A Day in the Life of a Prepress Department

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

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:

Current

• 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

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

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

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

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

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