Saving Illustrator Files or Creating High Resolution files from Illustrator

Set your page size to the actual size of the piece. Example: If you are creating a 4x9 rack card with bleed make sure the bleed is at least 1/8th (.125) of an inch outside the page area of the document. 

When saving a High Resolution PDF from Illustrator go to the File tab at the top of the document. 

Click Save As: Click the drop down menu at the bottom and choose Adobe PDF. When the options box appears at the top tab that has ADOBE PDF PRESETS - choose High Quality Print.

Click the GENERAL TAB at left check the boxes : PRESERVE ILLUSTRATOR EDITING CAPABILITIES, AND EMBED PAGE THUMBNAILS. 

Click the COMPRESSION TAB at left: Under Color Bitmap Images, Grayscale Bitmap Images, and Monochrome Images: choose DO NOT DOWNSAMPLE. ALSO MAKE SURE THE COMPRESS TEXT AND LINE ART BOX IS NOT CHECKED. 

Click the MARKS AND BLEED TAB at left: Uncheck any marks boxes, make sure to put .125 (1/8th of an inch) for the bleed in the top, bottom, left and right, only if you have bleed running off the page.

Click the OUTPUT TAB on the left: Under color: Make sure to choose: NO CONVERSION SKIP THE OTHER 3 TABS TO THE LEFT: ADVANCED, SECURITY, SUMMARY FINALLY PRESS THE BLUE SAVE PDF BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM AND SEND TO THE PRINTER!

I will be writing tip and tricks on colors (CMYK and PMS) and images a little later. Some of the tips will help our customers save money by correctly setting up the illustrator files for Printing. This will prevent the need to work on the files and run into surprises during the prefighting process.

How to prepare files from Quark Xpress for Printers

Good Morning! 

Today is Wednesday in the beautiful city of Greensboro. Almost Memorial Day (long weekend). Going down to the coast of North Carolina to a small town called Southport. It is close to Bald Head Island, in case you are not familiar with it. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day. Can't wait! God bless our troops and all of you. Today I will explain step by step to preparing your files for printing companies. 

When setting up you Quark files, don’t click on the facing pages checkbox in the document setup palette unless you have a crossover picture or artwork. It is easier for Clinton press to use single pages for our ripping program Rampage and Imposition program preps. Please make sure to include at least 1/8th (.125) of an inch bleed around the page if you have artwork or photos that need to bleed.

Once you have finished you document, go to the File tab at top and select Collect for output, this will collect fonts, links and the document into a folder for you to send to the printer. If you would prefer to make a high resolution pdf then you would got to File tab at top, select export then layout as PDF.

When the Export to PDF box pops up at the bottom make sure the spreads checkbox is UNCHECKED, the pages tab should be on ALL, then click the options button at bottom. You will see 5 tabs at the top, DO NOT CHANGE ANY THING IN THE LAYOUT INFO TAB SECTION.

Click on the HYPERLINKS tab check the boxes: INCLUDE HYPERLINKS, EXPORT LISTS AS HYPERLINKS, EXPORT INDEXES AS HYPERLINKS, AND EXPORT LISTS AS BOOKMARKS. CLICK THE USE ALL LISTS, DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO APPEARANCE.

Under Job Options: Font Option: Check EMBED FONTS AND SUBSET FONTS BELOW Put all Compression items (Color, Grayscale and Monochrome Images) on NONE.

Under the Output Tab: Color Ouput: should be set on COMPOSITE, PRINT COLORS -cmyk THE REGISTRATION selection should be off. Bleed: Put on Symmetric and type .125 (1/8th) in the amount area if you have bleed.

Under the OPI TAB UNCHECK the OPI Active box, the Press the OK and send your files to printer!

How to send Indesign Files to Printers

When you set up your Indesign file, if possible please set as single pages. For example: you may have a 24 page book plus cover. If you don’t have any crossover photos you can uncheck the facing pages when you start your Indesign document, always include .125 inch bleed if you have photos or color that runs off the page.

