Preferred Artwork:
There are two basic digital ways for printers to receive artwork. As a high resolution PDF (a more preferred up-to-date method) or everything collected together (usually a QuarkXpress, Adobe InDesign or Illustrator document with images and fonts included or outlined).
PDF -The advantages of high res PDFs over collected artwork are numerous, here are four
- There's only one file not loads
- It's a smaller size
- There won't be any problems with fonts not loading or images going missing
- You will have a better idea of how the job will print.
Note: Top quality reliable PDFs can easily be exported direct from InDesign and Illustrator. The same can not be said for Quark. Do not, repeat, not send a PDF to the printers that has been exported direct from Quark
Common Problems
- Files with no bleeds or the wrong sized bleeds
- 72dpi or other low resolution files (files must be 300dpi!)
- Improperly sized files
- Files with text or other critical design elements placed too close to the cut or trim line.
- Missing fonts.
Checking your High Res PDF:
Open it in Acrobat Professional and have a good look at all of the job - it might be the last time you see it and maybe you can spot some errors.
One thing I always do is go Advanced > Output Preview in Acrobat Professional as here you can see all the separations individually. Make sure you have a CMYK Simulation Profile selected at the top. Here spot colours can be checked as well as if the elements you want are overprinting or knocking out.
Also, run your mouse over the job an you can see the CMYK and spot colour percentage values in the Output Preview panel. This is your last chance to see if your colours will be printed correctly.
Go to Advanced and make sure Overprint Preview is checked. This will give you a screen representation of the job with the overprints and is not checked by default. So if you have had black type overprinting on a tinted background it will appear darker whilst using this preview. This can be a life saver as white elements that have erroneously been set to overprint will disappear here and on some presses. Go back to your advanced distiller options and uncheck Preserve Overprint Settings.
