1. Don't forget the fonts
One of the most common mistakes that one can make is to deliver a job to the prepress department, which does not contain the fonts that have been used in the document. Of course, one will ask oneself why one would deliver open files in 2008. Let's not forget that there are (and it is logical) creative agencies and advertising companies that prefer to assign the chromatic corrections and the insertions of the final, high-resolution, images in their final works to a Graphic Arts studio. Therefore, the need to deliver open files, under specific workflows, is justified to a certain extent.
Also, many times new designers deliver open jobs to be sure that a more experienced eye will catch an error before printing. In any such case, the document should be accompanied, either manually or automatically, by all the fonts used in it. Professional page layout programs have the ability to "package" the document with everything necessary to accompany it - and therefore with all the fonts.
If we are not using a page layout program, but a design program, then we still have the ability to see from a relevant menu how many and which fonts are used and to package them manually.
A final solution is to convert all texts into linear outlines. By all means and means, we must ensure that when our work is opened to your external partner, it will remain unchanged. The only obstacle to the issue of an open file is the copyright of the fonts. If you have any questions or doubts about this, we advise you to contact the design company of your fonts.
However, even when we are talking about a closed file, whether eps or pdf, we must ensure the integration of our fonts into the produced file. Any self-respecting software gives the user this option.
2. Don't lose color combinations
Color trapping (literal translation of color trapping) or otherwise color matching is a very large and serious chapter in Graphic Arts. Essentially, it stems from the fact that during a print run it is expected and normal for there to be a deviation in color coincidence - what we call loss of coincidence or as we simply say in the printing house "the tins are gone". This phenomenon is created either due to the pressure or the tension exerted on the paper by the rollers, the absorbency of the paper, the vibrations and shocks, whether the production line is in 2, 4 or 5 towers, the printing speed, the type of printing, the paper feed, the production of films or tins, etc. Of course, during production, this is to a certain extent controllable. However, it will happen and when it does, in other cases the result is imperceptible to the average observer and in others it is obvious.
As production and circulation increase, as printing speed increases, as we move away from offset sheet feeding and move to roller, flexography and rotogravure, depending on the printing material and its use, the margins of non-coincidence of colors increase. This phenomenon results in surfaces covered with solid colors, sometimes leaving white gaps between them and other times one color pressing on the other, producing unwanted impurities.
Speaking of solid colors, we mean first of all the 4 colors of the 4-color process in clear but overlapping areas (e.g. only cyan or only magenta) as well as custom-made solid colors such as Pantone. What we call color blending is the technology that allows us to predict the areas where this phenomenon may occur and to cause a controlled and stable mixing of pure colors, in very thin zones where they are adjacent. This essentially creates a trapping zone for any colors that will deviate from the normal surfaces they should cover.
Blending can occur automatically or manually by the software we use with special settings or by the Graphic Arts studio we collaborate with.
At the studio level, we are talking about In Rip Trapping when the software used to rip our work has a built-in or separate module specifically for matching. If this is not the case, a temporary solution is to integrate third-party software that performs color matching processes.
However, there are also several cases of matching that must be carried out by the designer himself. The most classic of these is the use of black and the use of solid Pantone inks. For example, we should seriously think about how we will deal with black letters or black linear designs on images or flat backgrounds. With the same logic, we should think about how we will deal with white letters with holes on 3-color gray or 4-color black. In these cases, the degree to which we know the capabilities of the design software we use as well as the proper training we have plays a very important role.
One can refer to issue #03 of CMYK, where Michalis Kaloudis writes in detail and explains everything about color matching both theoretically and practically. For my part, I inform you that in the next issue I will deal specifically with black and its proper use.
3. Remember the four-color process
Another very serious problem is the delivery of open or closed files with forgotten RGB files. Attention, so that there is no misunderstanding, let's clarify something from the beginning. One thing is the accidental integration of RGB images into a document where everything else is CMYK and another is the pre-designed workflow based exclusively on RGB images. Personally, I am an advocate of maintaining the RGB character of the images throughout the workflow by converting the images to CMYK when closing in pdf with the correct color profiles or even within the RIP - if we are talking about a workflow with In Rip Color management. The advantages that such a scenario has in relation to the early conversion of images to CMYK are truly many and invaluable.
Once we have decided to deliver a file with all our linearts and images in CMYK, we are obliged to check our files before sending them to pre-press. There are many control mechanisms in such cases in all programs, whether design or layout. We recommend that you again, if you do not know how, carefully read the user guides of your software or ask your colleagues. Professional layout programs provide, at any time, the ability to check all the file contents of the document. The same is done when outputting files for packaging and sending as open. Design programs also have the ability to give us information about the file types they contain. But even if we close our work in pdf, we can, through Acrobat Pro, do a pre-print check, a preflight of our work.