If you think you might have changes please be sure to include the Packaged Indesign files. To do this go to the File tab at the top of your Indesign document and scroll down to package. It will ask you where to put the Indesign Package Folder, then make sure you check the boxes for : Copy Fonts, Copy Linked Graphics, Update Graphics Links in Package. This will create a folder with everything you need to send to the printer.

If you would prefer to send a high resolution PDF, and you know your file will not have changes, we accept those also. PDFs, if they are prepared correctly can save the customer money in the long run. It means faster turnaround time and less time in Prepress. To create a high resolution pdf go to the File tab at the top and click on export: The Adobe PDF Preset should be: PDF/X, click on GENERAL out to the left side: select ALL pages. Click on Options out to the left and leave all unchecked, if any are check please uncheck. Click on COMPRESSION to the left: Under Color Images: Check DO NOT DOWNSAMPLE, check the same for Grayscale images, and monochrome images. Click on MARKS AND BLEED to the left, uncheck all items, under bleed put in the top, bottom, left and right .125 (1/8th of inch) if you have bleed in your document. Click on OUTPUT to the left, under COLOR choose: No color conversion. Under PDF/X: output Intent profile name: choose Document CMYK - U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2. We prefer not to have cropmarks or bleed marks on any pdfs sent in, otherwise we have to manually remove them due to the ripping and imposition process.

The other 3 items to left are ADVANCED, SECURITY, SUMMARY - DON'T WORRY ABOUT THESE THEY SHOULD BE GRAYED OUT. THE CLICK EXPORT TAB AT BOTTOM - NOW IT WILL CREATE A HIGH RESOLUTION PDF FILE FOR THE PRINTER!

How to create Duotones & Monotones in Photoshop.

Happy Friday!

If you want to use a PMS color in a picture for your layouts, go to photoshop and open your picture or artwork. Choose: Image tab at top: Mode: Grayscale to change a CMYK or RGB photo first. Then choose: Image: Mode: Duotone: Choose Monotone or duotone for the Type tab. Then click on the Ink 1 box to choose the pms color you want to use for a monotone (single PMS color). 

For duotone select duotone in the Type tab at top and select Ink 1 and Ink 2 boxes for the 2 pms colors to use in a duotone. Keep in mind the 2 colors used will make a different color. For example: Ink 1 I used Pantone 349, Ink 2 I used Pantone Orange 021. This make my photo look like a deep dark brown. 

Sometimes you make need to use the left button beside the ink color to modify the duotone curve to lighten or darken the highlights and shadows of the colors. I usually use this if I have a photo of an image that is too dark or flat looking. This helps with images without a lot of detail.

Hope this helps explain how to make a simple duotone or monotone for your creative collateral. I recommend making your duotones and monotones to place in quark or indesign documents before sending to the printers. That way you can achieve the look you like and save money on prepress time.

Have a great weekend! Nikki

Quark and Duotones

Good Morning,

Today I would like to talk about the problems with changing a photo in quark to a pms color. I know if you are an avid quark user that is a great tool. You can take a grayscale photo in quark and make it whatever color you like...loved this myself. The problem is some printers may have to spend extra time on your files if they have to change grayscale images to duotones or monotones. You can save money by creating the duotones and monotones before sending files to the printer.

The reason for changing images to duotones and monotones is some ripping systems do not like images that are changed in quark to a color. The photos revert back to grayscale when ripped, especially Rampage. When I receive files like this I have to make them a duotone or monotone in photoshop.

Once you change you photo to a duotone or monotone in photoshop, update the link in quark, and save, then everything will work great. Then you don't run the risk of the image changing back to grayscale in rampage.

Check back soon, I will explain how to create a simple duotone and monotone in photoshop.

Thanks and have a great day! Nikki

Separation Pallette in INDESIGN

Happy Friday!

