I have run into the same problem several times since then. It seems that the PDFs look great on the screen and when printed to a laser printer. So the opening of the PDF in photoshop to flatten the transparencies does not work all the time.

What I have to do after I open in photoshop is flatten it then save as an eps, then I have to create a document in Indesign. Next import images that have been flattened in photoshop and re-do another pdf of the entire document. This almost always works. I believe the problem is the complex objects and shadows.

Also I think the complexity of the transparencies and shadows on top of each other in Indesign is causing a problem inside the rip. But if I get the original Indesign files, my pdfs I create from the original file usually work.

Since there are so many different settings in Indesign to create a high resolution PDF, it would be best to send the native Indesign file along with the High Res PDF to your printer. This will cut down on the cost and time in prepress trying to fix a PDF that is fine before it goes to a rip for a digital press, or plates.

Contact your printer and talk about the settings to create the high resolution Pdf before you release it to the printers.

Thanks and Have a Great Week!

Nikki

CS4 UP and Running

2010-01-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Finally we have CS4 up and running at Clinton Press. I wanted to thank everyone for being so patient. Also for taking the time to save the Indesign files as INX files. I know it can sometimes be a pain. We really appreciate it though!

We have had CS4 for awhile now but it would not run on my system. We have upgraded memory, etc. Now we are able to get those CS4 files with no trouble. If anyone has any problems with crashing or fonts, could you let me know? Just curious if there are any kinks I should know about ahead of time.

Thanks again to everyone, send those CS4 files! YAY! No more INX files required! Have a great week!

Nikki

How to set up Digital Printing Jobs for Clinton Press

2010-01-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

Today I will explain the best way to send files for Digital Printing. If you send files for the digital press this will be the most cost effective way.

All digital press files should be sent in high resolution PDF format. When saving the high resolution Pdf, make sure to include 1/8th of an inch bleed (0.125"). That of course is if your document has bleed or photos and art that runs off the edge of the page.

You should NOT include registration marks, bleed marks, color bars or page information. If the high res pdf has any of these items, the prepress department has to remove the items from the pdf and then crop it to the edge before sending to the Digital press. This can be time consuming and add more cost to the job.

Make sure to send the lasers also so that the prepress has something to compare to. Believe it or not, all pdfs are not created equally. Some pdfs can become corrupt in the file transfer process (email, ftp, etc).

If you ever have any questions about the type of files to send, please contact your printer, they can tell you the best way and most cost effective type files to send.

Have a great week! Its cold outside, bundle up and stay warm!

How to Use the Preflight Tool in Indesign

2010-01-04T12:21:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!

While you have your file open in Indesign, you can use the preflight tool to check the document you created in Indesign. Select the File Tab at the top of your Indesign file and select Preflight on the drop down menu.

Next you have a box pop up with Summary, Fonts, Links and Images, Colors and Inks, Print Settings, and External Plug-ins. In the preflight summary it will tell you if you have any images missing, embedded and how many use RGB mode. This will prevent you from sending the file with RGB photos to the printers.

Also the preflight tool tells you how many fonts you use and if you have any missing, embedded, incomplete or Protected.

Next is the Colors and Inks section, this is handy if you have created what you thought was a 2color job, but you actually have 1 process color and 2 spot inks. If you run into this problem go to the Separations Palette and check to find where the extra color is. That way you can fix it and save time in the prepress department. This can save you money also.

The Print Settings button is next. This gives you details of what is set in the file, for example: bleed, reader spreads, page position Color, Trapping mode, etc.

You can also do a report to send to the printers with your Indesign file. It helps to use the Preflight tool in Indesign to help speed up the process of getting your files through the prepress department of your printers.

Hope this helps with the tool in Indesign! Have a great week!

Nikki

Open Prepress Interface (OPI)

2009-12-30T05:16:00.000-08:00

Open Prepress Interface (OPI) is a bunch of PostScript language that uses low-resolution placeholders for large images in order to speed layout and proofing and save disk space when working in a page layout like Indesign and Quark Xpress. An OPI workflow takes low or medium resolution TIFF images for page layout and proofing in an application like InDesign, and then uses an OPI server to substitute high resolution images when the final print output is done.

When saving high resolution PDF from Indesign, Quark, Illustrator, etc, make sure to turn the OPI off. This keeps the high resolution image in the file. That way when you send you files to the printing company you don't have to worry about the files searching for a high resolution image when it is being ripped in the printing company's ripping program.

There is a box when you go to export your pdf out of Indesign, Quark, and Illustrator that has OPI, make sure that box is unchecked or grayed out. Sometimes when I receive a pdf that the OPI is turned on, and I try to rip it in Rampage, it will give me an error on the images which are supposed to be included in the pdf. So basicallly it is trying to find the high resolution image somewhere on an OPI server.

Usually small printers do not have an OPI server, so we keep all high resolution images in the files, by turning the OPI off. Hope this helps with learning about what OPI is.

Happy New Year Everyone! Have a safe one!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays from all of us at Clinton Press!

Today I am going to explain how to crop a pdf with the cropping tool in Acrobat Professional.

I receive a lot of files with crop marks on them, but I have to take the crop marks off because we have to impose the files for printing. Meaning we set them 2 up on a sheet, etc.

Open up your pdf in Acrobat Professional, next select the crop tool at the top which is the blue square tool. Then draw a box over the area you wish to crop. Next double click and a box will appear, if you have more than one page in the document select ALL Pages and it will automatically crop all pages exactly the same as the one you drew a box around.

