DIGITAL PRE-PRESS GUIDELINES

I want to help you prepare your files properly to make working with
strong process and your printing job as efficient as possible.


Build documents…
- to their final (finished) size
- not to a larger size and draw in your own crop marks
- as a single page (unless a folder or spread)
- not as printer spreads (Otto will handle the imposition)
- with 1/8" (.125) of bleed on all elements that touch page edges
- using Adobe Type 1 Postscript fonts whenever possible
- using the “Press Quality” setting in Adobe Acrobat (for PDF files)
- using “Registration Marks” option, and extend them out 12 points if possible


Fonts
- Use specific fonts for bold or italics type
- not manual keyboard attributes or styles
- Include all fonts (both printer & screen) used in your document,
including fonts embedded in EPS files.
- Ignore True Type fonts always use Post Script Fonts.

Images
- Supply scanned art at 300 dpi for CMYK or gray scale images at the intended size,
and 1200 dpi for bitmap, logo, and line art images
- For Black & White Images 96 dpi resoluton is ok.
- Supply scanned art at 300 dpi for CMYK or gray scale images at the intended size,
and 1200 dpi for bitmap, logo, and line art images
- Lower resolutions may result in lower quality output
- Images should not be used at more than 150% of the scanned size
- Print weight for scanned images should not exceed 300% maximum density or total ink
- All rule lines should be a minimum of .25 point in width
- Do not use the “hairline” width for rules
- Save all images as .tif or .eps preferably — .jpg and .psd formats also acceptable
- Avoid supplying images in .pcx, .pict., or .dwg formats
- Do not nest EPS files within EPS files
- Use fill of “none” for placed images
- Lower resolutions may result in lower quality output
- Images should not be used at more than 150% of the scanned size
- Print weight for scanned images should not exceed 300% maximum density or total ink
- All rule lines should be a minimum of .25 point in width
- Do not use the “hairline” width for rules
- Save all images as .tif or .eps preferably — .jpg and .psd formats also acceptable
- Avoid supplying images in .pcx, .pict., or .dwg formats
- Do not nest EPS files within EPS files
- Use fill of “none” for placed images

Colors
- Convert RGB images to CMYK for a four-color process job
- Don’t supply images in RGB, LAB, or Indexed Color mode
- Convert any spot colors to process colors in four-color process jobs
- Reinforce large black areas in a four-color process job with a super black
- Don’t create custom colors for the color black or the color white
- For gray scale images, highlight dots should be at 5%, and shadow dots at 85%

Files
- Include all art files with your job, up-to-date and linked to your document
- For a file to be RIP-ready, image names must match file names exactly
- Otherwise, images must be previewed and manually linked
- Embedded images and Photoshop documents must be included and final
- If they require color correction or editing, we cannot access them
- Provide the native files so that if changes are needed, we can work from them
instead of recreating the entire document from scratch
- Supply laser of the final document at 100%, or the final PDF for reference

Supported applications
- Quark Xpress Mac (or PC), version 6.5 or earlier
- Adobe InDesign Mac (or PC), Creative Suite 2, Creative Suite, or earlier
- Adobe Pagemaker Mac (or PC), version 7.0 or earlier
- Supplied Adobe PDF Mac (or PC), versions 1.4 to 7
- Adobe Illustrator Mac (or PC), Creative Suite 2, Creative Suite, or earlier
- Adobe Photoshop mac (or PC), Creative Suite or earlier
- Macromedia Freehand Mac, version 10 or earlier