Minnesota Printing and Direct Mail Experts
Just another WordPress.com weblogArchive for January, 2009
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Printing Tips and Tricks: How To “Zip” Your File
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Minneapolis, MN, offers Quick Tips from our pre-press experts:
It is a good idea to compress your files before sending them to the printer. Compressing your files not only makes them smaller, but also helps to ensure that your files will not become corrupt during transmission. “Zip” is the most widely used format for compression. We often say, “Zip the file and send it over”, or “Have you zipped the file?”, or “We’re zipping the file right now”.
Here are the simple instructions on how to “zip” your file:
First, locate the folder in which you have “collected” or “packaged” the layout, pictures, art and fonts or hi-res PDF, then:
- On a Mac, press control and click on your folder. On the menu that pops up, scroll down to Compress “folder name”.
- On a PC, right click on your folder and scroll down to Send To, then over to Compress (zipped) Folder.
DONE! Your file has been “zipped” and is ready to send to the printer. For more info about sending your file, see the blog topic “The Safe And Easy Way To Send Your File To The Printer”: http://mnbusinessprintinganddirectmail.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/highlight-printing-minneapolis-mn-tips-and-tricks-the-safe-and-easy-way-to-send-your-file-to-the-printer/
Note: Before you zip, see these 2 blogs about “Collecting” or “Packaging” your project and Creating a hi-res PDF:
- http://mnbusinessprintinganddirectmail.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/highlight-printing-minneapolis-mn-printing-tips-and-tricks-sending-you-file-to-be-printed-quark-collect-for-output-indesign-package/
- http://mnbusinessprintinganddirectmail.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/highlight-printing-minneapolis-mn-quick-tips-creating-a-pdf/
A big shout-out to Chris in our pre-press department for giving us these “Quick Tips”.
These tips are accurate for most digital and offset methods of printing. Please give us a call for more specific info about your particular project. You can contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com Watch for more “Quick Tips” in the weeks to come – we’re here to help! We welcome your comments to this blog.
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution. You can email her directly at lisab@highlightprinting.com
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovationsTo see other topics within this blog, click HERE.
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Tips and Tricks: The Safe And Easy Way To Send Your File To The Printer
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Minneapolis, MN, offers Quick Tips from our pre-press experts:
Depending on your print provider, hitting the “send” or “upload file” button can be a littel stressful: Have I done everything “right”…there’s no going back once I hit “send”. At Highlight, first of all, you don’t have to worry about that – we communicate with you through the whole process. However, it is still a good idea to give your file a good once-over before sending it. Here are some tips :
- First: Does your file have all of the necessary components to ensure a quality print project? Before we even produce a proof, we will carefully examine your files to let you know if anything seems “wrong”. But of course the best scenario is to build files properly to begin with. Within our blog there are multiple “Tips and Tricks” (too many to attach links) that address proper file set-up to help you. But remember, we are always here, too — feel free to call with any question.
- Second: Did you do a “Collect for Output” if you are working in Quark…or a “Package” if working in InDesign? Here’s a quick link with a few more tips: http://mnbusinessprintinganddirectmail.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/highlight-printing-minneapolis-mn-printing-tips-and-tricks-sending-you-file-to-be-printed-quark-collect-for-output-indesign-package/
- Second: Did you “Zip” your file? Here is a link to the blog explaining file compression and protection: http://mnbusinessprintinganddirectmail.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/highlight-printing-minneapolis-mn-printing-tips-and-tricks-how-to-zip-your-file/
Ok, now you’re ready to send the file! There are several easy ways to submit your file to Highlight Printing:
- A file of any size can be quickly and easily uploaded to our website @ www.highlightprinting.com. Once you’re at our site, click the Estimate, Order, Upload Files button then click on the Send Files & Orders tab. It’s that easy!
- If it is under 10 mb, you can simply email the file to your salesperson or customer service person with the instructions for the project and a reference to any estimating or planning we may have done.