Next if you like the way the document cropped, save it out as a pdf and now you have a pdf without crop marks and I also have the bleed, because I cropped it at the bleed edge.

This is a really handy tool if the crop marks are outside the bleed area.

God bless you all and Merry Christmas! We hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday!

Nikki

Fake Bleed on a PDF in Indesign

2009-12-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Happy Holidays! Are you ready for Christmas? I just about finished my shopping. Years fly by so quickly these days.

Today I am going to tell you how to Fake Bleed a file in Indesign. Since we have been doing alot of digital printing lately, some people do not understand or even forget to save the PDF document with 1/8th of an inch bleed.

If I receive a PDF of a file that has a solid border or background I set up the Indesign file the same size as the PDF sent in. Then Import the PDF into your Indesign file. Go to the Window Tab: Output: then Separations Palette.

Next hold the arrow over the border or background color after you turn on the separations palette. Now you can read the measurements of color. My document has 40 cyan, 40 magenta, 40 yellow, and 100 black. Next I make the color as cmyk and add to my swatches.

Next draw a box, with bleed added and put the new color you made into it. Send it to the back, make sure it doesn't show through, if so change the linked image background color to paper.

Now you have 1/8th of an inch bleed. Next you can save your PDF out with the bleed and send to the digital press or ripping program.

Happy Holidays!

Nikki

How to change a cmyk color to pms in Rampage

2009-12-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

Good Morning all!

If you use Rampage as a ripping program for your prepress department, here is a trick to use if you receive a pdf with cmyk type or photos in it.

First if I am trying to get around the cmyk document: for example the file came in as a pdf and size is 8.5 by 11. I set up a document in Indesign and import the pdf into the document and select paper from the color palette for the background of the pdf.

After that I select the pms color I want to use like 185 red. I draw a box on top of the pdf in Indesign and put pms 185 in the fill color of the box. Then I send it to the back of the pdf. You will not be able to see the 185 color behind the pdf.

Next I save the document out as an eps file and go to rip in Rampage. The pms will show up under the edit colors section, I then map the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black color to PMS 185 Red. WooHoo now I have a PMS 185 document for printing.

Have a great day!

Word Document Files and Hi-Res Printing

2009-11-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!

Since I am a prepress manager and have seen a lot of crazy type files over the years, I am always investigating ways to work around things like bad files. It is really hard sometimes to explain why you cannot print a file from word if it has any type of graphics in it.

The other day we were trying to do a mail merge letter with variable data in it. The variable data, was the persons name which changes on each letterhead. So we tried to take my high resolution Indesign PDF and place it in a word document and send it to the Xerox Digital Press to print.

Of course it printed low resolution with grainy photos and you could barely read the type. So after checking this out I found out by default Word automatically reverts any graphics in the document to 96DPI, bad, bad, bad. Looks terrible when you try to print.

I also found out there is a special program you can purchase, I don't know a lot about it to keep the images at a high resolution. Some people recommend printing the file to pdf writer and distilling it in acrobat, but it didn't work for me. So I would recommend not sending a word document with graphics in the background. Send it separate so it can be put into another preferred program made for commercial printing.

We had to print the letterhead first then run it back through and print the variable data word document file on top of the preprinted letterhead. What a mess! Just realize the word document will downsample files to 96DPI. Talk to your printer before sending those types of files to them. It will save you money and a headache later on. Have a great day!

How to make a PDF grayscale

2009-11-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Today I will explain how to turn a 4 color PDF into a grayscale PDF. Sometimes we receive PDF made from a word document, etc. So before I can rip it I have to convert the PDF or convert it in the ripping program (Rampage).

Open your file in Acrobat: Next click at the top tab: Advanced, scroll down to Print Production: then scroll to Convert Colors.

Now you have a box with the colors listed as shown below:

I actually have a pms color in this file so I will convert it to the destination file grayscale, Now it will tell you this cannot be undone. And now we have a grayscale document. As shown in the box below:

Using PMS colors in Microsoft Publisher

2009-11-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

When you first create your document in Microsoft Publisher, select the file color mode first before you get started and choose Spot colors: then pick the pms colors you want to use throughout the document. For example PMS 185 Red and PMS spot black. This will prevent spending tons of money for the prepress department at your local print shop from charging a bunch of time trying to fix the document.

When you are finished creating it be sure to package it so that all links are included in the file when you send it to the printer. You can also make a postscript file and use Acrobat distiller to convert the postscript file to a pdf - high resolution for the printer.

Just go to print and in the box at the top select print postscript, save it on the desktop then double click the file on the desktop and it will open in Distiller to create the PDF then save on the desktop again. And there you have it! A high-resolution PDF in 2 spot colors (PMS) to send to your printer! Have a great day!

Creating a later version Indesign (INX) file

2009-10-28T07:20:00.001-07:00

Good Morning,

Now that the new CS4 is out and more customers and companies are buying it, we have not upgraded just yet, I have to have customers save an Indesign Interchange file (INX file) so that I can open it in CS3.

In the next steps I will show you how to do that if you have printers, etc that need it in CS2 or CS3.

With the Indesign file open: Go to the File tab at top and select export: then choose Indesign Interchange under the format tab. This will then put the INX extension on the end. Now you can include the packaged file also which will include the links and the fonts, include these with the INX file you send to the printer.

With the INX file they can open in any Indesign version. Woohoo! Have a great day!

