Word Document Files and Hi-Res Printing

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

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

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!