What do you mean,
My Document Won't Print?
It printed fine on my laser writer!
What you always wanted to know about PreFlight, but didn't know what to ask.
Having worked in many trade houses (service bureaus, printers, film suppliers), I have seen my share of files from customers. Most people think that their files can be sent directly to the imagesetter. Well, let me tell you, it's a good thing that they get a good PreFlight Inspection before hand - otherwise they would be out a substantial sum of money for film that is unusable. If you are asking why - then read on...
FONTS
All fonts must be supplied by your customer. If fonts are not supplied the copy will reflow and your kern pairs will be substituted for theirs. In Freehand you may experience baseline shifting occurring as well. Customers must supply both the SCREEN font and the PRINTER font - this includes Helvetica, Times, Symbol & Zapf Dingbats - every font that is used - especially those from supporting EPS files. Customers using QuarkXPress can utilize the Collect for Output feature to assist them in ascertaining which fonts they should include with their document.
Because there are so many manufacturers of fonts, if a customer insists that you use your fonts, it is critical they be from the same foundry. Customers should check with your imaging department to make sure you can provide appropriate substitutions.
PostScript Type 1 Fonts only. TrueType fonts are not compatible with the PostScript language. If the customer does not have PostScript Type 1 fonts, you can substitute your fonts and reflow the document. You must send new laser proofs to the customer as the change in fonts can significantly alter the look of their file.
Since the advent of ATM, you now only require the 12 point screen font. Also, check to make sure that you have a corresponding screen font for each printer font, otherwise you will encounter errors. Watch out for screen fonts with (bold) and (italic) in brackets after the font name - these can be unpredictable!
Customers must not use the BOLD and ITALIC style features. These are not PostScript compatible. If there are no bold or italic versions of the requested type face, the customer must choose an alternate type style.
Due to the large number of fonts available from different type foundries, sometimes font conflicts can occur due to font-renumbering or duplicate numbering. When this happens, the customer must supply ALL fonts to solve this problem.
Another problem that can occur is corrupt fonts. Sometimes they can be repaired successfully, however it is better to have the customer re-supply the font from the original disk.
Customers must also remember to include the fonts used in imported (placed) art files.
DOCUMENT LAYOUT
Recommended Methods to Prepare Documents
Imaging Editing Program: Photoshop (raster objects)
Drawing Programs: Illustrator, Freehand (vector objects)
Page Layout Programs: QuarkXPress, PageMaker (object based)
Word Processing Programs: Word Perfect, Microsoft Word (text editing)
PLEASE NOTE: Drawing Programs are NOT Page Layout Programs. Photo Editing Programs are not Page Layout Programs!
Documents must be supplied at correct size. Is bleed required? (1/8" bleed is the most common requirement - make sure customer has provided sufficient image to give bleed.) Check layout to see if any stray art is off the page and delete as these things can slow down processing time. Also make sure there are no blank pages. Customers should be encouraged to provide the document at the correct size so that you can utilize impositions programs such as PressWise, InPosition or ImpoStrip. It is wise to avoid the use of Spreads (printers or readers) in the original creation of a document. Please call your trade house for advice.
If compression has been used, the customer must advise what program has been used and supply it on a separate disk if you do not have the program. Customers may wish to take advantage of SEA (self-expanding archives) if their compression application has this feature.
Pages should be in the correct printing order. If desired, covers that are printing separately may be provided as a separate document.
IMPORTANT: Make sure that you know what the maximum image area that your imagesetter can output.
Nested graphics should be avoided where possible. You can place pictures and art from their respective creators in a page layout program with no problem. However, if you create an EPS and place it on a page and save that page as an EPS and place it again into another program, these links MAY BE LOST. This is especially true of Quark EPS files placed into Quark. There are many great extensions available to avoid this problem (ReSize XT for example). As well, further processing to impose in PressWise complicates things even further.
PICTURES & ART
All backgrounds for TIFFS must be set to WHITE. For close cropped images, you can set background to NONE as these will be in an EPS format.
Where possible, you should encourage customers to allow you to do their scanning and provide them with LAY, DCS or Low Res files.
Check image resolution. Resolution must be double that of the required output: i.e. 300 dpi for 150 lpi. Make sure that the picture is used at original size - however you can enlarge to a maximum of 125% and reduce to a maximum of 20% without problems. It's best to work at 100% where possible.
If image is to be rotated or scaled, it is best to do this in the creator application (i.e. Photoshop) rather than rotating in the page layout program (i.e. QuarkXPress) as this will provide quicker RIPing time.
Ideally, pictures will be supplied as DCS files (pre-separated by Photoshop) with the low resolution placed in the document. This will dramatically reduce time at the RIP and the imagesetter. Another appropriate file format is the TIFF. This format at present is unable to provide a clipping path for close cropping so if you need to do this you can use the EPS(DCS) file format. EPS files placed on an OPI Server will create EPS lay files. Please note that DCS files will not as this very process creates its own low resolution placement version.
TIFFS (1 colour) can have any colour (and screen tint) applied to them in a page layout program. Do not use LAY files if you color your TIFF in Quark. Tiffs are smaller than EPS files - but EPS files can be saved as DCS files for quicker processing at the RIP.
Make sure there are no transfer functions or halftone screens included with picture. Also make sure there are no extra channels or layers. You may need to delete channels and flatten layers. And remember to check to make sure pictures are set to CMYK - not RGB! Don't forget to check for proper colour assignment for Duotones and other special effects. And don't forget to set your screen angles for Duotones when necessary.
PLEASE, DO NOT:
use LZW or JPEG compression (or any kind of compression)
save with halftone screens or transfer functions
save with 5th channels or multi-layers
use % or # symbols in file names
change file names for imported graphics/images
place high-res images in your document - use low-res (lay files, DCS or FPO)
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