FOLLOW-UP TO MY EMAIL HIJACKER

2009-10-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

Well on Monday evening I received an email message from hotmail verifying me as the account holder. They then froze the account until I was able to change the password.

When I finally got into my account, I realized that the hijacker probably got my SS#, we will know soon. They erased my entire contact list, not sure why? I guess that was after they started emailing back and forth with friends and family. They also deleted all messages in the inbox, especially the ones they wrote back and forth. But the good thing was they didn't delete them out of the deleted folder.

I was able to go to each email sent from the Hijacker and get IP addresses. Weird thing is they were all different each time the email was sent from a different computer. Then I went to search for a reverse IP look-up. Okay to make a long story short, the IP addresses were all owned by a man and woman in Nigeria. It gave address, phone number, email address, etc. It even gave a satellite photo of the area the ip address was at. Crazy hu? Some of the IP addresses were located in Nigeria some in Dallas Texas but all owned by the same people.

So what can I do with this information? Well first I complained to the Internet Crime folks, but now I can give them a list of the IP addresses, and since this person god only knows where, at least they can check up on the scammer and hopefully prevent this person from doing it to other people.

So I have had a headache trying to change email addresses, passwords visit banks, etc. Just in case the hacker tries to use the Identity stuff he got off my email. What a nightmare.... Be careful out there on the world wide web.

When I looked on the Internet for the guys name I found out he is on Facebook, Linked-In, has a blog on this blogger site, he is a computer genius and has a bachelor in Science computer degree and writes articles, but this could be someone else stealing his Identity or a ring of people working together to scam others. I have learned some valuable lessons.

Have a great day!

Email Hijackers and Hotmail

2009-10-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!

I had a great weekend at the beach actually was 88 degrees on the beach. But on Saturday morning I recieved several phone calls from friends about receiving an email from me.

The subject line was I need Assistance, here is the email:

How`s the weekend going? Hope everything`s alright. I need you to help me out with something. Can i get a loan from you very urgently? I`ll reimburse you under a week, i promise. I need to solve some personal problems at hand, which have been giving me great worries. I`d also prefer if we discuss this issue only through email as i am presently in England for a Job. I`m sorry if i didn`t inform you about it, but pls try and understand.

I`ll let you know how much i need if you are willing to assist. Thanks, Nikki

Crazy hu? Well then I found out later that my hotmail account which I've had for 10 years had been hijacked, taken over. I could not even sign on to my account, they changed the password, secret question and answer, etc. I have learned a hard, valuable lesson and this is probably the beginning. I have important information in the email folders.

I have realized how stupid it was to leave some of the information in my hotmail account now. Since hotmail is a free account there is no customer service person to call. The bad thing is you have to fill out this long drawn out form to possibly prove you are the account owner. Which I have done 2 times now, still no response. I am mad and upset over this and the hacker/hijacker has extremely important information about me, and probably my SS# also.

I reported this to the government Internet Crime Complaint Center. I think this was also in the news last week. So I am done with the hotmail accounts and I will probably never see some of the files I kept in the email, some I backed-up others I didn't.

This is just a warning to let people know about what is going on out there in cyberspace.

The person asked my friends to wire money to a western union in London. Be careful on the web and changed your password often! I will let you know in the future what comes out of my situation.

Have a great day!

Nikki

Crazy Busy Print Shop

2009-09-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!

I have not had a chance to write in the last few weeks, it has been crazy busy here at Clinton Press! Which is absolutely wonderful. Clinton Press is a small to medium size print shop. We have a total of 12 people here.

We have over the summer started a full fledge mailroom. When things get busy in the departments, all of our employees are skilled and talented, we all work in each department to help out. We have bindery, shipping, prepress, digital and mail. Here are the employees names and titles.

Clint Jackson: Owner/President

Jim Fredrick: Plant Manager, Estimator, CSR

Kevin James: Salesman, and Print Specialist

Nikki McDonald: Prepress Manager

Kathy Shelton: Prepress Assistant Manager

Billy Austin: Digital Print Specialist/Operator/Shipping

Ralph, Mitch, Oscar: Pressmen

Frank: Bindery Specialist

Ike Thomas: Mailroom/Bindery/Delivery

Sharon: Mailroom

Since we have been crazy busy here, we have to change around to different departments to help out, I will get back on schedule starting today to write more tips and trick and prepress issues on my blog.

Thanks for reading! Have a great Day!

Nikki

Converting Pagemaker Files into Indesign

2009-09-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day! I hate winter and now that Labor Day is gone, I know it is on the way.

Every now and then I receive a Pagemaker file and have to open it in Indesign. We used to have Pagemaker but do not have it now because it is almost obsolete. Of course when you open it in Indesign you will definitely have some type re-flow and missing links, etc.

I know it can be a mess working with these files, especially if there are a lot of pictures and links involved. Just make sure you have some lasers to look at to determine what re-flows and how the images are placed on the pages.

Sometimes the images will change inside the boxes when you update the missing link in Indesign. Just go to one page at a time to compare it to your lasers. If you do not have a printed sample, let the customer know of the chances of re-flow, etc.

Just know Indesign has a feature to convert Pagemaker files, it justs takes a little work on the prepress end to fix the file after the conversion.

Once you get it converted it should be a breeze after that! Good Luck!

What not to send the Printer....

2009-09-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

Okay,

Here is a small list of things not to send your printers. If you do you may have extra prepress time and more money spent.

