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Archive for April, 2010

What is the best way to supply artwork?

Monday, April 26th, 2010

What is the best way to supply artwork? That’s a question we are asked on a daily basis and unfortunately not all artwork sent to us is finished art, so we then have to treat it in pre press to make it workable. This can lead to backlogs or requesting artwork to be sent again if we are unable to “fix” the issues in house.

So here are a few tips for supplying correct artwork that will run to proof 1st time around.

Guidelines for supply of artwork…

Artwork can be supplied Via:

Email (if under 10mb)

CD

DVD

Upload to our FTP site (contact your account manager for passwords and user names)

Open access FTP such as “you send it” “dropsend” etc

Finished Artwork can be supplied in:

Quark (v7 or earlier)

Adobe illustrator / inDesign (CS4 or earlier)

Adobe Acrobat PDF

In house procedure on receipt of artwork:
Artwork is ripped and made ready for print, we will either revert with hard copy or soft copy proofs.

The RIP device that drives our litho plate setter and Direct To Screen system also drives our proofing which insures integrity between hard copy proof / plate / screen and printed job. We also make our soft copy (prinergy PDF’s ) from the same system, again insuring integrity.

Tips for supply of artwork:

…When there is a Keyline in use, please set as a special colour to overprint so as it doesn’t embed.

…Outline fonts before distilling the PDF.

…As a general rule of thumb PDF’s are non editable.

…Make the document size the same size as trim size, in other words don’t randomly float the artwork within a document.

…When supplying artwork in its native format it is always better to supply with outlined fonts. (however this restricts any typographical edits that may be required).

…If it is likely that changes to artwork may be needed, always supply editable artwork, ie. Live text, layered photoshop documents etc.

…When emailing files always compress prior to sending to avoid corruption.

…Any white out text should be set to knockout, not overprint.

…Supply laser and / or mock up of final artwork to show finished piece.

…Any questions on supply of artwork contact brendan@tpi.ie

Brendan Delany

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The Mighty Sheaf

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Paper comes in all weights, shapes and sizes, but there is a system used throughout the world (although not in the US or Canada) which makes it a simple enough process to specify the size of the item to be printed.

The format is based on a standard sheet measuring 841mm x 1189mm (A0) All other sheet sizes A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, etc are made up by halving the next paper size along the longer side. For example, A3 landscape measures 420mm x 297mm and an A4 sheet measures 297mm x 210mm. The most common finished sheet size is the A4 (210mm x 297mm).

A simple formula to use is to work on the basis that the first sheet in the series is the A0. The longer length is then halved to give 1, and halved again to give 2 and halved again to give 3, etc. So, A4 is half of A3, A5 is half of A4, etc.

This is a clean and easy way of calculating the dimensions of a project. An advantage of this system is that, for example, folded brochures of any size can be made by using sheets of the next larger size, e.g. A4 sheets are folded to make A5 brochures (4 page A5). Also, using this priciple, two sheets of A4 can be scaled down to fit exactly 1 sheet of A4 without any cutoff or margins (see diagram below).

This system of calulating the size of a sheet of paper was introduced in Germany in 1922 and adopted by most of the world, with the exeption of the USA and Canada). It was adopted by the Irish printing industry in 1959
A quick guide to common uses of the A sizes used in the printing industry.

A4 is commonly used for stationery, brochures, newsletters, booklets, etc.
A5 is commonly used for items such as leaflets, flyers, 4 page A5, etc.
A6 is the internationally recognised size used for postcards.
A7 is generally used in the production of labels

And you thought they were just pieces of paper…

Stephen Dunne

Paper-Scale

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