- Of course we welcome files on CD, DVD, and Thumb or Jumpdrive.
A couple notes:
- If you are not already signed up as a user, click Start Here. Follow the instructions for signing up – and then you are ready to upload.
- Keep track of your password. Passwords are case-sensitive, created by you, and we do not have access to them.
A big shout-out to Chris in our pre-press department for giving us these “Quick Tips”.
These tips are accurate for most digital and offset methods of printing. Please give us a call for more specific info about your particular project. You can contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com Watch for more “Quick Tips” in the weeks to come – we’re here to help! We welcome your comments to this blog.
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution. You can email her directly at lisab@highlightprinting.com
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovations.To see other topics within this blog, click HERE
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Printing Tips and Tricks: Sending Your File To Be Printed – Quark = “Collect for Output”, InDesign = “Package”
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Minneapolis, MN, offers Quick Tips from our pre-press experts:
The two standard page building programs that graphics professionals primarily use to build their files are QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. (A separate blog about Word and Publisher to follow.) When a project goes to the printer, 3 things should always be supplied:
- The page that was built in Quark or InDesign
- All photos and art
- All fonts
Allow me to explain: When you use these programs to build your page, the photos and art that you have placed within the document are actually just lo-res place holders for the real thing. And yes, we have many fonts in our library, but for many reasons it is always better to supply the font you actually used to build the page.
So, how do you quickly and thoroughly get it all together for the printer? Simple…use “Collect for Output” in Quark or “Package” in InDesign to automatically bring it all together. Here’s how you do it:
- Create a folder on your desktop where all of the pieces can land. Suggestion: Name the folder “Collected_XYZ Projectt”.
- In Quark, go to File on the menu bar, scroll down and click on “Collect for Output”. Collect the layout, pictures, art, and fonts into the folder on your desktop.
- In InDesign, go to File on the menu bar, scroll down and click on “Package”. Collect the layout, pictures, art, and fonts into the folder on your desktop.
This easy step ensures that you provide all the necessary elements for the printer to produce your project. The next step? File compression. Watch for a separate blog on that topic.
A big shout-out to Chris in our pre-press department for giving us these “Quick Tips”.
These tips are accurate for most digital and offset methods of printing. Please give us a call for more specific info about your particular project. You can contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com Watch for more “Quick Tips” in the weeks to come – we’re here to help! We welcome your comments to this blog.
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution.
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovations.
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Printing Tips and Tricks: Image Resolution Guidelines For DPI, LPI, PPI, AND SPI
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Minneapolis, MN, offers Quick Tips from our pre-press experts:
Definition: (Based on the definition from www.about.com): Resolution is a measure of the output quality of an image. Typical resolution terms and definitions are:
-
PPI = Pixels per inch, and refers primarily to screen resolution (TV’s, computers, etc.), although you do hear this term in reference to the resolution of digital iamges that will be printed
-
DPI = Dots per inch, and refers primarily to the resolution of a digital image that will be printed
-
SPI = Samples per inch, and refers primarily to scanner resolution
-
LPI = Lines per inch (also called “line screen”), and refers to how fine the dots are when printing an image. The higher the LPI = a finer the dot = a smoother more detailed image
For our purposes here, we are most concerned about PPI/DPI and LPI – the original resolution of the image and the resolution of the output device to help produce a quality printed piece.
The main thing to remember about image resolution is that the higher the ppi/dpi, the more clean and crisp your images will look when they are printed. A resolution of 300 dpi is preferred for the best quality for printing. Much bigger than that and the files get huge without any benefit in print quality and much smaller (called lo-res) may result in poor image quality. (Warning – if you have an image that is 1″x1″ @ 300 dpi, then enlarge it to 2″x2″, your new resolution is 150 dpi. And just “adding resolution” doesn’t gain you anything because the data isn’t in the image in the first place - a computer can’t create data that’s not there.)