1. Don't send low resolution pdfs, it will look like crap when printed.

2. No files with crop marks.

(Most printers have their own imposition program to put them on for you)

3. Never ever send a logo that you have saved on a spreadsheet, Word Document, etc.

(If you send the word document, look for the logo that is in the doc,

it should be a jpg, tif, or eps)

4. Don't send in RGB photos or pictures.

(It can be time consuming if they have to convert to grayscale or cmyk)

5. Don't send Publisher files. (If you have no choice, be sure to package it before sending to printer, otherwise fonts and images can be missing)

6. Don't send gif files or bitmaps

(They are usually web based art at low resolutions for websites)

This is just a few, I will probably add to this later, just call the printer first and ask what to send to save on money and time before you get in the prepress department!

Lessons on Different Types of Spreads

2009-08-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all!

I have been extremely busy and haven't written since last week. Anyway I wanted to talk about Reader Spreads, Printer Spreads, Single Page Spreads, and the one receive on occasions the Idiot Spread....LOL!

I know some designers and people in the world do not learn much about spreads and how to prepare files for prepress departments. I know because I went to school to be a designer and didn't learn about those things until I worked in the real world. But if you get the rare opportunity to work on those Idiot Spreads, you will need a dummy or mock-up of the piece so you do not assume the pages are in reader or printer spreads. Otherwise you will end up with an Idiot proof...not good.

The first one is in reader spreads, 12 page book, this is usually how customers send the files in, which sometimes works if there is not alot of bleeds and crossovers. This is setup in indesign in the exact order of how you would read a book, page 1 is page 1. Most printers like these type setups that way they can save each individual page and use it in their own signatures or templates.

The next one is the best one to send to a prepress house or printer. It is called the Single page spread document. This works the fastest of all, make sure to include at least 1/8th of an inch bleed if you have it. This works best for the printers ripping programs and signatures.

The next one is printer spreads which is just to show how we may layout our signatures or templates. No one should ever send a printer a Printer Spread document unless they specifically ask for one. This type of layout without lasers or dummies can cause severe headache and is very time consuming....Seriously!

Now the worst one yet, the IDIOT SPREAD, I get one of these at least once or twice a year...of course that is a name I made up. I would normally call it the *&%$# @#%^ file. I am gonna be nice and not curse on here, plus if I did, I might would be fired. But these will cause, severe headache, stomach upsets, possible cursing with waving of the arms and hands. Can even cause neck ache, shoulder ache and back ache. LOL Never send this type to the printer... especially without a dummy. I promise you, your printer or prepress house do not have ESP and cannot read your mind.

But there will always be an idiot spread in the world of printing....LOL

Hope I educated you on spreads today! Have a great day!

Creating a standard 9x12 pocket folder with 4 inch pockets

2009-08-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

When you are creating a standard 9x12 pocket folder with bleed in Illustrator, first set you illustrator file to 19.5 x 16. This allows for .75 inch tabs which will glue with a .5 inch glue tape. You do not want to put ink on that part, but if you are making a colored pocket fold it will need to bleed 1/8th of an inch onto the tabs as shown below.

Ask your printer if they have a standard dieline template or illustrator file you could use as a guide. If not write me and I will send you one. Make sure to set the Dieline color up as a spot color I have used 100 cyan and magenta and named it Dieline. Check the spot color option in illustrator. Make sure under the Attributes pallet to select overprint on the dieline art.

Hope this helps with making standard pocket folder dies.

Importing Word Documents in Indesign

2009-08-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone is doing well today!

Today I will show you how to import a word document into your indesign file for printing. First set your page up in Indesign. I am using 8.5 by 11 with 1/8th inch bleed all around. My document will have a blue page with bleed I will then draw a text box with the text box tool. As shown below:

Next press the Apple key/command key (same key) and D for importing the word document.

Then make sure the import options button is selected, you will then get a box like below: If you make sure the setting are as follows it will keep the format of the word document you import in.

Now I have selected all the words and changed to white. Ta Da, now all you have to do is tweak the text and it is a quick way to put word docs in the Indesign file without having to cut and past or re-type the entire document.

SPECIAL SUMMER PROMOTION AT CLINTON PRESS!

2009-08-10T11:47:00.001-07:00

At Clinton Press we have this great promotion going on this summer for one of those really cool Flip Camcorders! Order today and be entered to win!

I don't think I can enter, but it would be cool to win it!

SPECIAL SUMMER PROMOTION!

PLACE AN ORDER BY AUG 31 - WIN A FREE FLIP CAMCORDER!

At Clinton Press, we understand the importance of creating unique marketing strategies. As your trusted communication experts, we can help you combine innovation & technology toensure your business remains unique among the competition! Need marketing ideas that fit your budget and your revenue goals? We can help! Place an order by August 31 to be entered into a drawing for a Flip Video Camcorder!PLACE YOUR ORDER TODAY!

Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes and Terabytes

2009-08-07T05:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

Hope y'all are having a happy Friday so far! Today I want to compare file sizes and explain what bytes are. Remember the old days when we had floppys, and 3.5 disks. Wow, how far we have come along in technology.

Today we have Megabytes, Gigabytes and Terabytes. Big, Bigger, and Biggest. These are units of digital information storage. Here is a summary of what each capacity is.

