DIGITAL FILE SPECS

Supplying electronic files...
how to make sure what you see is what you get!

At PrintCraft, we are finding that the majority of our clients are providing files electronically, either by email, CD, USB drive or online file transfer. Since we would like to give you the best results possible when printing your jobs, you can help us by following the general graphics and software guidelines listed below. Additional time required by our graphics department to fix or rebuild files will be charged at the hourly rate.
.

GENERAL PRE-PRESS & FILE GUIDELINES
	We have hundreds of fonts available on our workstations, but even common fonts like Helvetica or Arial have many different versions, and may vary from computer to computer. Professional layout software like Quark Xpress and InDesign will give you the option to gather all fonts used in your document and copy them to the job folder. Always select the actual bold or italic version of the font instead of just clicking on the simulated "B" or "I" button in your toolbar. If you are unsure how to include your fonts or convert to vector curves, call us before sending your files. OpenType, Dfonts, and Windows True-Type fonts may be included with your job; however, we cannot use Windows Postscript fonts - we will have to substitute the correct Macintosh Postscript font when setting up your files to print.
	Computer monitors and television sets use RGB colour mode to simulate the range of visible colours - each pixel is made up of 3 colour values: Red, Green & Blue. When a full-colour job is printed on our press, we use 4 inks to recreate the spectrum of colours: Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, & Black. Some software (such as Microsoft Word) only uses RGB colour - i.e. what appears to be black text on your screen or consumer inkjet printer will not separate correctly to CMYK black on the press. Pantone colours: If your job is contains only 2 or 3 colours, you will likely choose Pantone numbers for the inks. Check that all Pantone colours use the same name - sometimes different programs will refer to the same colour by slightly different names, i.e. Pantone 347 CVC and Pantone 347, which would incorrectly result in two plate separations being created. As well, not all colours can be accurately reproduced using the CMYK process - in particular some fluorescents and metallic shades can only be produced with Pantone inks. If you do not have a Pantone swatch guide, feel free to drop by our shop and confirm the colour you want is the same one that is specified in your files - again, the colour you see represented on an RGB computer monitor may not be the same as the solid ink colour on paper.
	In order to get a finished printed piece where the ink extends right to the edge of the paper, we must print a slightly larger image and then trim off the excess paper. When allowing for bleed borders in your document, make sure the document size is the same as the paper size, and then drag out graphics or backgrounds to extend past the page borders. 1/8" is an acceptable amount of bleed coverage to add.
	As digital cameras become more and more popular and inexpensive, many clients are supplying digital images for use in their printed materials. Always use the highest resolution setting your camera will allow when taking photos that will be reproduced in print. An image may look great on your monitor, but might be too low in quality to use for print. To print a 8.5" x 11" full colour image at high quality, you would ideally need a file from an 8 Megapixel camera. Even if your digital photos are high resolution, if you use a program like Picasa or iPhoto to manage your photos, you may have to adjust a setting to prevent the program from automatically reducing the image size & quality when attach a photo to an email message.
	Scan colour and grayscale photos at 350 dpi, and bitmap (line art) graphics at 1200 dpi. Avoid scanning from printed works (postcards, magazines, newspapers) if possible - your scanner will pick up the halftone patterns and may cause unintended moire effects when we try and reproduce it on our press. If you are unsure of the quality of your images or do not have access to a scanner, we can scan your original photographs or negatives at PrintCraft.
	When you have your source document (Quark Xpress or InDesign file, etc.), images and fonts collected in one folder, use a compression utility such as Stuffit or WinZip to compress the folder. Files up to about 7 MB can be sent as an email attachment, and files up to 500 MB can be sent through the Send a File feature on the main page of our website. If your job is larger than 500 MB we will require a CD.
	We use a press-calibrated Epson 4880 with roll media for extremely accurate colour proofing. As every monitor and desktop inkjet will create slightly different colour tones, a full-colour hard copy proof is standard with all CMYK jobs to ensure that your printed results are exactly what you are expecting.
GRAPHICS SOFTWARE GUIDELINES
	Select "Package..." from the FILE menu to collect and save your document and supporting files for output by Printcraft, or export your project as a press-quality PDF. Use Pantone colours for spot-colour jobs and CMYK colours for process-colour jobs.
