COMMON MISTAKES There are a few common mistakes customers make when dealing with print production. Most mistakes cost time and money. Carefully review these errors so you do not go over budget or miss deadlines on your next printed package. 1. INCORRECT FILE FORMATS: With the huge increase in computer literacy and the dropping prices in desktop publishing programs, more customers are preparing their own documents for their printer. Make sure the programs being used are supported by your print provider, and that the programs fit the application. For instance, full color process printing should not be attempted from Microsoft office programs. These programs look great on the screen but do not support film output devices. 2. FONTS NOT INCLUDED ON DISK: Files that are created on a customer’s computer will not output correctly at the printer unless all the fonts used in the file are included on the customer’s disk. 3. UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS: Printing machinery is becoming faster, and good printing companies are ever expanding their capacity, however turn around times and prices should be discussed in advance. Allow your printer enough lead time to complete the job without unnecessary risk. 4. CAMERA READY ORIGINALS THAT AREN’T CAMERA READY: When providing your printer with camera ready copy, it should be exactly that, camera ready. The originals you provide to your printer should be clean, unfolded, and undamaged with all art being of the proper size and photos clearly designated and labeled. You should not attempt to output your own photos unless you have a working understanding of halftone screens and frequencies. 5. SUBSTANDARD GRAPHICS: When providing your printer with graphics to be used on your printed pieces, they should be black and white and of the highest quality possible. Telling your printer, “my logo is on page ‘whatever’ in the yellow pages,” is not acceptable. 6. LACK OF INFO: Have as much information as possible before you go to your printer. Your printer does not expect you to be an expert, however, if you cannot provide them with the pertinent information about your printing project you may not be satisfied with the outcome of your job. 7. INADEQUATE PROOFING: Although every effort is made to produce accurate documents, printers can and do make mistakes. It is the customer’s responsibility to proofread all copy. Due to the volume, of typesetting and printing handled on a day by day basis at most print shops it is impossible to detect every error. Don’t be “wowed” by the idea of the finished product and neglect to read the information. CLIP ART INFO Clip art is everywhere and can be used to the advantage of the artistically challenged if you keep in mind a few simple rules. 1. QUALITY IMAGES ARE NOT CHEAP. With the availability of clip art ever expanding, one must be careful in the purchasing of clip art images. A bargain package consisting of 200 images may only have two or three images that are useful to you, or the images are of such low quality they are of no use at all. You get what you pay for. Buy clip art from reputable clip art companies. 2. KNOW FILE FORMATS AND THEIR LIMITATIONS. Most clip art comes in either TIFF or EPS formats. TIFF files are usually smaller than EPS files, however, the output quality of TIFF files will suffer if they have been resized drastically. EPS files, are much more forgiving. BMP files are only for black and white line art and need to be of at least 250 dpi. 3. CROP IT! Clip art that is used “as is” tends to be stale. If you crop, rotate, skew, or reduce, enlarge, or just do something to your clip art images, your piece will be more interesting. Clip art that has been edited makes your printed piece more personalized and you reduce the risk of seeing your chosen image used in someone else’s design. We hope this will help you as you prepare your own artwork for printing. Thanks, All the Staff at Ideas