Chris, one of our resident prepress experts has shared with us some of the more common problems she finds when pre-flighting customer supplied files intended for offset printing. Although some of these items don’t apply to book printing, we’ve included them all just the same.

As always, if you have any questions about how to prepare your files for output, please feel free to contact us. These issues are very easy to correct from the start, but can become more expensive and time consuming to correct at the end of the process.

When preparing to send a job to an offset printer please keep the following things in mind:

Collect all used fonts, images and layout file and zip up together before sending.

In a perfect world all images will be:

1. 300 dpi @ 100%
2. CMYK
3. Have all ICC profiles removed.
4. All logos that should be line art will come as line art not as index color GIF files.
5. Watch the densities of all your photos. Try not to let your photo densities be above 275.

Remember to do a spell check on your entire piece.

Remember to check that you have pulled .125″ bleeds on every side of your piece that you intend to bleed off the page.

Do not set up your booklet in printer spreads.

Use your coordinates. They are very helpful for accuracy. Do not eyeball!

Use your master pages. They are very helpful for consistency.

Always send an up to date, low resolution pdf along with your files so we can check for text re-wraps or photos that have dropped out for whatever reason.

If you want to print in Pantone spot colors it may be wise to invest in a Pantone swatch booklet. Remember that Pantone colors printed on uncoated stock looks different than Pantone colors printed on coated stock. Pantone swatch books will show you both scenarios so your not surprised at your end product.

Swatch books are not cheap so if you don’t use Pantone colors frequently enough to invest $100.00 or more dollars on one than take a trip down to your printers facility and ask to see the one they have. You’ll be happy you did!

When looking at pdf proofs from your printer know that all computer screens are calibrated differently. Your screen may look way off from reality. If you think this may be the case ask for a color contract proof. This way you can see a very close representation of what your piece will really look like once when printed.

Color contract proofs are only accurate on pieces printing in CMYK process color. If you are using Pantone colors remember to refer to your Pantone swatch book.

Folded pieces - be familiar with the different fold styles and the different ways you need to set your files up to fold correctly. There are many different styles of folds to choose from:

1. double gate fold
2. tri-fold
3. single or bi-fold
4. roll fold
5. double parallel fold
6. gate fold
7. letter fold
8. accordian fold
9. z fold

One of the most popular of these is the tri-fold. Almost everyone sets a tri-fold up with 3 equal panels. This is incorrect. The fold in panel must be shorter in order to fold flat. Always call your printer if you have any doubts about the exact panel sizes. If your piece gets drilled remember to leave a generous margin (.75″) to ensure that nothing throughout your piece gets drilled into by accident.Try to keep a clear live area margin of at least .125″ on all sides. Guillotine cutters are not perfect - you don’t want anything accidentally getting shaved into or cut off because it was too close to the edge of the page.