8 bits = 1 byte

1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte (kb)

1024 kb = 1 Megabyte (Mb)

1024 Mb = 1 Gigabyte (Gb)

1024 Gb = 1 Terabyte (Tb)

These days we are more digital than ever, so we require more space and convenience for storage of our photos and/or digital files for printing. Think of it like this, most email address cannot accept an attachment greater than 5 MB or megabytes which is actually a small file. It doesn't take up much memory and can be easily emailed (most of the time this is a low resolution version of the parent file).

A standard CD to burn music and files on, is about 700 MB, which is about 80 minutes of music. You can usually burn a whole music cd to one of these. A standard DVD is 4.7 GB and 120 minutes, which can hold a full length movie. Most of the time in printing we get files on DVDs, they are usually too big for a standard CD. Of course you can buy memory sticks these days with 2 Gigs or more. Amazing how many photos can be taken on a 2 gigabyte digital camera.

I have not actually used Terabyte storage items yet but will be looking into it for backups for our storage system in printing. I am sure as time goes on there will be even bigger bytes. But for now I hope this compares the sizes and explains what bytes are. Have a great weekend everyone!

Clinton Press FTP Site Instructions

2009-08-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday!

Here are some instructions on how to use the Clinton Press FTP site. At this time you have to have a 3rd party FTP Client program to use it. We are in the process of working on getting a link attached to our website to make the File transfer to the FTP site easier. Until then here are some instructions to use. Thanks and have a great day!

Different Types of Folds in Brochure Printing

2009-08-04T07:26:00.000-07:00

Today I want to talk about a few different types of brochure folds, with a brief description of each as follows. If you can talk with your printer first about the type of brochure you are planning to create, they can then tell you how to set it up in your parent program. This will help the process flow when it comes to the prepress department having to set the file up for printing. If it is already set up correctly, the printer will not have to re-do the art. Hope this helps in your next brochure design.

Single-fold

A single-folded brochure is one that has two sections creating a total of four pages or panels. It is usually bisected, meaning divided exactly in the middle area. The fold may be lengthwise, resulting to a longer brochure. It may also be crosswise which, in turn, creates a wider brochure.

Letter fold
Letter fold is also known as No. 10 fold as it fits into a No. 10 envelope. The letter folds are folded only twice, creating three sections with six pages.

Roll fold
Otherwise known as barrel fold, a roll fold resembles a letter fold in that it has three sections and six pages. However, the innermost panel is smaller than the other panels.

Accordion fold
Accordion folds are known to others as z-fold, although the degree of folding may make the brochures have more sections than an actual z-fold.The paper is divided into sections and folded like the accordion canvas. It may have six or eight pages, depending on the number of folds you make.

French fold
A French fold is made by folding the paper crosswise and equally, and then folding it again equally in the same manner. This results to a four-page brochure that looks like a greeting card.

Gate fold
The gate fold is one which has eight resulting panels, four in front and four at the back. The panels at each opposite end are folded inward, towards the center of the page. This creates a gate-like effect for the brochure.

Parallel fold
Also called half and half, this type of fold is produced by bisecting the paper crosswise and then folding it again into half equally lengthwise. This creates a total of eight equal panels at the back and front with four visible sections.

Some folding is automated and is not always precise so have a margin for error. The thicker the paper you use, the higher the chance of inaccurate folding.

How to Create an (8.5 x 11) 3 Panel Roll Fold Brochure

2009-07-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

Hope everyone is doing well today. Today I am going to tell you how to set up a 3 panel roll fold brochure (8.5 x 11). In printing, to make a brochure fold correctly, you must make 2 of the panel the same size (3.6875) the last panel will be slightly shorter (3.625) that way the brochure will have a shorter fold into the brochure.

Sometimes you have to take into consideration the paper thickness, etc. Here is an example of a roll fold document from Indesign:

Basically the purpose is to have the last panel that folds in is supposed to be shorter so that it will fold correctly leaving the front even with the back panel. Hope this helps with creating a roll fold brochure. The same would apply to a bigger size brochure also. Remember two panels are the same size and the last panel is slightly smaller, or shorter. Have a great Day!

How to Create a Mask of Textured Background in Illustrator

2009-07-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today I will show you how to create text with a textured background image, so that the type looks like it is made out of the image. The example I am using is a photo of concrete. I will make a mask of the concrete and use it for the text.

•Open Illustrator first, set up an 8 x 4 document just for my example that is what I am using.

•Click the File Tab : Place (find image to use for the background)

It is okay if the image is too big for the document as long as it is not a huge file size.

•Type the words you want to use for your mask, I made the type Black,

place over the background image.

•Select all by the pressing the command key and A key at the same time.

•Now go to the Object Tab: Select Clipping Mask: Make

Cool hu? Now you have a simple way to make type look like concrete that was the background image.

Customer Service at Clinton Press

2009-07-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!

Today I would like to talk about the economy and printing. I have been in printing for 16 years now (wow I am getting old, LOL). I have noticed a change in the printing business over the years. Especially with the new technology and websites, etc.

It seems that several companies are going paperless or putting newsletters, magazines, information, and more on their websites. So therefore that means less printing is required, then they will also save money, right? How many folks out there will still want the hard copy of the newsletter and magazines? I guess it is a personal choice.

I read blogs, newsletter and websites all the time. But I still like to have the paper items to read in my hands, it is easier for me to read. I have never in my life seen the economy the way it is today. Some people think eventually we will not have printed pieces but I do not see that happening so much in the near future.

Now is the time, many printing companies are offering different types of services to go along with the printing needs.... marketing, training services, mailing, etc. It seems the future will require much more than just putting ink on paper. Customers are looking for full service from the beginning to the end of their jobs.