	Select "Collect for Output..." from the FILE menu to collect and save your document and supporting files for output by Printcraft, or export your project as a press-quality PDF. Use Pantone colours for spot-colour jobs and CMYK colours for process-colour jobs.
	Include all placed image files and fonts with your document. Ensure all graphics and text are in CYMK colour or Pantone spot colour modes.
	Use Adobe Photoshop to edit and resize photos and bitmap graphics for your document. Avoid designing complete documents in Photoshop - text and logos should always be added in a separate layout program to avoid rough or "pixelated" edges. Image files should be flattened and saved as a TIFF for best results. Grayscale & CMYK images should be saved at 350 dpi, and black & white (line art) graphics should be saved at 1200 dpi. High-resolution JPEGs are usually acceptable, but most images taken from the internet are only 72 dpi and are not suitable for print reproduction. The JPEG file format has been designed to allow very high compression ratios, but as the file size gets smaller, the quality decreases considerably. If you have no other options than to save in JPEG format, make sure the compression is set as low as possible (larger file size).
	Use Adobe Illustrator to create and edit clipart and vector graphics (logos or design elements). Ensure all graphic elements use the CMYK or Pantone colour mode. If your job will be printed in process colour, convert all Pantone graphics to CMYK. While Illustrator has the capability for advanced typesetting and layout, it is recommended that complex or multi-page jobs be created using layout software such as Quark Xpress or InDesign.
	Ensure all graphics and text are converted to CMYK or Pantone spot colour modes. If you are using "artistic" or custom fonts, convert your type to curves before sending. Include linked image and/or graphic files with your job. When creating PDF files from CorelDraw, zoom in to check your image carefully - especially in areas with drop shadows or transparency. You may need to adjust your PDF settings to get optimum results.
	If you are using Adobe InDesign or Illustrator the built-in Export as PDF works well. If you are using another program we recommend Adobe Distiller to create PDF files. Many PDF files are created with the default "web-only" settings, and are not suitable for high-quality reproduction on a press. While the PDF is by design a very compatible and universal format, there are several output settings that need to be checked to ensure high quality output: FONTS: Always check "Include all fonts" and "Subset Embedded Fonts @ 100%" in your Distiller or Export PDF settings. To make sure your fonts were included properly, open your newly-created PDF in Acrobat Reader, and click on "Document Properties - Fonts" under the FILE menu. The "Actual Font" should be the same as the "Original Font", or should say "Embedded Subset". If the "Actual Font" is anything else, your font has not been saved properly within the PDF file and may print out at our end with a substituted font instead. IMAGES: One crucial difference between a "screen" or "web" PDF and a "press" PDF is the compression on the photos in your job. While they both might look good on the screen, the lowest PDF creation settings (which will be the default on some systems) will resample all of your carefully scanned images to 72 dpi - but we need 250-350 dpi to get a good half-tone on the press for colour/grayscale images, and at least 600 dpi for bitmap/lineart images. A quick way to check the image resolution in your PDF file before sending it to us is to zoom in to 400%. If the text or images look jagged or pixelated, the resolution is too low and you will not get a clean half-tone on the press. MARKS & BLEEDS: Please adjust settings to include crop marks and 1/4" bleed allowance if applicable to your job. If you do not have access to a copy of Distiller, you can try PrimoPDF. This free Windows program adds a virtual PDF printer to your printers list, and will let you create a PDF file from ANY application. Make sure you select "output for print" when asked.
	Microsoft Word is a word processor, not a professional layout program. Text can be supplied in Word format if we are designing your job here. We can usually print black & white files directly from Word, however as Word has no support for the CMYK colour mode, there will usually be additional graphic charges to fix and convert Word documents to a useable format for full-colour or spot colour printing. If your job is any size other than 8.5" x 11", please adjust your page size in Word before starting. If your file has photos in it, please include image files separately as well as your original Word file.
	Charts, graphs and spreadsheets may be supplied in Excel format, however the graphics department will have to rebuild the files in our software. Sending Microsoft Publisher files will incur additional charges to convert the graphics to a usable format. Please call or email us with any questions about supplying digital files in any other format.