Yesterday I was working on a file a 4 color file. We ran into some problems that I was unaware of until it was actually on the press. Then I had to look a little deeper.

The item had corporate logos on it in 4 places. Assuming the logos should all be the same color values, but it was not. First I went to the Indesign file and clicked on the Window tab at top and select output: Separations preview. This will bring up the separations palette. Under view in the separations palette select on. 

In this palette you can hold the arrow over anything in the file and read the values of each color.

This is an excellent pre-flight tool which I use often. Some of the logos were photoshop files and the others were illustrator files. The photoshop file had the correct values. 

When I went to the illustrator file not only were the values set differently in the logos, the document was in RGB mode. I first changed the document to CMYK mode. Then I was able to modify the logos to the correct values. Re-save then update in Indesign. All logos now match.

This is a problem that you can barely see on an actual high-res proof. But some people do not know about this great feature in Indesign. I recommend it to anyone working on files for printing. It is very helpful in pre-flighting and making sure the file has consistent color flow throughout.

Try it sometime if you haven't already discovered the wonderful tool in Indesign. I promise you will love it and it will save on the cost of re-making plates and proofs, etc.

Have a great weekend everyone! See you again next week! Nikki   :-)

My Bio

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to Clinton Press Blog. Today I thought I would tell you a little bit about my background. I hope not to bore you to pieces so I will keep it brief...LOL.

• Grew up in Kinston, North Carolina

• Graduated college in 1994 from the Art Institute of Atlanta

• Degree in Visual Communications (Graphic Design)

Past Work History

• Treasure Bay Casino and Resort - Graphic Designer

• Palace Casino - Graphic Designer

• Broadwater Beach Resort and Casino - Special Projects Manager

• Shaughnessy Printing - Graphic Designer/Prepress

• Greensboro Printing Company - Mac Operator in Prepress

• Classic Print Products - Mac Operator in Prepress

• Hickory Printing Group - HP Indigo Operator/Mac Operator in Prepress 

• Graphic Printing Services (now called Graphic Visual Solutions)

I have been with Clinton Press in Greensboro NC, for 3 years in October, 2009.

So I have graphic design, prepress and indigo experience, just wanted to share a little of my past experience so that you know something about me. Tune in soon for the regular tips and tricks for prepress. Thanks for stopping in, and be sure to check out our new website:

www.clintonpress.com

Have a wonderful Thursday!

ILLUSTRATOR AND RAMPAGE

My name is Nikki, I am a Prepress Manager at Clinton Press, in the great city of Greensboro, North Carolina. I am constantly running into crazy mind boggling issues with electronic files sent to us. But Hey, that is what the prepress department is for right?

No files are ever created equally. Any prepress person would know that, LOL. Although it can be a challenge sometimes, it is rewarding when you can figure out a way to make it all work. I am always looking for tips and tricks, blogs, etc. to find the answers I need. So I have started my own blog. Hopefully some of the things I run into can help others out there in Prepress and the Printing Industry. And who knows maybe a few Graphic Designer will read it also. A great way for the designer to save money on the cost of prepress to fix the files for printing.

We use a ripping system called Rampage, I love it! I have worked with other systems and Rampage is my favorite. It may not always work the way we need it to, but I personally think it is the best out there. Today I will talk about a problem I had with Illustrator and Rampage.

Have you ever had trouble with a rule or other piece of artwork in an Illustrator EPS file that you ripped with Rampage and no matter what you did it would knockout? My company had this trouble a while back. When you see this happen your normal routine would include running it through trapit in rampage to manually select the item and tell it to overprint. Well that doesn't work!

Finally I went to the Illustrator file selected the rule that would not overprint. I then click the windows tab at the top in illustrator to select the Attributes palette, then click overprint! Woo Hoo! Problem solved now the file rips wonderfully.

Have a great day everyone and check back for more tips and tricks!