That is what we do here at Clinton Press, not only do you get customer service, marketing, printing, mailing, training, etc. We do it all and we are local so you can see your proof and make decisions ahead of time. We want our customers to feel at home. Stop by sometime and introduce yourself. Being the Prepress Manager I rarely get to see the faces behind the emails or phone calls.

Any questions or ideas you have we would be glad to address. I am always willing to help designers, buyers, marketing managers, and ad agencies. We are a full service printing company and want to help in every aspect possible. Drop by today or call for a free quote!

Have a great day! Nikki

2009-07-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

At Clinton Press we have this great promotion going on this summer for one of those really cool Flip Camcorders! Order today and be entered to win!

I don't think I can enter, but it would be cool to win it!

SPECIAL SUMMER PROMOTION!

PLACE AN ORDER BY AUG 31 - WIN A FREE FLIP CAMCORDER!

At Clinton Press, we understand the importance of creating unique marketing strategies. As your trusted communication experts, we can help you combine innovation & technology to ensure your business remains unique among the competition! Need marketing ideas that fit your budget and your revenue goals? We can help! Place an order by August 31 to be entered into a drawing for a Flip Video Camcorder! PLACE YOUR ORDER TODAY!

Creating a Pantone Spot Color Gradient in Illustrator

2009-07-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

Start a new document in Illustrator. For an example I am going to draw a circle in the middle of the page. Next go to Window: Swatch Libraries: Color Books: Pantone Solid Coated. Next pick the pantone spot color you would like to use. I chose Pantone Purple C.

Next choose Window: Gradient, now the Gradient palette comes up. Since I have selected pantone purple and it shows in my swatches palette. I will drag the purple to the black side of the gradient palette as shown below:

Now you have a Pantone gradient and you can select Radial to change the shape of the gradient.

Now you have a circle gradient. Hope this helps understand how to create a pantone spot gradient in Illustrator! Have a great week!

Using PMS colors in Indesign

2009-07-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

T.G.I.F.

Almost the weekend! Today I am going to show you how to use the pms colors in Indesign.

First set your document up, go the the windows tab at top and scroll to swatches. This will bring the swatches palette up in your document.

CLICK THE SMALL ARROW DROP DOWN MENU AND CHOOSE NEW COLOR SWATCH:

NEXT CHANGE COLOR TYPE TO SPOT AND COLOR MODE TO PANTONE SOLID COATED OR UNCOATED, WHATEVER YOU PREFER, SHOULD LOOK LIKE THE IMAGE BELOW:

NOW CHOOSE THE PMS COLOR AND CLICK ADD:

VOILA, NOW YOU HAVE THE PMS COLOR IN THE PALLET TO USE IN YOUR LAYOUT DESIGN AS SHOWN BELOW!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Tifs, EPS, JPEGs, PDFs, oh my, which format to use....

2009-07-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

TIF - Tagged Image File Format

TIFF or the Tagged Image File Format is a rather old standard that is still very popular today. It is a highly flexible and platform-independent format which is supported by numerous image processing applications and virtually all all prepress software on the market. TIFF is strictly used for bitmap data. It doesn’t contain text nor vector data, even though its structure would permit additional tags to handle such data. Flexible combination of colorspace, bitdepth/datatype, and compression scheme

EPS - Encapsulated Postscript File Format
An EPS file can contain any combination of text, graphics and images. Since it is actually a PostScript file, it is the most versatile file format that is available. EPS-files usually contain a small preview image that is used to visualize the content of the file.

JPEG - Encapsulated Postscript File Format
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, which is a standardization committee. It also stands for the compression algorithm that was invented by this committee. JPEG is a lossy compression algorithm that has been conceived to reduce the file size of natural, photographic-like true-color images as much as possible without affecting the quality of the image as experienced by the human sensory engine. We perceive small changes in brightness more readily than we do small changes in color. It is this aspect of our perception that JPEG compression exploits in an effort to reduce the file size.

PDF - Encapsulated Postscript File Format
PDF stands for Portable Document Format. In prepress, PDF is commonly used as a format to exchange data, either complete pages that need to be printed or advertisements that needs to be included in a publication. The file format is also popular for softproofing and reviewing content, because there are applications that allow you to make annotations on the PDF pages.

Okay now you have all the definitions, it is really up to the customer to discuss each file format with the
printer to make sure they support the file format sent in. I prefer the customer send the PDF for print ready
collateral that they have already proof-read and pretty much know the file is print ready.

If it is a illustrator or freehand file, it is best to save as an eps for the printer, that way they can open it in many prepress programs. Tifs are great for photos in photoshop or placing in a layout program like Indesign, quark. I do not like JPEG, usually they are compressed but either way our ripping software does not like them very much. When I get these types of links I open in photoshop and convert to eps or tif and resave.

All in all, you should talk to your printer to educate yourself and them about the best file format to send it in. This will save time, money and headaches.

Happy Wednesday!

Did you know you can edit some pdfs in Illustrator?

2009-07-07T12:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, if you are lucky and need to make a correction to color or even font corrections, you can do this in Illustrator. I have found sometimes if it is something simple like a color change, this is the best way to do it.

When you open the pdf in illustrator, it may ask for font replacement. This is bad if you do not have the fonts that are in the pdf file. At that point you may need to call the customer. If you have the fonts it may work, but be sure to print a laser of the customer's pdf, in case of reflow within the paragraphs.