Web images are generally 72 dpi and will print fuzzy and clumpy although some images are more forgiving than others and digital printing is more forgiving that offset. As a general rule of thumb, never use web images for print, but if that’s all you’ve got, feel free to email or upload the image to us, and we’ll give you our opinion if it will be OK – we may even run a quick test output.
The extension at the end of a file can tell a lot about the image. An image saved as .psd, .eps, or .tif will generally have the best quality. A .jpeg file is a compressed version of the picture, but sometimes are high enough resolution to be acceptable. A .gif is a low resolution graphic intended for the web.
A big shout-out to Chris in our pre-press department for giving us these “Quick Tips”.
These tips are accurate for most digital and offset methods of printing. Please give us a call for more specific info about your particular project. You can contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com Watch for more “Quick Tips” in the weeks to come – we’re here to help!
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution.
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovations.
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Printing Tips and Tricks: Our Pre-press Experts Answer: RGB, CMYK, PMS…What Does It Mean and How To Specify Color To Get The Desired Results
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Minneapolis, MN, offers Quick Tips from our pre-press experts:
Definitions:
CMYK is the method that printers use to represent every color in the rainbow. It stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. From your People Magazine to the poster about Chicken Pox in the doctor’s office to the jacket on the latest DVD you bought, if it is “full color”, it almost certainly is CMYK. Another term for CMYK is four color process, or just “four color” for short.
PMS stands for Pantone Matching System. It is the standard that most printers use for “Spot Color” printing to guarantee the same color time after time. Using a Pantone color is like picking a can of paint – you look in a book and pick out the color you want.
RGB is the method that TV’s, computers and other screens use to display color. It stands for red, green, and blue. Every color you see on a screen – whether it be a Pepsi commercial, your favorite TV show, or a website, only these 3 colors are used.
Setting up your files:
CMYK: If you are printing a 4-color document, you want to make sure that all of you elements (photos, type, color blocks, etc.) are CMYK, not RGB. Our software or equipment can convert RGB to CMYK, but sometimes the results are not what you expected. Note: In some programs (Adobe Illustrator and Microsoft Publisher come to mind) you can choose your document color mode (sometimes known as color space); RGB or CMYK. You should always build your print files in CMYK. Building your files in RGB and then converting to CMYK does not yield the same color as if it were built in CMYK. This tip is especially critical when digital color printing is the desired output.
PMS: If you are printing a spot-color document, you need to make sure that all the elements within the document have the same color name. For example, if your Illustrator file says PMS 186C and your Quark file says PMS 186U, the output device will read them as 2 separate colors.
RGB: Printers don’t use the RGB color mode. Suffice it to say that when you are building a file that will be printed, no matter if it is printed in four color process or with spot-colors, make sure you are not setting the file up with RGB colors. You will get more predictable results if you start off working in the right color mode.
Additonal notes:
*Yes, you can set up a job with spot-colors and then print it CMYK instead. (Just please follow the same set-up guidelines for a spot-color project and know that the 4-color representation of the PMS color may not be exactly perfect.)
*Yes, you can use a combination of CMYK and PMS. [Again, just use the same set-up guidelines. Your photos should be in CMYK and many people limit the PMS colors to just 1 or 2. If we print a 5 or 6 color project digitally, we will convert the PMS colors to their CMYK equivalent. If we print a 5 or 6 color project offset, we can either convert the PMS colors to their CMYK equivalent or print on a 5 or 6 color press (4 color process plus 1 or 2 PMS colors). Most of the time, most people choose to convert all to CMYK.]
*Don’t worry! Need more help? That’s what we do! Please contact us for your own personalized version of “Tips and Tricks”. You can contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com Also, please watch for more “Tips and Tricks” in the weeks to come – we’re here to help!
A big shout-out to Chris in our pre-press department for giving us these “Tips and Tricks”.
These tips are accurate for most digital and offset methods of printing. Please give us a call for more specific info about your particular project. You can contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com Watch for more “Quick Tips” in the weeks to come – we’re here to help!
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution.
