Plan with an idea of your finished document. What are you trying to accomplish? How will it be used? Size and weight make a difference in mailing cost. Consider what graphics convey your message. View our page on the benefits of color.

1. Preferred applications for layout of files are PageMaker, Quark Xpress, InDesign, Ventura Publisher, or Microsoft Publisher. These are page layout programs. Illustrator and CorelDraw are drawing programs which could possibly be used.

Microsoft Word, Word Perfect and other word processing programs have limited capabilities as page layout programs. Word processing programs are not capable of providing the color separations required for multi colored jobs. They operate with the RGB color scheme which is unsuitable for offset printing. Files provided with "word processing programs" may require conversion to "page layout programs," and incur additional costs.

2. Maintain page margins of .31" or greater. This will allow gripper margins for our presses. Items with smaller margins may require the job to be run on larger size stock and incur additional costs.

3. Design your publication with the final color scheme in mind.

SPOT COLOR:  For example, if it is to be Reflex Blue plus Black, then all elements should be identified in the color scheme of Reflex Blue and Black. There should not be any other color in the publication because only those colors will be printed. All colors used in a 2 or 3 color publication should be identified as CMYK “Spot Colors” rather than RGB colors.

PROCESS COLOR: Inks should be identified as CMYK “Process Colors” rather than RGB colors.  

4. Photos which will be printed in full color should be in CMYK format, not RGB. The RGB format is for viewing on the monitor screen but does not provide the correct color separations needed for color printing.

5. Photos which will be printed as Black should be in Grayscale format.

6. Photos need to be 200 dpi for good reproduction. Use the higher setting in the digital camera to get the proper resolution. The default settings in digital cameras are for lower resolution of 72 or 96 dpi which will give blurry or pixelated images.

7. We can scan printed photos and then add them to your document if needed.

8. Photos should be close to the actual size to be used in the printed document rather than reduced when they are placed in the document. This will give you a smaller file size which takes less disk space and enable faster processing.

9. Page layout programs have options* to collect all graphics & fonts used. This will allow us to have the necessary elements to reproduce the publication correctly. [It is helpful to save these files to a separate directory.]

*“Pack and Go” (Publisher), “Save for Service Provider” (PageMaker), “Collect for Output” (Quark Express), and “Package” (InDesign).

10. Bring all files from this directory and provide a printout of the document. This insures that our output matches yours.

We would be happy to assist you in preparation of your file. Give us a call at 97PRINT, thats 434-977-7468.