Prepress Tutorials & Preflight File Preparation

Not all items on this example preflight checklist are required for every job or every printer.However, failure to include all items required by your service provider or failure to properly prepare digital files or camera ready artwork can result in both time delays and create addtiional costs.

When you send a digital file out for film or printing more goes along than just your PageMaker or QuarkXPress document. Describes what you would normally send to your service provider.

Service bureaus cite the number one problem when outputting files is the fonts. The receive files with missing fonts, corrupt fonts, or the wrong fonts. If you want to avoid delays and errors on your next project, take the extra steps to ensure that you send the right fonts with your file.

There are dozens of graphics file formats but only two -- EPS and TIFF are the standards for commercial high resolution printing. Beyond file type other graphics issues that can jeopardize your printing project are color, compression, complexity, and completely missing images.

Ellen Wixted addresses the planning of your document from start to finish to insure proper imagesetter output for your files. Originally written for PageMaker 6 and up, this is information that applies no matter what program you use.

It's easy to get so caught up in the perfect design that we have trouble seeing alternatives to the masterpiece we've created. However, sometimes "just a little" tweak can save a lot of money (and time and frustration) without sacrificing the integrity of the piece.

Tom Arah covers graphics, fonts, postscript, and other aspects of getting your files ready for commercial printing.

Chuck Green details five steps for preparing desktop publishing files for commercial printing.

What camera ready artwork means.