However, it is not only the problem of RGB images that should concern us, but also how we make our black and white images, how an RGB image will be converted to CMYK, that is, with what percentages of black, what GCR and UCR.
Regarding the latter issue, we have hosted a large tribute in issue #07 of the magazine.
For example, if I convert an image from Grayscale to CMYK, black will not be kept as one ink but will be replaced with percentages of all 4 inks. The issue of the color space I use for each file, whether it is RGB, Grayscale, or CMYK, is a big and serious one. And since I use CMYK, which CMYK is it? Do I have the appropriate color profiles? And when I convert from one CMYK to another, what changes will occur in the color strengths of my image? What color profiles does the Photoshop I use have? Am I using American newspaper press profiles while I print on European flatbeds?
4. You can't make a latent image
Here the pain of prepress technicians is great and many have seen their eyes. Without any intention of offending anyone, literally anyone can set up a "pissy", throw in a Quark and a Photoshop and start doing whatever they want. Good Lord!
And these cases are good. When we talk about page layout in Photoshop? When we talk about setting up a book in Microsoft Word? When one receives files with gif images from the Internet at 72 ppi and with animation? Sorry if I'm being excessive, but certain things need to be touched on. Take a walk through a studio, sit for a couple of hours and you'll see...
There is a very specific series of file types that we use in Graphic Arts and these are pdf, eps, ai, cdr, qxd, ind, tiff, psd, jpeg. It's not gifs, it's not picts, it's not bmp, it's not wmf, it's not anything we find on the Internet in super-low resolution and want to make it 500% larger.
So whether we're talking about scanning images, or taking them with a digital camera and editing them in Photoshop, we need to know the use of the images from the beginning in order to have the right file type. The same goes for linear files and so on.
5. Do not deliver a work of useless dimensions
The first thing someone should do before even deciding to think about the visual aspect of a work is to think about the paper dimensions, the geometry of the form, the casing. Things are quite serious here.
There are many times when a work has been printed and then has become a paper war (confetti), because the production manager or the graphic designer did not foresee the use of the form from the beginning. And let me explain: The choice of the paper dimensions has 3 main axes. Economy, application and aesthetics. In short, we are interested in a work whose shape and dimensions will make it stand out from the competition. We are interested in the size of the form - that it be reproduced in our printing house in such a way that we have as little waste on the paper as possible and consequently save printing time, but also money for the client.
Finally, we are interested in having predicted the correct paper dimension - a dimension that is consistent with the usability of the form and the conditions of its use.
For example, a wrong choice of paper in a subscription magazine can mean an increase in its weight, which at some point translates into an increase in subscription costs due to packaging and shipping.
Also, an incorrect format size can make the publication useless, since it will not be able to fit into any advertising display at a customer's exhibition stand. Even a simple business card, if designed with the wrong dimensions, will become large enough to not fit in any wallet. A book, if designed with a very large number of pages and a small width, will not be able to stand open on a table by itself. Also, if the distances from the spine are small, the reader will not be able to read the text correctly. Similarly, in a stapled form with a large number of pages, if the bookmarks that go on the outside of the pages are not air-tight, they are sure to be cut off as we approach the center of the form.
Aside from the issue of the wrong document size and unsatisfactory margins, sometimes designers start with the wrong size when setting up their documents. Sometimes, they give the correct size, but other times they give the net size plus the bleeds.
6. Honor the links of your images
When we import various types of files into our document, whether it is in a design program or in a page layout, we have two options:
The first is for these files to come into our document as a standard quality (or even high) preview of the original file - Link files.
The second is for them to come and be integrated into our document - Embed files.
We have a problem when the specific document (open or closed) reaches the studio with some of these files missing. And it is purely a matter of management and tactics, that is, how neatly one creates the folders of one's work and manages one's work from the beginning.
Let's first see what advantages and disadvantages each of the two cases has. When we have all our files as Links, then every time one of these external files undergoes a modification or correction, these are immediately reflected in our document either automatically or after we update the changes. Our document is not burdened in volume by all the files we have imported and thus is quite light, as a result of which we do not burden the disk or the system resources. On the other hand, if a file is accidentally deleted or moved or renamed, then we have a problem. We will have to reconnect the file with the new name or the new location with its image within our document. However, if we have lost or accidentally deleted the document, then we can no longer do anything.
If we now assume that everything is Embed, this means that our files are all embedded within our document. Whatever happens to the external files, we don't care, as our work will not be affected at all. Also, if we want to send the file somewhere open, this is an ideal case because we will send a single file and not folders with Linked files.
