IMAGES

If you are scanning photographs yourself, save them as either EPS or TIFF files as this will preserve the colour and clarity of your images. If you are scanning a previously printed item, such as a magazine photo, you will need to ‘de-screen’ the image, blurring it slightly to avoid a moiré effect.

GIF or JPEG formats compress the image and actually discard information, causing colour shifts and blurriness. Don’t use either of these file formats – they may actually print in black and white and you won’t like the results.

When you are scanning, consider the final size your image will be used at. Always scan photographs at 300dpi at the size you are going to use them. There’s no point scanning a postage stamp at 300dpi and then blowing it up to A4 size – use your scanning software to help you calculate the output resolution.

Conversely, scanning photographs at more than 300dpi will have little or no effect on the actual printed quality and will unnecessarily increase file size and processing time.

Don’t enlarge/reduce your scanned images in your drawing/vector software (such asIllustrator) – it’s always best to use an image-editing application such as Photoshop for this task.

When converting photographs from RGB to CMYK, In the ‘edit’ menu choose ‘colour settings’. From the window that appears, choose ‘custom CMYK’ from the list in the ‘CMYK’ section of ‘working spaces’. scanning flat or black and white line art (i.e. a logo), scan this at 800 to 1200dpi for best results. Any lower, and the logo may look blurry. Pay careful attention to the CMYK makeup of any ‘black’ in the logo. The automatically created Photoshop black, for example, provides 250% ink coverage. You may need to adjust the colour settings in your application to get a black that is made from 100% black ink. Make sure that any alpha channels are removed and all layers are flattened before finally saving your image.

ACCEPTABLE FORMATS

Please always send us the native file from your application, and make sure it is clearly labelled. To avoid confusion, it would be helpful if your disk contained only the relevant files you want printing.

We are happy to accept any of the following file formats, and disk types. We’re alwaysupdating our software and hardware, so if your application or media type is not listed, please call us.

PDF FILES

As long as you have set your files up correctly, there is no reason why you shouldn’t send a PDF file if you have the facilities.

OTHER MEDIA TYPES

• CD-ROM
• DVD-ROM
• E-mail
• USB Key
• Macintosh

SOFTWARE

• Quark up to 6.1
• Photoshop up to CS3
• Illustrator up to CS3
• InDesign up to CS3
• MS Word - will incur charges

CHECKLIST

• Finally please use this checklist to be sure your file is supplied correctly
• Page Size/Layout
• Product page size is correct
• Page includes correct bleed. (3mm)
• All important elements are at least 5.5mm from the page edge
• Design is created in an application we accept
• Design is saved as the native file from the application
• Design is supplied on a media type we accept
• Only files required for this job are included and are clearly labelled
• All tints have a value of 10% or more of CMYK, and that the total ink coverage of ink
   in any one area is between 225% and 275% maximum
• All images are converted to CMYK, and saved as TIFF or EPS files
• Photos are scanned at 300dpi at 100%, Line-art images are scanned at 800 to 1200dpi
   at 100%
• TIFF and EPS files are saved without any image compression
   (JPEG, LZW or ASCII encoded)
• Any alpha channels are removed and images are flattened
• All linked/placed TIFF or EPS files are supplied
• Picture boxes in Quark Xpress have a fill other than ‘none’
• All screen and printer fonts are supplied (including those used in EPSs)
• No Multiple Master, Metric or Mac Sytem fonts are used
• No effects from the ‘text effect’ menu in Freehand are used
• A mock-up or hard copy is supplied and the design works on a functional level
• No hairlines/fine lines less than 0.25pt are used
• No corel texture or postscript fills have been used
• All OLE objects have been converted to Bitmaps
• There are no EPS files within other EPSs
• Overprint items are set correctly

If you are still unsure or have any further queries then please don’t hesitate to ‘contact us’