You could be even luckier and the fonts may already be converted to outlines. Then the fonts are treated as artwork. But in prepress you never know what you may end up with. I have used Illustrator many times to correct something quickly. That way everything can continue running smoothly and there will not be any hold up time printing for a client.

I have found working in prepress that there are many ways to work around problems. I will try everything I can figure out or know before contacting customers. Then I can contact the customers and educate them. I think that our clients like to know what they can do to help the speed up the printing of their collateral. At Clinton Press we offer this service to help educate customers on fixing the files before sending to us on the next go around. This helps to save money and time.

Have a Great Day!

How To Create A Feathered Edge on Photos

2009-07-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday All,

You know the cool feathered edges you see sometime on photos? They are usually rounded or rounded edges. Today I am going to tell you how to create one. It is just a neat design trick and you don't have to worry about the transparencies in indesign.

Open your image you wish to add the feathered edge to. Select the box marquee tool to the left.

Draw a box inside the image, as shown in photo.

Now go to the Select Tab at top and choose Inverse: Then Select: Modify: Feather, a box will appear with the pixels, I put in 10 in the box. Then press delete. Perfect now you have a feathered edge on your photo: as seen below

Hope this helps with making feathered edges on your favorite photos. Have a great week. Nikki

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN EDIT IMAGES IN SOME PDFS

2009-07-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

It's almost July 4th, amazing how time flies when you get older! Happy July 4th a few days earlier! Today I am going to explain how to edit photos or images that are embedded in a PDF.

I know you are not supposed to be able to change anything in a pdf, but sometimes you can and sometimes you have no choice in pre-press but to work around what you have been given by a customer. So desperate measures have to be taken, so if you have Acrobat 8 professional, or version 7, and I think this will even work in 6 on a Macintosh.

Open your PDF in Acrobat: At the top click on the TOOLS tab: scroll down to ADVANCED EDITING: Choose TOUCH UP OBJECT TOOL at the bottom.

Next hold down the Apple key (Command key) and the Option key at the same time and double click the object, link, or photo you would like to modify. This will take the image to photoshop or illustrator which ever program it was originally created. You can edit your image and just save.

When you save the image it will automatically put the edited image back into the pdf document. Then you can re-save the pdf. It is a great tool if it works with the pdf sent.

This is not always possible it just depends on the pdf, how it was saved, etc.

Try it out sometime, it is a really awesome tool, I use it often.

Have a Happy and Safe July 4th!

Nikki

PHOTOSHOP FILES

2009-06-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to talk about photoshop files. I frequently get indesign files with PSD files (links) in them. The problem with leaving the file as a photoshop document (PSD) is when we run it through the rip sometimes it will error out. It could be because of the different layers in the PSD file.

The best thing to do would be to save your photos as an eps file or tif file, you will have to flatten it first. That way when you place it in the Indesign file it will not be as large in file size as the PSD file. Then you can ensure you have the correct look to the photo. You may have a mask or transparency in the photo and when you flatten the image it may look a little different than it did before you flatten it.

This will save on time and money that is spent in the prepress department of the print shop. Most printers have a rip that will not accept PSD file, so therefore the prepress department has to spend more time on the job by opening each PSD file, flattening it, and re-saving as an eps or tif to re-link in the links palette in Indesign.

Also make sure all photos are in CMYK format, if it is in RGB, it can appear a different color than the CMYK photos. If you have black and white pictures, be sure to save them in grayscale so it does not separate into 4 colors or 4 plates when it should only be 1 color or 1 plate.

Hope this helps with saving your photos and links before placing in your design program!

Illustrator CS3 Document Color Mode

2009-06-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!

Today I would like to talk about document color mode in illustrator. I have. in the past, had problems with files sent in RGB mode. This caused problems with ripping in Rampage.

I had to go back to the file and change to CMYK mode. I don't even understand why illustrator even has an RGB mode, maybe for the smaller size file format. Anyway I would like to tell you how to check this if you don't already know.

When setting up your illustrator files, after you set the document up, go to:

Click the File tab at the top
Scroll down the menu and select Document Color Mode
Out to the right choose CMYK mode

Now you have correctly set the document to CMYK. If you don't do this the Pantone colors you select will be RGB mode. This will convert to CMYK and not a spot Pantone color when ripped in our Ripping Software.

Also when you look at the swatches palette there should be a cmyk square small icon beside the color, then you know for sure it is in cmyk mode.

Hope this helps with the color mode in Illustrator.

Have a great day!

Tips for Compressing Files to Send to Printer

2009-06-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to compress files but if you want to keep everything high resolution, here are a few tips on how to do that.

If you have a file that is too big to email to the printer, the best way would be to stuffit or zip the files all into one folder. If you use Mac OS X, after you finish working with your files and have packaged all the links, fonts, and the document: follow the steps below.

Click on the folder 1 time to highlight it.
Click the File tab at the top of your desktop
Scroll down the drop down menu to select create archive
Now this will create a Zipped file on your desktop of the folder

Now you will be able to email the file with no problems.

If you have Stuff It (program) you can drag your folder to the drop stuff and it will give you 3 choices for compressing the folder:

Zip
Stuffit
Tar

Once you drag your folder into the drop stuff window, after you select what format you would like to use, it will automatically create that type of file on your desktop similar to the zipped file I just discussed. I regularly use the zip and stuffit choices which is the fastest way and the most compatible way. It seems to work well with fonts and links. Hope this helps the next time you need to reduce the folder size or reduce the size of a file you are sending to the printer.

