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Color printing and stationery file preparation guide
Follow the checklist below to make sure your files are print ready.
The following products all print in spot color (Pantoneâ„¢) PMS colors only, which means your artwork needs to be vector, and the best program to use for vetor output is Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, or Quark.
Photoshop will not give you the ability to print spot color at all. Photoshop files can be used to print anything in CMYK, Full Color. See below.
Letterhead
Envelopes
1-4 Spot color Pocket Folders (Full color folders, see below)
1-2 Color Business Cards
The following products all print in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) 4 color process, a.k.a. Full Color.
Coop Business Cards
Coop Postcards
4cp Pocket Folders
Inkjet Posters
Banners
Promoplanesâ„¢
Brochures
Giclee Fine Art Prints
The following product prints in RGB.
Digital C Prints or Photoprints
- Images: Before placing or embedding your artwork into any layout or illustration application, please make sure your images, photos, and raster graphics are saved in CMYK mode or grayscale mode, not RGB (they will not print correctly and it will cause our system to detect a problem and halt the production of your proofs and production of your job entirely). You will receive a message letting you know that your images need to be converted to CMYK mode.
- Fonts: There are thousands of fonts and that means that there are an unlimited amount of potential font based problems, to make it simple, include a compressed folder with all the fonts you used in the project; ones used in Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, InDesign, or any other popular graphics software programs. Send both screen and printer fonts for Type 1 fonts. Send the same format (Type 1, TrueType, OpenType) as used in the document. Send all the fonts used, including fonts in EPS graphics (or, convert fonts in graphics to outlines before placing in page layout application). By outlining the fonts in Illustrator or other EPS capable programs, you can outline your fonts which turns them into vector (or shaped) graphic elements as opposed to editable type. Since we are not in the business of editing copy, this should not cause any problems. If you want to leave your files in an editable format, make sure to include ALL the fonts used.
- Page Layout: When using programs like Adobe Page Maker, InDesign or Quark XPress, make sure to include in a compressed packaged folder of all the elements that are used to create your layout; logos, images, photos, vector art, fonts, etc…this way when we open and decompress your files we can see everything that was used to create your project in one convenient concise folder.
- File Size: If you feel that your files are too big to simply send over the internet, call us first, you may be surprised – OR use these tools to help you; www.stuffit.com (Mac Compression Software) or www.winzip.com (PC Compression Software). These programs will shrink or compress your files and make them smaller without compromising the integrity, quality or stability of your files included in the compressed, stuffed or zipped folder. Our file upload form can safely upload files up to 100mb. If you have a file bigger than 100 mb, please call us and we can walk you through uploading the exceedingly large file to our ftp server.
- Illustration or Vector Art/Type: When you create vector art for your graphics and type you are ensured of good crisp printing. Vector art is the sharpest type of graphic format there is, there is no bitmapping or rasterizing that happens, in other words there is no fuzziness when you zoom in on your artwork, the integrity of the art or type is flexible and will scale to whatever size you choose, especially when printing large posters, banners, photo C prints or giclee prints.
Filed under: File Preparation on June 11th, 2005