Lessons on Different Types of Spreads

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

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

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.

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

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Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes and Terabytes

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

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

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.