On the other hand, if we want to make any changes to an image, we will have to Link the image with the external one that was changed and then Embed it again. Also, the weight of our file increases as we Embed new files, resulting in the disk being burdened both with the volume of files in a folder and with the volume of files that are inside our document as embed files.
In my opinion, usually the scenario with Linked files is the one that practically presents the most virtues, but it requires attention, meticulousness, as well as good classification and archiving of folders and documents.
With the slightest mistake, the work will end up in prepress with missing photos and linearts. And here, of course, there is a check at many stages to verify if something is missing. Therefore, a good knowledge of the capabilities of the program we are using is required.
7. Reduce off-paper areas
Every properly designed form must have bleeds, that is, a zone outside the clear, which is delimited by an imaginary line on which all objects, graphics, backgrounds, frames, images and anything else that reaches the edge of the paper that the customer will hold in their hands in the final form should touch.
So it makes no sense to start designing something if we haven't set the page dimensions, haven't set our internal margins and haven't set the bleeds. And this applies whether we're making a poster, a magazine, a simple card or a book. The bleeds in a single-page publication must be on all 4 sides of a document, while in a publication that is bound in living rooms in the editing, it's enough to have foreseen them in the 3 areas that we call top, bottom and outside, because "inside" - that is, on the spine side - we don't need to put a bleed. Unless we're talking about a magazine, for example, which will be cut 4-section and not 3-section or a desk spiral calendar, where the wire, passing through to bind the sheets, will occupy at least 10 millimeters from the edge of the sheet.
So, it is very important, before setting up our document, to have spoken with our printer and agreed on the correct dimensions of the document and especially on the bleeds that we will put in. Do you want some advice? With the new design and layout programs, we can put in as many bleeds as we want. Of these, when closing the file, we can only include what we need. Consequently, it is better to have more bleeds from the beginning and not need them, since we can cut them when exporting to PDF, than to have it turn out that we should have used more bleed. A typical bleed can range from 3 to 5 millimeters. Let's say, therefore, at least 5 to always be covered, except for special cases in which more or less may be needed depending on the case (e.g. trisection of a multi-page spread with a pin or "thimble-thimble" montage on a typographical).
So, check the work, before sending it, for the existence of correct trims and of course correctly placed crop marks. Let's not forget that the crop marks must have an offset, i.e. a displacement from the edge of the paper, as many millimeters as our bleeds (trims).
8. You don't want a work without a proof
Very often, either for reasons of ignorance, or for reasons of economy, or for reasons of speed, we avoid asking for a proof before printing. This, in some cases where we are actually dealing with low-budget projects, is partially justified. But how many times have we not designed a "little thing" as "economical" as possible and when the little thing was printed, instead we screwed it up? The only thing that can cover us and protect us is a proof. This is our color map with which we will manage to correctly reach the desired result. Moreover, the client's signature on the proof, contract proof, is also legal evidence, a contract and acceptance of the final result. In short, it covers everyone, if it is correct and if it is correctly calibrated at the output.
9. Neither higher nor lower resolution
A typical mistake that one encounters is the incorrect resolution of images. An image should not have a lower, nor a higher resolution than it should have. It all starts with the quality of the paper or printing material and the linear raster density, i.e. lpi. A formula that makes our life easier is that the ppi of an image should be 2 times (or even only 1.5 times) the lpi at which our work will be printed.
For example, a newspaper that will be printed at 90lpi needs images at a maximum of 180ppi. Correspondingly, a coated paper that will be printed in offset at 150lpi will need a maximum of 300ppi image resolution.
10. Don't avoid the truth of transparency
More and more often, due to the capabilities of modern design and layout programs, problems arise that stem from the poor and thoughtless use of transparency and its lack of management. However, things are very simple. Never transparency over text. So simple!
And if we don't want our linearts to be converted into bitmaps, never complex transparencies over linearts.
Every technology has its limits and we must, by learning the capabilities of the tools we use, also explore the technological limits of a feature, such as the use of transparencies in a document.
By God, I am not trying to prevent the use of transparency. Quite the opposite. Transparency is not a problem when used correctly and in moderation. When no pantone color is involved in the transparency and when there is no text under complex transparencies, then we have no problem at all. There are, after all, transparency flattening mechanisms that will allow the document to reach the rip and pass normally.
Detailed instructions exist for every software that one uses to properly close their files in pdf.
The 4 most common problems after flattening a transparency are the breaking of part of the text into linear outlines, while another part has remained normal, resulting in slightly "thicker" letters. The same can happen to lines that pass under a transparency, resulting in part of a line being thicker than the rest. There is also the possibility of text being converted to bitmap and, finally, the mandatory conversion of pantone colors to CMYK when submitted under complex transparencies. Here too, proper training - as in any other case - and communication with the prepress department is a lifesaver.