Creating Dielines or Perfs in Illustrator or Indesign

2009-06-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!

Today I would like to talk about creating Dielines and Perfs in Illustrator or Indesign. Most people send in dielines on the artwork in a magenta color. 1st you need to decide what type of dieline you would like to create.

Design your dieline or talk to the printer, they may already have a standard dieline ready for you to use. For example a 9x12 pocket folder with a standard 4 inch pocket, once the dieline is created make the color for it a spot color (100% percent magenta and name it Dieline) select the spot color icon when you create the color for the dieline or perf also in illustrator select the attributes palette and click overprint. Then you have a dieline that will only print on the proof not the actual press.

For Indesign you can create and draw your dieline and add the same spot color (dieline) to the color palette. You can also choose the attributes palette and select overprint. Now you have a dieline in Indesign. Make sure the page size is correct and the image bleeds 1/8th of and inch, place the dieline to the edge of the page.

The best way to make sure you are using the correct type or size of a dieline is to speak with the prepress department, then you can save money on the prepress department having to create a dieline over for you. Hope this helps with the creation of dielines and perfs.

Have a great day!

Create High Res PDF using general PC Applications

2009-06-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

Using the Adobe PDFVirtual Printer (or, How to Avoid Using PDFWriter)

The following instructions have been created with one requirement: you must have Adobe Acrobat Standard, or Adobe Acrobat Professional installed on your computer. The “Adobe PDF” virtual printer that is installed with these applications will be configured and used to create PDFs.

The Adobe PDF printer, once set up properly, simplifies the process of generating high quality PDFs from most any application. The PDFWriter macro that is accessible via a PDF icon (for instance, in Word) should be avoided. Character substitution or complete drop-outs can occur when using this tool for PDF creation. Setting aside a little time to configure the Adobe PDF Virtual Printer is a better long term solution.

Step #1: Configure the Adobe PostScript printer Acrobat automatically configures the Adobe PDF printer for the most part, but you must make a few changes to make sure, for instance, that TrueType

fonts do not change appearance or become substituted. Note that this only needs to be done once!

• Choose Start-Settings-Printers and Faxes.

• Right-click Adobe PDF, and then choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

• Click the General Tab, and then click Printing Preferences

• Click the Layout Tab, and then click Advanced

• Click the plus sign next to Graphic

• Select Print Quality: 2400dpi

• Select TrueType Font: Download as Softfont.

• Click the plus sign next to PostScript Options.

• Select PostScript Output Option: Optimize for Portability.

• Select TrueType Download Option: Native TrueType.

• Select PostScript Language Level: 3.

• Choose OK

• Click the Adobe PDF Settings tab. Select Press Quality from the Default Settings pull-down menu,

make sure other settings match here_Adobe PDF Security: None, Adobe PDF Output Folder: Prompt for file name.

• Select Edit button next to Press Quality (this brings up job options) make sure settings match this:

Compatibility: Acrobat 5.0

Object Level Compression: OFF

Auto Rotate Pages: OFF

Binding: LEFT

Resolution: 2400 dots per inch

All Pages button must be selected

• Select the Images Tab to the left make sure setting match this: Downsample: OFF on color, grayscale,

monochrome

• Select the Fonts Tab at the left make sure to checkmark the EMBED ALL FONTS

• Select the Color Tab at the left: Under the Adobe Color Settings File: Color Management OFF

• Click Save As and name the preset as “PREPRESS_QUALITY SELECT SAVE AND CLICK OK

MAKE SURE THE DO NOT SEND FONTS TO ADOBE PDF REMAINS UNCHECKED WHILE THE OTHER 4 ARE CHECKED.

• Choose: File-Print

• Select Adobe PDF from the Pull-down Menu.

• Click OK, specify a filename and location for the PDF file, and then click SAVE.

NOW CREATING A PREPRESS QUALITY PDF IS AS SIMPLE AS PRINTING.

Use the Adobe PDF Printer with many applications. Because it appears as a regular printer, the Adobe

PDF Printer can be used with many software applications. More custom page sizes can also be added to

the Adobe PDF printer properties, if needed, by following this sequence:

1. Choose File->Print.

2. Choose Adobe PDF as the printer, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Adobe PDF Settings tab, and then click the Add button to add a Custom Paper Size.

4. Specify the page height and width, name the custom page size, and the click Add/Modify.

5. Click OK. The custom page size appears in the Adobe PDF Page Size list.

Solution to the PDF problem

2009-06-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Last week I wrote about a pdf problem I was having when it was sent to the Xerox Digital Press. The images were dropping out when it was printed. Well when I re-saved the pdf and looked at the preview of it on the Xerox, it looked great. I thought ok, problem solved.

Well that was not the case, when our pressman ran a proof again the images dropped out. When he came to me, I was shocked and went to look at the preview again and it was fine. We then realized the minute he imposed it the images disappeared.

We have seen this before but didn't realize it was a problem. So in order to fix it, I opened up the pdf in photoshop. Flattened the image and transparencies. I then re-saved it as a pdf, sent that back to the Xerox Digital Press. Now the problem is fixed! Woo Hoo!

I guess sometimes there is too much going on in a pdf and the xerox doesn't like it. So the best way to fix would be to flatten the document in photoshop. Welcome to prepress! Challenges everyday, everyday I learn something new!