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovations.
Highlight Printing, Minneapolis, MN: Printing Tips and Tricks: Creating A PDF for Dependable Printing
Highlight Printing, a local printer near downtown Minneapolis, MN, offers Quick Tips from one of our pre-press experts:
Creating a successful print-ready PDF all starts with the native file:
No matter which program you are building your document in; Quark, InDesign, Illustrator, Publisher, Word, etc., follow the simple but critical guidelines listed below when creating your file:
Setting up the page:
- Does your page have any bleed? If so, make sure the first thing you do when setting up the file is to include an extra 1/8″ on all sides of the document. Then, when creating the document, make sure that all images, text, background, etc. that is supposed to print right to the edge of the sheet (commonly referred to as “bleed”) actually extends 1/8″ beyond the intended trimming spot. (Example – If your finished document is to be 8.5 x 11, after you include “bleed” the size will be 8.75×11.25 – and anything intended to bleed will extend all the way to the outer edge.)
- Does your design have any 2 colors that touch? If so, they need to be “trapped”. Trapping is a tiny bit of overlap between 2 colors that help prevent a sliver of white showing to compensate for slight – and I mean slight - imperfections in press registration. Industry standard for trapping is .004″ (or 1/4 point). Generally, if a file needs trapping , you’ll want to send the native file to us to do the trapping rather than a PDF.
Using Color:
- The color mode (or color space) should be CMYK and/or PMS – NOT RGB. More on this in the “RGB, CMYK, PMS” blog – here’s a link: http://mnbusinessprintinganddirectmail.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/highlight-printing-minneapolis-mn-printing-tips-and-tricks-our-pre-press-experts-answer-rgb-cmyk-pmswhat-does-it-mean-and-how-to-specify-color-to-get-the-desired-results/
- When using PMS colors in your document, make sure the same colors are all set up using the same name for that color (Example – PMS 185U and PMS185CVC will print as 2 different colors). Again, more on this in the “RGB, CMYK, PMS” blog – see the link above.
Photos and other images:
- Pictures and other non-vector images should ideally be 300 dpi. However, digital printing is particuarly forgiving to a lower DPI. If in doubt, please contact us or see our ”Resolution” blog – here’s a link: http://mnbusinessprintinganddirectmail.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/highlight-printing-minneapolis-mn-printing-tips-and-tricks-image-resolution-guidelines-for-dpi-lpi-ppi-and-spi/
- If the images are to bleed to the edge of the sheet, make sure picture boxes and images within the picture boxes extend 1/8″ beyond the designated spot for cutting.
- When placing your photos, a common error we see is a gap between the photo and the border – make sure to zoom way in, or better yet use coordinates.
OK, now that you’ve gone to all the effort to build a solid file, make sure you save the PDF correctly:
- Bleed: If your layout bleeds, make sure to check “Crop Marks” and set your bleed at .25″ (You wouldn’t want the settings to cut off the bleed you have created.)
- Image Compression: Set at no lower than 300 dpi (Again, you wouldn’t want your setting to over-ride the nice hi-res images you have placed.)
- Color: Make sure to set “Color Conversion” to “NO”.
- Fonts: Embed them!
A big shout-out to Chris in our pre-press department for giving us these “Tips and Tricks”.
These tips are accurate for most digital and offset methods of printing. Please give us a call for more specific info about your particular project. You can contact us @ 612.522.7600 or through our website @ www.highlightprinting.com Watch for more “Quick Tips” in the weeks to come – we’re here to help!
The author, Lisa Bickford, president of Highlight Printing, is a veteran of the printing industry. Since 1984 she has worked her way up through many areas of the industry before acquiring Highlight Printing in 1996 with her husband Don, who has also been in printing since the early 80’s. The things she continues to find most satisfying are the wonderful business relationships that have developed with clients, vendors, & co-workers, and the energy that is created from challenge resolution.
This Printing Blog was launched in November, 2008, as a vehicle to share ideas, information, and innovations.
