WE ARE EXCITED TO OFFER THE NEW E-PRESS!

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

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!

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

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